Scottish Independence: Big Data And big Conversations

The independence debate was a huge event in Scottish history. It got the nation thinking, and talking. Explore the debate with representatives from both the yes and no campaigns as (mis?)represented by social media and uncovered using big data analytics. Data scientist Dr Daniel Winterstein analyses the myriad conversations from across Twitter to reveal patterns about our country and community and explores how a big important debate plays out in the modern world where everyone has a voice.

We’ll follow the debate through key events as it gains momentum towards the day of the vote then look at the ongoing reverberations. Along the way we’ll see the computing, mathematical and linguistic techniques that allow us to distil meaning from millions of messages and examine how social media interacts with society and politics. If you’re on Twitter, register your account online at sodash.com/indyref for a personal report as part of this event that will analyse your tweets against those of the nation in the referendum campaign period.

Held in the Anatomy Lecture Theatre.