During my time with the United Nations Global Pulse (the UN Secretary-General’s initiative on big data and artificial intelligence for development, humanitarian action, and peace) I was lucky to be involved in the progression, documentation, and implementation of data tool called “Qatalog”.

Qatalog is a machine classifier, and text analytics platform designed to be used by UN personnel for monitoring real time developments, social media campaigns, and advocacy efforts. It has the potential to be adapted and adopted in multiple investigative scenarios including social media, radio, and classical text based mediums. The fact that it is designed with —and FOR—UN colleagues means particular emphasis is placed on usability. Its a tool which wishes to go beyond in-depth and complicated machine classifiers, text analytics, and APIs.

The purpose of the platform is to reduce the time needed to complete certain analyses which provide critical operational information. It does this through a well designed easy to follow pipeline and UI for non-data savvy professionals.

I wanted to share this here because I was impressed with its message, and was honored to be involved. I see it as yet another step into a future where AI systems become accessible, and provide timely, inexpensive and relevant discussion-based insights. It is also a great case study for large scale collaborative intelligence systems. With time, Qatalog hopes to mobilize research agendas from the academic community where AI experts contribute new models, designers can submit new ideas, and users can suggest new capabilities for the tool.

Check out more below.