00:01My insightful idea is that it's possible to pull interesting insights and trends from social media when it's analyzed spatially.

00:07And I have three minutes to get you excited about this idea.

00:12Earlier this year, the people of southern Sudan were given the opportunity to turn the page on the past...

00:17...and write a new chapter in history.

00:19The world not only watched as the polls for the Sudan referendum opened and ballots were cast...

00:25...but we talked about it on social networks.

00:29This became kind of a collective conversation, primarily concentrated in urban centers around the world.

00:38Looking at this event through time, we can see almost the moment when this message goes viral.

00:47And there it is, the tipping point, 6 p.m. local Sudan time.

00:53In the United States, we're getting up.

00:55Europeans are just finishing work.

00:57And in Sudan, the polls have just closed.

01:05We can also look at Tweets per capita and discover countries that have a higher-than-normal interest in this event.

01:13Norway helped broker the Sudan peace deal of 2005 which ended the civil war and led to this referendum.

01:21Australia was an international polling location, and since these guys are the first to wake up...

01:26...they were some of the first to cast the ballots for freedom.

01:29Venezuela and Sudan kind of seem like an odd pair, but, in fact...

01:34...these countries recently built embassies in each other's capitals, solidifying their relationship.

01:41In the United States, it's Arizona, Texas, Kansas, Kentucky, and New York that stand out as having an interest.

01:48Why? These are the states with a high number of Sudanese refugees.

01:55Now we can also dig deeper into the content of the message and discover Tweets that contain an original idea.

02:04Now this type of analysis and results is extremely valuable to, among others...

02:10...public safety officials who are responding in a time of crisis.

02:17In addition, we can uncover re-Tweets of those original ideas as well as messages that contain a reference to mass media.

02:27So it's these messages that by far dominated during the Sudan referendum, contributing 79 percent of Tweets to the Twittersphere.

02:39So if it's these people that are consuming and spreading that mass media message...

02:44...who is it that's shaping and influencing and controlling that flow of information?

02:52New York Times, Sudan Monitor, and Aljazerra English...

02:57...three news organizations helped shape what over 20,000 people said about the Sudan referendum over the course of seven days.

03:06Now, that's all the time I have, but I'd like to leave you with the idea that...

03:12...analyzing crowdsource data throughout space and time can lead you to powerful new insights.