[G.R.I.T.S.]

A rather alarming pronouncement in Wednesday’s Daily Sun without detailing what this entails. Information gathering from Facebook? Twitter? TOTV? Does this relate only to online communication with county officials?

[JMintzer]

Care to share a link with those of us who don't subscribe?

[Kenswing]

Originally Posted by JMintzer

Care to share a link with those of us who don't subscribe?

You don't need to subscribe to go to The Daily Sun's website.

Sumter commissioners set to begin monitoring online conversations | News | The Villages Daily Sun | thevillagesdailysun.com

Sumter County will spend $24,000 to track citizens’ online conversations, commissioners voted Tuesday in an effort to improve their public relations image.

The 12-month subscription to the Zencity Core software platform comes in addition to about $122,000 approved to create a public information officer, a move championed by newly elected commissioners Craig Estep, Oren Miller and Gary Search.

The trio has become known for declining interview requests on several controversial issues this year, and Miller and Search have repeatedly complained about not receiving more favorable media coverage.

Zencity, an Israeli startup, uses artificial intelligence to aggregate comments from sources such as social networks, news websites, and municipal hotlines - then reports its findings to government officials.

[biker1]

...

[golfing eagles]

Originally Posted by Kenswing

You don't need to subscribe to go to The Daily Sun's website.

Sumter commissioners set to begin monitoring online conversations | News | The Villages Daily Sun | thevillagesdailysun.com

Sumter County will spend $24,000 to track citizens’ online conversations, commissioners voted Tuesday in an effort to improve their public relations image.

The 12-month subscription to the Zencity Core software platform comes in addition to about $122,000 approved to create a public information officer, a move championed by newly elected commissioners Craig Estep, Oren Miller and Gary Search.

The trio has become known for declining interview requests on several controversial issues this year, and Miller and Search have repeatedly complained about not receiving more favorable media coverage.

Zencity, an Israeli startup, uses artificial intelligence to aggregate comments from sources such as social networks, news websites, and municipal hotlines - then reports its findings to government officials.

Yep, instituting an Orwellian Big Brother program should do wonders for their "public image"

[PugMom]

they are probably watching ed's posts. i don't think it has to do with conversations on palm fertilization. lets see how long this goes on

[Stu from NYC]

The so called paper did not go into any details as to how this would work and if all of our conversations will be monitored.

I suspect they just put it this way to frighten us. Will wait for facts to see what is going on.

[Bill14564]

Originally Posted by Stu from NYC

The so called paper did not go into any details as to how this would work and if all of our conversations will be monitored.

I suspect they just put it this way to frighten us. Will wait for facts to see what is going on.

This is true - the paper seems to have an agenda and often phrases things in ways that promote it.

It's easy enough to look at the Zencity site to get a feel for what the software does. No one's private conversations will be monitored - that is illegal. But the software can monitor public forums and get a sense for whether a topic is popular or unpopular. Kind of like taking a poll.

[billethkid]

No different than Alexa, facebook, et al.

Just make it a point to provide what the want/don't want to hear.

Watch for black SUV circling your house.
And the chopper is not the Morse family flying in.

[NotGolfer]

Speculation and rumors will abound........

[ThirdOfFive]

Originally Posted by Bill14564

This is true - the paper seems to have an agenda and often phrases things in ways that promote it.

It's easy enough to look at the Zencity site to get a feel for what the software does. No one's private conversations will be monitored - that is illegal. But the software can monitor public forums and get a sense for whether a topic is popular or unpopular. Kind of like taking a poll.

Let's hope you are correct. This is pretty much what happens with our emails now: how many of us have sent a casual email to someone mentioning insurance, funeral arrangements, Baba ghanoush recipes, etc. etc. and have received the emails promoting a product relating to what we were talking about within a matter of hours?

Nevertheless, whenever a government entity decides to engage in surveillance of a group of people, no matter what the reason, my hackles go up. It may not legally be an invasion of privacy per se but it is certainly an improper use of Joe Taxpayer's dollar, and "an effort to improve their public relations image" seems to be a rather clumsy rationalization to say the least. If Sumter County wants the citizens to see them anymore favorable light, then ACT in a way that induces the citizens to see you that way.

[Taltarzac725]

Sounds like much ado about NOTHING.

[tophcfa]

Originally Posted by Bill14564

This is true - the paper seems to have an agenda and often phrases things in ways that promote it.

Ya think. Talk about stating the obvious!

[Davonu]

It appears to me they're just starting to mine what is already public information. Nothing wrong with that. You post somewhere public, your post is public.

[golfing eagles]

Originally Posted by Taltarzac725

Sounds like much ado about NOTHING.

Let's hope so. History has taught us how totalitarian states begin, let's just hope this current trend of nonsense ends in time.

Orwell knew it. Goebbels knew it. Control public opinion through the media. Give the people an enemy to hate, real or imaginary. Make people dependent on the government to survive. Eliminate all belief in anything except the government and its leaders. Destroy the core values of the people. Rewrite their history. And tell the biggest lies possible.

Any of that sound familiar?????