Homeland Security Mining Social Media For Signs of Bio Attacks 96
jjp9999 writes "Nextgov reports, 'The Homeland Security Department has commissioned Accenture to test technology that mines open social networks for indications of pandemics, according to the vendor.' This will kick off a year-long biosurveillance program, costing $3 million, that will log trends in public health by looking through public posts. This ties back to White House guidelines released in July that ask federal agencies to 'Consider social media as a force multiplier that can empower individuals and communities to provide early warning and global situational awareness.'"
Re:Good but why so expensive? (Score:4, Interesting)
Not sure what the problem is. Put more explanation into it.
I checked opensecrets and the accenture PAC only paid bribes of about 2/3 mil last year.
http://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/lookup2.php?strID=C00300707 [opensecrets.org]
The normal RICO style bribe is somewhat less than 1/10th. So yeah the contract "shoudda" only been about 6 mil. There's a lot of wiggle room, I'm sure this isn't their only contract, and I'm sure that PAC isn't their only bribe paying system. But its not too many orders of magnitude outta line for what tax money they're getting vs what they paid to get it. They don't seem to be getting too much or too little contract for the "donations" they provided, compared to everyone else at the feeding trough.