PoliticIt

PoliticIt is a software company located in northern Utah. It launched its website in November, 2011.[1] PoliticIt's website was initially designed to gather web content for each major politician running in the 2012 United States presidential election, assess the digital influence each politician has, and assign each politician an "It Score" which measures digital influence.[2] Since its launch, PoliticIt has expanded its services to cover gubernatorial, senatorial, and congressional candidates in all 50 U.S. states after initially producing scores for Utah politicians.[3] PoliticIt predicted more than 480 such races in 2012 with more than 91 percent accuracy.[4] On PoliticIt.com, each candidate has a profile that contains background information, social network feeds, and local news. PoliticIt produced It Scores for the 2012 United States presidential election that indicated Barack Obama would win on Election Day.[5]

PoliticIt
TypePrivate
IndustryOnline services
Founded2011
Headquarters
Logan Utah
,
USA
Number of employees
50
WebsitePoliticIt.com

History

The launch of PoliticIt.com allowed website users to evaluate how presidential candidates were performing against each other in their campaign efforts.[6] After the launch of the PoliticIt website in November, 2011, PoliticIt began developing It Scores for congressional, senatorial, and gubernatorial candidates for each of the 50 U.S. states. Members of the PoliticIt team also began programming an iPhone game entitled "Race for the White House."

PoliticIt began seeing media attention after it accurately predicted each of the congressional, gubernatorial, and senatorial races in Utah at both the Republican and Democrat state conventions.[3] By May, 2012, PoliticIt had predicted unofficial primary election results in North Carolina, Indiana, Wisconsin, and West Virginia with 87% accuracy by using the It Score.[7][8][9] PoliticIt has been featured in news articles and news outlets including GigaOM, Yahoo! Finance, CNBC, MarketWatch, Independent Voter Network, and Utah Public Radio KUSU-FM about its predictive capabilities.[8][10]

PoliticIt continued to track state primary races throughout the U.S. through 2012. By August, 2012, PoliticIt had correctly predicted more than 200 races with a continued approximate 87 percent accuracy.[11]

PoliticIt Mobile bus pictured in Arizona.

PoliticIt left on a national tour in a 34-foot Motorhome on August 17, 2012 where it invited and interviewed every congressional, gubernatorial, and U.S. senate candidate in the Contiguous United States who agreed to meet with them. PoliticIt met with more than 200 candidates and produced video interviews which were shared on its YouTube channel in an attempt to create greater political transparency.[12] PoliticIt visited each state in the Contiguous United States conducting these interviews between August 17, 2012 and election day, November 6, 2012.[13] The PoliticIt Mobile bus travelled more than 18,000 miles on the trip.[14]

Prior to the 2012 elections on November 6, PoliticIt produced It Scores for nearly all U.S. Senate, congressional, and gubernatorial races.[15] PoliticIt's It Scores were approximately 91 percent accurate in predicting the winner of each race it attempted to predict.[16] In the U.S. presidential race, Barack Obama had an It Score of 49 on November 5, 2012, and Mitt Romney had an It Score of 48.[5][17] Barack Obama went on to win 50.85 percent of the popular vote and 332 electoral votes.[18][19] Barack Obama needed 270 votes to win.

PoliticIt provided live social media analysis coverage on election night in Salt Lake City, Utah on two of Utah's major networks including NBC-affiliated KSL-TV and CBS-affiliated KUTV.[20]

Electoral results
Presidential candidate Party Home state Popular vote Electoral
vote		 Running mate
Count Percentage Vice-presidential candidate Home state Electoral vote
Barack Obama Democratic Illinois 64,817,072 50.85% 332 Joe Biden Delaware 332
Mitt Romney Republican Massachusetts 60,449,355 47.42% 206 Paul Ryan Wisconsin 206
Gary Johnson Libertarian New Mexico 1,265,100 0.99% 0 Jim Gray California 0
Jill Stein Green Massachusetts 458,411 0.36% 0 Cheri Honkala Pennsylvania 0
Virgil Goode Constitution Virginia 119,281 0.09% 0 Jim Clymer Pennsylvania 0
Roseanne Barr Peace and Freedom Hawaii 64,620 0.05% 0 Cindy Sheehan California 0
Rocky Anderson Justice Utah 41,204 0.03% 0 Luis J. Rodriguez California 0
Tom Hoefling America's Iowa 38,828 0.03% 0 Jonathan D. Ellis Tennessee 0
Other 225,503 0.18% — Other —
Total 127,476,960 100% 538 538
Needed to win 270 270

Popular vote count is preliminary. Many states will not certify their results until late November or early December.[18][19][21][22][23][24]

For additional information about the 2012 presidential election, see 2012 United States presidential election.

Services

PoliticIt provides online profiles for politicians, It Scores, and campaign software.[2]

Politician Profiles

The purpose of PoliticIt profiles is to promote political transparency.[1] Political profiles for politicians contain a picture for each politician, graphs of data movements, a window to view the politician's website, the politician's English Wikipedia article, and news feeds from Google News, Yahoo!, and Bing News. A politician's profile also has an interface that displays his or her Facebook feed, Twitter feed, and YouTube videos.[2]

It Scores

The It Score is a measure of a politician's digital influence. It is calculated by applying large data sets to machine learning software and techniques. The data collected comes from what people do and say in social networks, the real world, and the internet. The It Score has shown to correlate with election results.[3]

Campaign Software

PoliticIt's campaign software provides business intelligence tools for political campaigns. It utilizes the It Score as well as several other performance metrics to allow campaigns to see how they are performing on a day-to-day basis.

Locations

PoliticIt has been headquartered in Logan since the company was first established. Some PoliticIt employees are telecommuters working from home offices from various states. PoliticIt currently employs more than 10 people.

Management
  • Britney Johnson: Chief Technology Officer, Co-Founder
  • John D. Johnson: Chairman of the Board, FNC Inc. Co-Founder, Technical Scholar, PoliticIt angel
  • Lauren Johnson: Chief Creative Officer, Co-Founder
  • Joshua J. Light: Chief Executive Officer, Co-Founder
  • Shai McDonald: Creative Director, Co-Founder
  • Sterling Morris: Chief Marketing Officer, Co-Founder

Awards

In December 2011, PoliticIt was selected along with 19 other startups to compete for $100,000 in to the Intel Innovators Competition.[25] The competition features tech-based business started by individuals who are between the ages of 19 and 24. A panel of judges from Betaworks, SV Angel and Intel Capital were asked to select the best tech-based ideas.[26][27] PoliticIt made it to the final round featuring the top five startups in the nation where PoliticIt's team members won an laptop computer.

PoliticIt received $5,000 as a part of an award from an elevator pitch competition its founders participated in at Utah State University in October, 2011 where more than 30 other teams competed.[28]

In March, 2012, PoliticIt was named one of four emerging companies in Utah in the Utah Student 25 Competition.[29] The Utah Student 25 analyzes growing business started by students who both run their businesses and go to school.[30]

PoliticIt was selected as one of 10 startups in the nation to compete at CrowdStart startup pitch competition.[31] On September 14, PoliticIt competed for $500,000. Text Me Tix won the competition.[32]

References
  1. Opsahl, Kevin (8 November 2011). "USU students' political website utilizes Internet to track '12 GOP race in real time". The Herald Journal. Retrieved 14 May 2012.
  2. Stubbs, Kyle (17 November 2011). "Business students create website to inform voters". Retrieved 14 May 2012.
  3. Schott, Bryan (23 April 2012). "Social Media Influence Predicts State Convention Outcomes". UtahPolicy.com. Archived from the original on 5 February 2013. Retrieved 15 May 2012.
  4. "College Students Used Online Buzz to Predict Every Political Race in the Country Including Obama's Big Win". Retrieved 27 November 2012.
  5. Harris, Derrick (2012-11-05). "Data doesn't play politics -- and most of it suggests Obama will win". GigaOM. Retrieved 27 November 2012.
  6. "PoliticIt on UPR". Retrieved 1 June 2012.
  7. "Startup from Huntsman Business School Succeeds at Predicting Election Outcomes PoliticIt.com Algorithm Parses Social Media, Internet, Traditional Media Successfully to Predict Winners". CNBC. 24 May 2012. Retrieved 25 May 2012.
  8. "Startup from Huntsman Business School Succeeds at Predicting Election Outcomes PoliticIt.com Algorithm Parses Social Media, Internet, Traditional Media Successfully to Predict Winners Question: Can social media predict election outcomes? Answer: Yes, at a Huntsman School startup at Utah State". Yahoo! Finance. 24 May 2012. Retrieved 25 May 2012.
  9. "Startup from Huntsman Business School Succeeds at Predicting Election Outcomes PoliticIt.com Algorithm Parses Social Media, Internet, Traditional Media Successfully to Predict Winners". The Wall Street Journal: Market Watch. 24 May 2012. Retrieved 25 May 2012.
  10. Harris, Derrick (2012-06-25). "Startup PoliticIt is using big data to level the political playing field". GigaOM. Retrieved 27 November 2012.
  11. "College Start-up, Armed With New High-Tech Crystal Ball, Takes Company On The Road And Needs Your Help To Meet President Obama And Mitt Romney Before November's Election". PRWeb. Retrieved 27 November 2012.
  12. "PoliticItTV".
  13. Browder, Jenna. "PoliticIt Makes a Stop in Cheyenne". Newspaper. CBS 5 News. Archived from the original on 18 April 2013. Retrieved 27 November 2012.
  14. Eaton, Steve. "Company With Huntsman Roots Predicts 91% of Political Races Correctly". Retrieved 28 November 2012.
  15. "PoliticIt's National and State Predictions". Retrieved 27 November 2012.
  16. "College Students Used Online Buzz to Predict Every Political Race in the Country Including Obama's Big Win". Virtual-Strategy Magazine. Retrieved 27 November 2012.
  17. Schott, Bryan. "PoliticIt's Election Predictions". UtahPolicy.com. Missing or empty |url= (help)
  18. "Results for the November 2012 General Election". National Association of Secretaries of State. Retrieved November 13, 2012.
  19. "Election Results". Huffington Post. Retrieved November 8, 2012.
  20. "Utah Data Firm Calculates Online Chatter to Predict Winner". KUTV. Retrieved 28 November 2012.
  21. "Working Totals for Third Party Presidential Candidates". 2012-11-07. Retrieved November 7, 2012.
  22. "CBS News Live Presidential Election Results". Retrieved November 12, 2012.
  23. "US President - Popular Vote". Retrieved November 8, 2012.
  24. "2012 Presidential General Election Results". Retrieved November 16, 2012.
  25. "Political website in top 20 of Intel competition". Higher Education Blog Post. Jon M. Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University. 2011-12-07. Retrieved 15 May 2012.
  26. "'Intel Innovators' Calling All Young American Entrepreneurs". Blog. IntelPr. Archived from the original on 16 May 2012. Retrieved 14 May 2012.
  27. "PoliticIt Intel Innovators' Profile". Facebook Application. Intel.
  28. Child, Connor. "Political Website Created by Huntsman Students Awarded $5,000". Utah State University. Retrieved 15 May 2012.
  29. "2012 Results". Website document. Utah Student 25. Retrieved 15 May 2012.
  30. "About". Website page. Utah Student 25. Retrieved 15 May 2012.
  31. "CROWDSTART Las Vegas Startup Pitch Event". Las Vegas Startups. Retrieved 28 November 2012.
  32. Gruber, Frank. "Text Me Tix Wins CrowdStart LV and a shot at $500,000 in funding". Tech Cocktail. Retrieved 28 November 2012.
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