Today marks 73 years since Raoul Wallenberg, a “righteous among the nations”, went missing. In connection with his memorial day, the Raoul Wallenberg Academy is launching a digital experiment, “The Raoul Wallenberg Algorithm“, which scans and analyses the tone of world leaders on Twitter, in real time. The goal is to highlight the importance of compassionate leadership. The analysis is done with the help of Watson – IBM’s artificial intelligence platform.
– Today we see much xenophobia and alienation in our society, the same evil forces that Raoul Wallenberg dedicated his life to fighting. Through the tool, we highlight the importance of compassionate leadership, among both today’s and of tomorrow’s leaders, in order to reverse the trend, says Sarah Scheller, Managing Director at the Raoul Wallenberg Academy.
The Raoul Wallenberg Algorithm analyzes tweets from 300 of the world’s most prominent leaders, opinion makers, and decisionmakers, in real-time. The tool displays a 3D globe that change color depending on what the leaders are tweeting, where a warm globe symbolizes a compassionate world and a cold globe represents an inhumane world. The temperature is then displayed on a Raoul scale.
– It is important to understand the impact that social media is having on our social climate. What people write and say is infections. A simple tweet can trigger a hate storm or cause the stock market to go down. But it can also promote positive change, like #metoo. For leaders, it is therefore especially important to reflect on how you behave on social media, since what gets said there can affect the entire world, says Micael Dahlén, professor of marketing and consumer behavior at the Stockholm School of Economics.
HOW THE RAOUL WALLENBERG ALGORITHM WORKS
The Raoul Wallenberg Algorithm collects tweets from 300 political and cultural leaders in real time. The tweets are analyzed by Watson, IBM’s artificial intelligence platform, which interprets the tone of the texts. The parameters used by the Raoul Wallenberg Algorithm to estimate the level of compassion are anger, aversion, fear, kindness, conscientiousness/honesty, and happiness. An algorithm then assigns values to the parameters of Watson’s analysis with different weight, and that decreases exponentially over time. With the algorithm, the tool can determine what social climate that the world’s leaders right now are contributing to online.
Find the tool here: rwalgorithm.com
Find teacher materials in English for Upper Secondary School here.
PROFESSOR MICAEL DAHLÉN’S ADVICE
Count to eight before you write so that your brain can keep up.
See the recipient – who is going to read this?
Read what you have written and consider how you would feel if it was directed at you.
Think: ”what does what I write say about me?”
Smile when you write (it actually makes you a little friendlier)
ABOUT RAOUL WALLENBERG ACADEMY
Raoul Wallenberg Academy is a religiously and politically independent fundraising foundation. We act in the spirit of Raoul Wallenberg and support young people to find the courage to make a difference by offering tools, knowledge, and inspiration. Raoul Wallenberg Academy annually awards Ungt Kurage (Young Courage) to young individuals who have made a great compassionate difference, despite few resources at their disposal. Through Ungt Kurage the Raoul Wallenberg Academy highlights good examples of tomorrow’s leaders.
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