As almost 400 attendees gathered at the 2018 NATO Information Communicators’ Conference (NICC) in Rome this September, Ph.D. fellow Katrin Galeano represented COSMOS to showcase the emerging technologies Blogtrackers and YouTubeTracker. The annual conference invited communication professionals from within NATO as well as academia and industry to discuss tools and strategies for Information Environment Assessment (IEA), the theme of this year’s conference.
Mrs. Galeano was invited to the NICC to demonstrate technologies developed by COSMOS during the workshop sessions held on Thursday, September September 20. As one of only 51 presenters from NATO, industry and academia from all NATO member states, she presented COSMOS’ tools that are able to provide an assessment of the blogosphere and YouTube information environment. Blogtrackers and YouTubeTracker are designed to analyze content and identify information actors and their network with only a few clicks.
During her workshop, Ms Galeano used several examples to show the audience how cross-media tactics are deployed by potential adversaries. The blogosphere and YouTube are popular and powerful platforms for influential actors to disseminate their messages. Blogtrackers and YouTubeTracker can assist in identifying the actors and their messages. Ms Galeano showed the workshop audience how the tools’ features allow users to gain situational awareness through knowledge about what is being discussed about NATO in the information environment.