During the 2012 Olympics, the iconic London Eye will play host to a lighting display which will be driven by Twitter users’ enthusiasm for the games. Sponsors of the wheel, EDF Energy, say that it will be the world’s first social media-driven light show.
At 9pm BST each day of the Olympics and Paralympics, the show will start, and the nature of the lighting display will depend on the results of sentiment analysis from tweets containing the hashtag #Energy2012. Based on the intuitive algorithm, tweets will be split into positive and negative conversations, and based on the ratio on those two datasets, a certain proportion of the wheel will light up.
So say for example that there is a 3:1 split in good:bad tweets, indicating that the nation’s energy is 75% positive – three-quarters of the London Eye will be illuminated. Each night there will also be a display of the day’s top sporting moments, which will be projected using different coloured lights.
British Olympic legend Daley Thompson launched the light show, and added that it was as much for Team GB as it was for the supporters. The two-time Olympic gold medal winner said:
“We want to make the EDF Energy London Eye a spectacular showcase of national support for the athletes – and one that will inspire them every night of the Games.”
Will you be tweeting with the hashtag #Energy2012? Are you one of the people lucky enough to be attending any of the London 2012 events? Please tell us your Olympic stories by leaving a comment.