Every Explorer element can contain a Signals Feed, which accesses data from our continuously growing data lake comprising millions of data points from sources such as news, patents, and scientific publications.
The feed is generated using the textual information (title, summary, and tags) of the element itself. This means that it is available as soon as an element is created. Note that the feed quality will also depend on how concise the title and summary of the element are.
How to get good results in the Signals Feed
While the results of the Signals feed are usually relevant for technological topics, accuracy and relevance can be an issue for societal trends. Here are tips on how to improve the quality of the feed:
How to work with the Signals Feed
Filter and Saved Filter
By using the Source Type and Timeframe dropdowns in the filter bar (1), you can filter down the timeline visualization and the Signals results. You can also choose to save applied filters (2).
Timeline Visualization
The timeline graph visualizes the interest in an element over time. The interest in an element is a normalized value relative to the element that allows the comparison of corresponding normalized values for different datasets.
Note: In the current implementation, the normalized values are for the past two years from the time the element was created.
Key Events
The objective of the Signals feed is to enable you to effortlessly monitor your corporate environment by leveraging an automated Signals alerting engine. Every time a notable development inside an element is detected, the development is added as a key event on the date of detection (1).
Learn more about key events and the kind of scenarios we are tracking in this article.
Search
The feed has an integrated search function (1) Similar to the search in the Explorer overview, you can enter either a simple search string using the smart search or a more complex query string that will be matched exactly.
Sorting
Sort the feed by the Signals' relevance with regard to the textual information of the element or by their publication dates (2).
Pin important Signals
Click the pin icon on a Signal to find it again at a later stage. Note that pinned items will be available for all users in the workspace.
🔍 Use cases: Use the Signals Feed for:
Trend Monitoring
For any trend you create in the ITONICS Innovation OS, the Signals Feed aims to provide up-to-date information and allows you to pin Signals to the Trend that represent evidence of its importance. For market trends, news and RSS feeds will likely be the more relevant types of Signals.
💡 Use the source filter if you want to see Signals for specific sources that you trust.
Technology Scouting
The Signals Feed can be a great resource in identifying emerging and specific technologies when monitoring broad technology fields. For example, if you are interested in 3D printing and have created a technology or opportunity, the Signals in the feed will point you to more specific 3D printing technologies relevant to your use cases.
💡 Filter down the feed to see only patents or publications. While this might reduce the number of results, they will be more technology-focused.
Ideation
Looking to ideate within an opportunity space? Added an Idea to the innovation platform? Take advantage of the Signals Feed to get inspired. See whether ideas similar to yours already exist and have been implemented.