"The social media space is noisy, though. There are many times when filtering that noise effectively makes a lot of sense (some tools discussed below) - but there are also many times when noise is just what we need." - Maki

The real problem is that the passionates (er, addicts) like me love the noise cause we find value in it. The non-passionates don't care about all this online crap anyway. They are outside at the beach drinking beer right now or watching entertainment TV with Paris Hilton. - Robert Scoble

If we concentrate on the noise we can discern a signal. I did a research project at NYU running statistical regression analysis on correlation of interest rates to stock market movement. While was able to discern a cyclical fluctuation. While many market analysts advocate portfolio theory I found you can predict the market to a certain extent. - Igor The Troll יִצְחָק

That extent needs to be picked out of a phenomenon called white noise! So how do you read the noise? You do not! You follow a statistical probability of the information you read being correct more than 50% of the time. If you are right 51% ans wrong 49% you have riskless arbitrage. So I used the cyclical juxtaposition to eliminate the noise; hence a positive ROI. . - Igor The Troll יִצְחָק

Without noise, you cannot have apophenia, the experience of seeing patterns or connections in random or meaningless data. Klaus Conrad defined it as the "unmotivated seeing of connections" accompanied by a "specific experience of an abnormal meaningfulness". (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki...) It's a fascinating field. William Gibson's 'Pattern Recognition' illustrates apophenia beautifully. Definitely check that book out if you're interested. - Maki

Thank you Maki! - Igor The Troll יִצְחָק