Crystal: Understanding People’s Personalities Through Technology
Living in a world where there is an abundance of personal information available online, in social media profiles including Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, people often don’t realize what strangers can learn about them. Crystal is an app created by a startup, which harvests and compiles this information to create a personality description of the subject that was searched. There are 64 personality types that the app chooses from when assigning a personality to a search subject, and from there the app goes on to suggest the communication style of the person. Through a paid version of the app, a user can also get suggestions for the best way to email and recruit someone.
With a Google Chrome extension feature, it is extremely easy to view the personality assessments of people that a user is already connected to, such as through their email contacts or LinkedIn connections. However, the real value of Crystal derives from its ability to provide information about people that the user has no direct connection with. In the global social network, Crystal bypasses the small-world phenomenon described as six degrees of separation, and provides a description of a person at an extended distance from the user in terms of the global social network. The more data that the app is able to access increases the accuracy of the profile, which is reflected in an accuracy confidence provided with the personality report. This accuracy confidence is similar to the strength of social connections discussed in class, where there is a quantitative value assigned to ties between people. However, instead of being a confidence relating to recommending friends on social media, it is a confidence endorsing the ability of the app to scour the internet for information and creating a profile of someone the user has never met.
Crystal shows promise for use in industry, especially when an employer is forming small teams that need to be successful in working closely together in a cohesive environment. By estimating personalities and relationships, Crystal sources data from multiple global networks to create a new network formed by the user of the app with the hope of improving workplace relationships.
http://money.cnn.com/2015/09/03/technology/startup-crystal/
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/crystal-app-aims-to-find-your-personality-in-social-media-posts-1.3083753