Using Curate to track Foxconn

At Curate, what we do is pretty deep in the weeds with tech. We use really cool technology including artificial intelligence and apply it to large streams of public information. Explaining this isn’t easy, and I’ll be the first to admit that some of my closest friends and family are still a little clueless. I wanted to share a real life example of what we do, how we do it, and why it’s so cool.
As reported by the New York Times, Foxconn will build a $10 billion dollar state of the art manufacturing facility in WI, announced today in Washington DC. This facility is expected to be one of the largest manufacturing campuses in the world at an estimated 1,000 acres and 13,000 total employees. Whoa.
Obviously, everyone is curious to find out where the facility will be located. While the exact location has not been announced, we are fairly certain it will be in Racine county. How?
Curate scans through public meeting agendas and minutes from cities, towns, townships, villages, and counties throughout the state. We use that data to find information about upcoming construction projects. Prior to large manufacturing facilities finalizing construction plans there are many important early stage discussions with local municipalities in public meetings.
In the case of Foxconn, we have been watching for several months to see if it will be built in Wisconsin — the rumors were rampant, even tracking jets from Foxconn’s home of Taiwan. However, at Curate we use data. In April, the small communities of Mount Pleasant and Sturtevant discussed potential significant increased wastewater need in their individual business parks. Then on July 10, both communities had a special meeting to talk about a large future development project. Finally, yesterday — one day before the announcement — Racine Waterworks Committee had a discussion about future infrastructure needs (agenda). This is how we utilize huge streams of public data to uncover important information.
When utilizing public data on a large scale we can accurately predict upcoming projects in a timely manner. While this Foxconn facility certainly generated a significant amount of attention, we do this week after week for upcoming construction projects throughout Wisconsin.
Cheers, Taralinda
