The Barbarian Group Helps IBM Customers 'See' Big Data

One of IBM's marketing goals is to create awareness for the broader application of its big data solutions. This month, IBM and its agency The Barbarian Group are introducing a film around IBM's partnership with the non-profit Guiding Eyes for the Blind – an organization that breeds, raises, and trains guide dogs for blind and disabled people.

The film is told through the eyes of a guide dog puppy, and features actual trainers, raisers, and guide dog recipients who have benefited from the organization’s efforts.

Guiding Eyes for the Blind was a story that demonstrated a use for Cloud and Cognitive technology that had an emotional hook to it, says the agency. Only about half of dogs born at Guiding Eyes for the Blind actually graduate to become guide dogs due to various factors that can disqualify them in the first two years of their life. IBM’s data-driven technology is designed to improve these odds. 

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To that end, IBM Cloud helps collect and store medical, behavioral, and developmental data on its dogs, and IBM Watson curates recommendations of male and female pairings that are more likely to produce puppies that will graduate the program. 

"What made this story compelling is that the technology is inseparable from the customer's most critical objective - to increase rate of success in raising and matching guide dogs with people who need them," says the agency.

The movie appears online on YouTube, the IBM medium page and its social channels. 

This is the latest in a series of projects to help people understand the everyday implications behind big data. Previously IBM released an online film featuring a blind marathoner who relies on a fitness app, Runkeeper – and its IBM-powered data – to help him navigate while training.

The Barbarian Group has worked with IBM since 2013 on a number of projects beginning with the launch of the web development platform, Bluemix.

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