This could be a Very Big Deal in the Marketing/PR 'industry' where it is extremely difficult to quantify performance of PR departments and individuals. I can easily envision a "Cascade score" of a particular press release or press conference being a hard metric of influence & success.
If I was running a PR department or agency, I'd want this application as soon as possible, at any practical price.
Yes this tool could be very helpful to many. I could see it working very nicely with Klout. And taking it a step further sales departments could use this info to see who their 'target' is influenced, which could be very helpful as well.
They have this installed on the 28th floor by the elevator bank over 4 or so large screens. Its pretty damn awesome. You can access it via your iPhone on the network and control it. I wish I'd had a chance to play with it more.
Jer Thorp is the guy who built the visualization tool. He also designed a tool to help layout the names on the 9/11 memorial.