Visualizing the Data City: Social Media as a Source of Knowledge for Urban Planning and Management (SpringerBriefs in Applied Sciences and Technology)

Front Matter....Pages i-ix Introduction....Pages 1-4 We Live in Informational Landscapes....Pages 5-15 Depicting the Data City....Pages 17-22 Methodological Framework....Pages 23-29 Working in the Field....Pages 31-54 Reflections on Potentialities and Shortcomings of Geo-Located Social Media Analysis....Pages 55-61 Back Matter....Pages 63-76 Acknowledgments 5 Contents 6 Abstract 8 1 Introduction 9 Abstract 9 1.1...Aims 9 1.2...Approach 10 1.3...The Layout of the Book 12 2 We Live in Informational Landscapes 13 Abstract 13 2.1...An Introduction to the Data City 13 2.2...People-Generated Landscapes: Potentialities of Social Media Data 14 2.3...Applications Targeting Urban Issues 16 2.3.1 Characterizations of Geographic Areas 17 2.3.2 Temporal Dimension 18 2.3.3 Places Identities and Relationships Among Geographic Areas 18 2.3.4 Emerging Behavior 18 2.3.5 Political Attitudes: Acceptance/Feeling Toward Local Policies and Urban Interventions 19 2.4...Existing Work 19 2.5...Specificities of the Research Trajectory 22 3 Depicting the Data City 24 Abstract 24 3.1...Visualizing Geo-Referenced Data 24 3.2...A Taxonomy of Geo-Referenced Data Visualization 25 3.3...Our Strategies to Visualize Geo-Located Social Media Data 29 4 Methodological Framework 30 Abstract 30 4.1...A Framework for Interpreting Geo-Referenced Social Media Data 30 4.2...A Process to Investigate Topics of Urban Interest with Geo-Referenced Social Media Data 32 4.3...Evaluating and Assessing our Approach 35 5 Working in the Field 37 Abstract 37 5.1...Telltale and Urban Sensing: A Joint Research Trajectory 37 5.2...Technological Architecture 37 5.3...Telltale and Its Design Experiments: A Multidisciplinary Research Approach 40 5.3.1 Overview 40 5.3.2 Instagram, Foursquare, and Twitter Compared 40 5.3.2.0 Discussion 43 5.3.3 Urban Stories 43 5.3.3.0 Discussion 45 5.4...Urban Sensing and Its Design Experiments: Toward an Open Technological Platform 45 5.4.1 Overview 45 5.4.2 Maps of Babel: The City of Languages 46 5.4.2.0 Discussion 47 5.4.3 Geographies of Time 49 5.4.3.0 Discussion 52 5.4.4 Geographies of Time, New York 54 5.4.5 Urban Sketching Tool, the Prototype in Use 57 5.4.5.0 Discussion 60 6 Reflections on Potentialities and Shortcomings of Geo-Located Social Media Analysis 61 Abstract 61 6.1...Potentialities 61 6.2...Shortcomings 64 6.3...Final Remarks 66 Appendix 1List of Case Studies Used for Buildingthe Matrix in Chap. 3 68 Appendix 2Excerpts from Conversationswith Accurat, Lust, and Mobivery 72 References 75 Index 78 This book investigates novel methods and technologies for the collection, analysis, and representation of real-time user-generated data at the urban scale in order to explore potential scenarios for more participatory design, planning, and management processes. For this purpose, the authors present a set of experiments conducted in collaboration with urban stakeholders at various levels (including citizens, city administrators, urban planners, local industries, and NGOs) in Milan and New York in 2012. It is examined whether geo-tagged and user-generated content can be of value in the creation of meaningful, real-time indicators of urban quality, as it is perceived and communicated by the citizens. The meanings that people attach to places are also explored to discover what such an urban semantic layer looks like and how it unfolds over time. As a conclusion, recommendations are proposed for the exploitation of user-generated content in order to answer hitherto unsolved urban questions. Readers will find in this book a fascinating exploration of techniques for mining the social web that can be applied to procure user-generated content as a means of investigating urban dynamics.