Harvesting ambient geospatial information from social media feeds

Stefanidis, Anthony; Crooks, Andrew; Radzikowski, Jacek

doi:10.1007/s10708-011-9438-2

Cited by 482 publications

(171 citation statements)

References 49 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

166

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…This term first appeared in Stefanidis et al [16] in relation to the analysis of Twitter data. AGI, in contrast to VGI, is passively contributed data in which the people themselves may be seen as the observable phenomena, rather than only as sensors.…”

Section: Terminologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Crowdsourcing, Citizen Science or Volunteered Geographic Information? The Current State of Crowdsourced Geographic Information

See

Mooney

Foody

et al. 2016

IJGI

357

235

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Citizens are increasingly becoming an important source of geographic information, sometimes entering domains that had until recently been the exclusive realm of authoritative agencies. This activity has a very diverse character as it can, amongst other things, be active or passive, involve spatial or aspatial data and the data provided can be variable in terms of key attributes such as format, description and quality. Unsurprisingly, therefore, there are a variety of terms used to describe data arising from citizens. In this article, the expressions used to describe citizen sensing of geographic information are reviewed and their use over time explored, prior to categorizing them and highlighting key issues in the current state of the subject. The latter involved a review of 100 Internet sites with particular focus on their thematic topic, the nature of the data and issues such as incentives for contributors. This review suggests that most sites involve active rather than passive contribution, with citizens typically motivated by the desire to aid a worthy cause, often receiving little training. As such, this article provides a snapshot of the role of citizens in crowdsourcing geographic information and a guide to the current status of this rapidly emerging and evolving subject.

show abstract

Section: Terminologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Crowdsourcing, Citizen Science or Volunteered Geographic Information? The Current State of Crowdsourced Geographic Information

See

Mooney

Foody

et al. 2016

IJGI

357

235

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Using geospatial data from the content allows social media to be useful in monitoring real-time events. During the Egyptian Revolution in 2011, the term "#Tahrirsquare"-a specific location in Cairo and the center of activity during the protests-spiked in activity (Stefanidis, Crooks, & Radzikowski, 2013). This mentioned location approach can be prone to inflation, however.…”

Section: Geospatial Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Social Media Exploitation by Covert Networks: A Case Study of ISIS

Freeman¹,

Schroeder²,

Everton³

2017

CAIS

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract:Social media has quickly become a dominant mode of professional and personal communication. Unfortunately, groups who intend to perform illegal and/or harmful activities (such as gangs, criminal groups, and terrorist groups) also use it. These covert networks use social media to foster membership, communicate among followers and nonfollowers, and obtain ideological and financial support. This exploitation of social media has serious political, cultural, and societal repercussions that go beyond stolen identities, hacked systems, or loss of productivity. There are literal life-and-death consequences of the actions of the groups behind these covert networks. However, through tracking and analyzing social media content, government agencies (in particular those in the intelligence community) can mitigate this threat by uncovering these covert networks, their communication, and their plans. This paper introduces common social media analysis techniques and the current approaches of analyzing covert networks. A case study of the Syrian conflict, with particular attention on ISIS, highlights this exploitation and the process of using social media analysis for intelligence gathering. The results of the case study show that covert networks are resilient and continually adapt their social media use and presence to stay ahead of the intelligence community.

show abstract

“…VGI data collection can include activities such as collection of point-based data using GPS devices, manual vectorisation of digital map sources or imagery, import and conversion of openly accessible geographic data from other systems, services, providers, etc. In more advanced cases, it can include the extraction of VGI data from ambient sources such as Twitter, Foursquare and other social media where geographic information is implicitly embedded in social media posts and messages [3,4]. Overall, it is the transformation of the World Wide Web and the current availability of a vast range of consumer-grade hardware devices and software solutions capable of collecting, managing and distributing geographic data and information which have had the greatest impact on the popularity of VGI [5].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards a Protocol for the Collection of VGI Vector Data

Mooney

Minghini²,

Laakso

et al. 2016

IJGI

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract:A protocol for the collection of vector data in Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) projects is proposed. VGI is a source of crowdsourced geographic data and information which is comparable, and in some cases better, than equivalent data from National Mapping Agencies (NMAs) and Commercial Surveying Companies (CSC). However, there are many differences in how NMAs and CSC collect, analyse, manage and distribute geographic information to that of VGI projects. NMAs and CSC make use of robust and standardised data collection protocols whilst VGI projects often provide guidelines rather than rigorous data collection specifications. The proposed protocol addresses formalising the collection and creation of vector data in VGI projects in three principal ways: by manual vectorisation; field survey; and reuse of existing data sources. This protocol is intended to be generic rather than being linked to any specific VGI project. We believe that this is the first protocol for VGI vector data collection that has been formally described in the literature. Consequently, this paper shall serve as a starting point for on-going development and refinement of the protocol.

show abstract

Harvesting ambient geospatial information from social media feeds

Cited by 482 publications

References 49 publications

Crowdsourcing, Citizen Science or Volunteered Geographic Information? The Current State of Crowdsourced Geographic Information

Crowdsourcing, Citizen Science or Volunteered Geographic Information? The Current State of Crowdsourced Geographic Information

Social Media Exploitation by Covert Networks: A Case Study of ISIS

Towards a Protocol for the Collection of VGI Vector Data

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About