Metrics, locations, and lift: mobile location analytics and the production of second-order geodemographics

Smith, Harrison

doi:10.1080/1369118x.2017.1397726

Cited by 16 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…With these types of uses, location data can help businesses to profile consumers better through measuring foot traffic and gaining market and competitor insights (Barreneche, 2012;Barreneche and Wilken, 2015;Smith, 2019;Wilken, 2019b). However, it is important to note that location intelligence is not a new industry (Wilken, 2019a).…”

Section: Location Intelligencementioning

confidence: 99%

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The algorithmic fix: Location intelligence, placemaking, and predictable futures

Özkul

2021

Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Med

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With this article, I introduce the ‘algorithmic fix’ as a framework to analyze contemporary placemaking practices. I discuss how algorithmic practices of placemaking govern and control mobilities. I theorize such practices as the ‘algorithmic fix’, where location determination technologies, data practices, and machine learning algorithms are used together to ‘get a fix on’ our whereabouts with the aim of sorting and classifying both people and places. Through a case study of location intelligence, I demonstrate how these digital placemaking practices do not only control and prevent physical mobilities – they are designed to fix who we are and whom we may become with the aim of creating a predictable future. I focus on geo-profiling, geo-fencing, and predictive policing as three key aspects of location intelligence to present a discussion of how ‘algorithmic fix’ as a framework can provide valuable insights to analyzing contemporary placemaking practices.

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Section: Location Intelligencementioning

confidence: 99%

“…I build on the existing studies on location intelligence and location analytics (e.g. Barreneche, 2012;Smith, 2019Smith, , 2020Wilken, 2019a) and geodemographic profiling and segmentation (e.g. Burrows and Gane, 2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The algorithmic fix: Location intelligence, placemaking, and predictable futures

Özkul

2021

Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Med

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“…This has led to emerging discussions of how these technologies reconfigure the logics and practices of spatial classification. The adage ‘you are where you live’ is being challenged by a second-order geodemographic provocation: ‘you are where you go’ (Barreneche, 2012; Smith, 2019a; Thatcher, 2017). This adage highlights important epistemological shifts in the production of geodemographic classification systems through a locative-aware future where governance is ‘geocoded’ through big data analytics (Barreneche & Wilken, 2015; Crampton et al, 2013; Wilson, 2012).…”

Section: Commodification and Cleansingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Incidentally, the rhetoric of data cleansing also reproduces narratives of sociological complexity in understanding global flows by ‘black-boxing’ the processes of algorithmic governance (Pasquale, 2015). PlaceIQ , for example, uses its proprietary ‘Darwin’ filtering technology to calculate the ‘Hyperlocality’ and ‘Clusterability’ scores to not only segment audiences, but measure desired responses to advertising exposure (Smith, 2019a). NinthDecimal employs its ‘LocationGraph’ trademarked technology to filter and cleanse over a billion data points obtained by first- and third-party sources.…”

Section: Commodification and Cleansingmentioning

confidence: 99%

The locative imaginary: Classification, context and relevance in location analytics

Smith

2019

The Sociological Review

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The location analytics industry has the potential to stimulate critical sociological discussions concerning the credibility of data analytics to enact new spatial classifications and metrics of socio-economic phenomena. Key debates in the sociology of geodemographics are revisited in this article in light of recent developments in algorithmic culture to understand how location analytics impacts the structural contexts of classification and relevance in digital marketing. It situates this within a locative imaginary, where marketers are experimenting with consolidating the epistemes of behavioural targeting, classification and performance evaluation in urban environments through spatial analytics of movement. This opens up future research into the political and cultural economies of relevance in media landscapes and the social shaping of valuable subjects by third-party data brokers and analytics platforms that have become matters of public and regulatory concern.

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“…And, yet, there is a sense in which the end-user motivations driving engagement with Foursquare—and whether they constitute on- or off-label use—become increasingly immaterial insofar as all place-based interactions are meaningful and contribute to Foursquare’s ambitions of becoming the location under layer of the Internet. Making sense of these drivers is also less crucial due to the changing nature of geodemographic profiling (Barreneche, 2012; Smith, 2017)—where, “rather than reveal universal characteristics of populations,” what is of increasing interest are the “tendencies, trends, interests, tastes, preferences and other items of life moving from share-moment to share-moment” (McCosker, 2017, sec. 5, para.…”

Section: Foursquare Affective Intensities and The Datafication Of Ementioning

confidence: 99%

Constructing the check-in: Reflections on photo-taking among Foursquare users

Wilken

Humphreys

2019

Communication and the Public

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In this article, we explore the social construction of geomedia in relation to mobile photo-taking. The article draws from a study of location-sensitive mobile social networking and search and recommendation service Foursquare in Melbourne and New York City. The study utilized photo elicitation techniques, with each participant asked to provide photographs they associated with their own Foursquare check-ins, accompanied by written responses to questions designed to encourage them to reflect upon their motivations for recording and uploading each image. What emerged from our analysis of how participants discussed the construction of their Foursquare check-ins, were certain consistencies with the findings of prior work on Foursquare (e.g. to register a new venue or a nice meal, as part of exercises in self-expression, and to record memory traces). Strikingly, though, we also noticed something subtly yet significantly different in relation to photo use. Many of the submitted images and accompanying explanations revealed a particular sensitivity toward the local and the familiar, and a desire to capture “a mood, a feeling”—an “ordinary affect.” In light of this, in this article we are interested in the tension that exists between designed or intended uses of Foursquare, the social appropriation and shaping that is undertaken by Foursquare’s end-users, and the technological and strategic business adjustments that are undertaken by Foursquare in response.

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Metrics, locations, and lift: mobile location analytics and the production of second-order geodemographics

Cited by 16 publications

References 38 publications

The algorithmic fix: Location intelligence, placemaking, and predictable futures

The algorithmic fix: Location intelligence, placemaking, and predictable futures

The locative imaginary: Classification, context and relevance in location analytics

Constructing the check-in: Reflections on photo-taking among Foursquare users

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