IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Spring 2014 - 17

leading edge

Geosocial Intelligence

TOMaS
HOldeRneSS

ocial media, driven by the explosive uptake
during emergencies, have been developed around this
of mobile computing, has caused a systemconcept. Such systems are particularly prevalent in
atic shift in the structure of personal comdeveloping nations where traditional, formal commumunications on a global scale [1], [2]. people
nication and media networks can be limited. Ushahidi
around the world can now voice opinions, report on
is one such platform that enables automated report
events, and connect with others, with an ease unthinkcreation by monitoring keywords on social media netable in the pre-Internet age. From the Arab Spring to
works to create an online, real-time, spatio-temporal
the Occupy Movement it is apparent that
interface for situational awareness during
social media is becoming an integrated
an emergency [4].
The
part of our infrastructure. Critically,
In contrast to VGI and crowdpopulations
much of this information is underpinned
sourced data, the nexus of people and
of these
by geographical content such as mobile
place embedded within everyday social
settlements
device GpS coordinates, which enable
media is forming a source of "ambithe user to tie their media to a specific
ent" geographical information [7]. This
will bear
location on the Earth's surface.
"geosocial" media is increasingly being
the brunt of
Due to the immediacy of social media
investigated by researchers as a new
the climatic,
messages, social media is often used durdata-source for analysis [1], [7], [8]. For
economic,
ing disasters where locational informaexample, Crooks et al. [1] demonstrated
tion is of vital importance [3], [4]. At the
the ability to map the spread of an earthand social
time of this writing, an army of online
quake in the United States using 21 362
challenges
enthusiasts, professionals and volungeolocated tweets. The study showed that
of the 21st
teers are painstakingly creating detailed
the first tweet appeared 54 seconds after
century.
maps of the philippines for emergency
the earthquake, with further tweets correlief efforts in the wake of typhoon Hairesponding in location and time with disyan [5]. These virtual online communities, centered
tance from the epicenter [1].
around projects such as OpenStreetMap, are effecIn this new paradigm, social media are effectively
tively harnessing the Internet for crowd-sourced map
forming a human-powered sensor network, which can
production. While typically this type of information
be used to supplement existing, formal geographical
has been defined as "volunteer geographic informadata-sources for situational awareness [1], [7]-[9].
tion" (VGI) [6], the increasing interest in using social
The research challenge now is to leverage the potenmedia as a medium for crowd-sourcing real-time
tial of this new global network of intelligent sensors
situational data during crises is blurring the definioutside the realm of disaster response.
tion. A number of software platforms that act as hubs
One of the most exciting prospects for geosocial
for information reporting via social media networks
media is its ubiquity around the world, including its
widespread adoption by the urban poor in many developing nations [2]. Furthermore, if we widen our defiDigital Object Identifier 10.1109/MTS.2014.2301860
Date of publication: 10 March 2014
nition to include information from the aforementioned
IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE

SprING 2014

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