Communications of the ACM
Project Aims to Crowdsource What Makes a Happy City
Old Bailey Courthouse, London.
Image credit: Google
Cambridge University researchers will use crowdsourcing to rank the most peaceful and happy places in London. Participants will compare two views of the city and assess which one best represents one of three qualities--happiness, beauty, and quiet. The urbangems site also will enable users to add tags and more information to explain their choices in greater detail, and upload and tag pictures of their own happy spaces. The research could enable urbangems to offer personalized recommendations of city spaces, and potentially help improve urban design.
"There has been extensive research on the link between how people perceive an area and social deprivation such as the famous 'broken window' theory put forward in the 80s suggesting that visual cues of public disorder--like smashed windows--can increase the risk of crime and urban decay because they set a precedent in the area," says Cambridge researcher Daniele Quercia. "What we want to do is try and drill down to those visual cues that increase people's sense of well-being in a particular area, to see if we can help build a list of key aesthetic elements that might act in the opposite manner."
From BBC News
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