Communications of the ACM
Big-Data Project Gives Birds-Eye View of the G20
A researcher is mapping posts to Twitter and Instagram from the G20 Leaders' Summit in Brisbane, Australia in real time.
Credit: Griffith University
Queensland University of Technology researcher Peta Mitchell is mapping the G20 Leaders' Summit in Brisbane, Australia, in real time on Twitter and Instagram to determine how the event is affecting those inside the conference.
Mitchell plots the data on an interactive map the public can explore via a website. "No project has mapped G20 social media data in this way before, so we don't really know what kind of information we'll glean--or even how many tweets to expect each day from within the declared areas," Mitchell says.
The project involves a process known as geoparsing to analyze thousands of non-geotagged tweets each day, focusing on mentions of streets or landmarks within the declared areas, and assigning geographic coordinates to them.
Mitchell also is tracking delegates' tweets and existing and emerging G20-related hashtags. "Understanding how people use social media to talk about the disruptions that big events cause in their daily lives is very useful for organizations involved in planning large events--governments, emergency services departments, transport authorities, event organizers, and even insurance underwriters," she says. "This project is also a good way for the residents of Brisbane to get involved with the G20 even if they don't want to be physically close to the city center while it's on."
From Queensland University of Technology
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