GeoWorld

GeoWorld September 2011

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BikeToWorkChallenge, CitySourced). These trends shifted the role of GIS from being an arcane technology used by trained professionals to a popular social medium for the general public to report problems and build community. 3. The explosive growth of location- based social media and the increasing use of social media data as GIS data sources have further blurred the bound- ary between GIS and social media. The development of location-based social media during the last two years moved social media from cyberspace to real place. Similar to the functions of Google Latitude, most location-based social media allow users to know and see on a map where their friends are physically located at a particular time. So far, location-based social media can be grouped into three major categories: 1. Social check-in sites (e.g., Foursquare, Gowalla, Blockchalk, BrightKite, Whrrl, MyTown) 2. Social review sites (e.g., Yelp, Geodelic, Tellmewhere, Groupon, Blippy, The HotList) 3. Social scheduling/events sites (e.g., Loopt, Plancast, Meetup, Eventful, Upcoming, Geoloqi) LinkedIn and Facebook now let users map social connections, and Loopt integrated Facebook Places with the latest version of its app for the iPhone and iPod touch, improving its friend- finding capabilities. Loopt users now can view Facebook and Loopt check-ins on an interactive map, providing a clear view of friends gathering nearby. In addition, the release of Localscope integrates TomTom with the official Facebook application for seamless social sharing of locations. Telmap, a pioneer in mobile location- based services, recently announced the availability of a location-aware Facebook Widget as part of its Mobile Location Companion. Furthermore, geo-tagged data harvested from social media, such as tweets, now can be used to create Twitter heat maps depicting global Twitter activity during the social media week (socialmediaweek.org/ blog/2011/02/17/twitter-heatmaps- depicting-global-twitter-activity-during- social-media-week). And Facebook Places, Gowalla, Foursquare and Google Latitude facilitate the sharing of personal location information while creating a new vital data source for GIS analysis and mapping activities. I was impressed by Esri's speed to integrate its mainstream GIS product, ArcGIS, with user-generated content and social media (Dangermond, 2011). ArcGIS 10.1 is designed to distill data from social media and then apply this information to understand patterns such as social trends, infectious dis- ease diffusion, consumer buying habits and sentiments, and many others. GeoWorld on Facebook While finalizing this column, I received an announcement that GeoWorld magazine joined Facebook (www.facebook.com/ pages/GeoPlacecomGeoWorld-Magazine/ 215948245098943), another indication of how fast the geospatial world is linking to social media. The GeoWorld Facebook fan page is regularly updated by GeoWorld staff, providing exclusive content such as photos, new products, and industry events and news. In addition, the GeoWorld Facebook fan page provides a forum for readers to ask questions, give feedback and interact with industry colleagues. I hope you all "like" GeoWorld's Facebook page to start interacting with GeoWorld magazine and GeoPlace.com. References Dangermond, J. 2011. "Living Maps: Making Collective Geographic Information a Reality." Paper presented during 2011 Where 2.0 Symposium; www.youtube. com/watch?v=vIbGwY3aG0g. Rainey, J. 2011. "GIS, Social Media and 'Geo Business Intelligence,'" thegistrict. blogspot.com. Sui, D.Z., and Goodchild, M.F. 2011. "The Convergence of GIS with Social Media: New Challenges for GIScience," International Journal of Geographic Information Science (in press). Fresh News Fast!

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