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Where’s everybody? Comparing the use of heatmaps to uncover cities’ tacit social context in smartphones and pervasive displays

Author

Listed:
  • Andreas Komninos

    (University of Patras)

  • Jeries Besharat

    (University of Patras
    Computer Technology Institute and Press “Diophantus”)

  • Denzil Ferreira

    (University of Oulu)

  • John Garofalakis

    (University of Patras
    Computer Technology Institute and Press “Diophantus”)

  • Vassilis Kostakos

    (University of Oulu)

Abstract

We introduce HotCity, a city-wide social context crowdsourcing platform that utilises user’s current location and geo-tagged social data (e.g., check-ins, “likes” and ratings) to autonomously obtain insight on a city’s tacit social awareness (e.g., “when is best time and where to go out on a Saturday night?”). HotCity is available as a mobile application for Android and as an interactive application on pervasive large displays, showcasing a heatmap of social buzz. We present the results of an in-the-field evaluation with 30 volunteers, of which 27 are tourists of the mobile app, compare it to a previous evaluation of the pervasive display app and also present usage data of free use of the pervasive display app over 3 years in the city of Oulu, Finland. Our data demonstrate that HotCity can communicate effectively the city’s current social buzz, without affecting digital maps’ cartography information. Our empirical analysis highlights a change in tourists’ foci when exploring the city using HotCity. We identify a transition from “individual [places]” to “good [areas]” and “people [choices]”. Our contributions are threefold: a long-term deployment of a city-wide social context crowdsourcing platform; an in-the-field evaluation of HotCity on mobile devices and pervasive displays; and an evaluation of cities’ tacit knowledge as social context as a denominator in city planning and for the development of future mobile social-aware applications.

Suggested Citation

  • Andreas Komninos & Jeries Besharat & Denzil Ferreira & John Garofalakis & Vassilis Kostakos, 2017. "Where’s everybody? Comparing the use of heatmaps to uncover cities’ tacit social context in smartphones and pervasive displays," Information Technology & Tourism, Springer, vol. 17(4), pages 399-427, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:infott:v:17:y:2017:i:4:d:10.1007_s40558-017-0092-5
    DOI: 10.1007/s40558-017-0092-5
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Matthias Braunhofer & Francesco Ricci, 0. "Selective contextual information acquisition in travel recommender systems," Information Technology & Tourism, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-25.
    2. Anastasios Noulas & Salvatore Scellato & Renaud Lambiotte & Massimiliano Pontil & Cecilia Mascolo, 2012. "A Tale of Many Cities: Universal Patterns in Human Urban Mobility," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(5), pages 1-10, May.
    3. Matthias Braunhofer & Francesco Ricci, 2017. "Selective contextual information acquisition in travel recommender systems," Information Technology & Tourism, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 5-29, March.
    4. Tanel Tammet & Ago Luberg & Priit Järv, 2013. "Sightsmap: Crowd-Sourced Popularity of the World Places," Springer Books, in: Lorenzo Cantoni & Zheng (Phil) Xiang (ed.), Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2013, edition 127, pages 314-325, Springer.
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