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Map Tracks City's Social Activity Through Foursquare

By

Jaya Saxena

Published Aug 21, 2010

Modified Aug 21, 2010

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Via Urbagram

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By

Jaya Saxena

Published Aug 21, 2010

Modified Aug 21, 2010

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Even though Foursquare may be dying thanks to the introduction of Facebook Places, it's still alive and kicking in New York. And now, it's being used to study something other than you and your friend's battle to become mayor of that bubble tea place.Urbagram used Foursquare check-in data to map the "social archipelagos" of New York, London and Paris. The cities were separated into 400x400 meter cells, and each cell's size represents the amount of Foursquare activity taking place in that area. Urbagram explains, "By this process we can see social centers emerge in each city." The data also shows the city's most popular check-in spots:

• Central Park
• MoMA
• Met Museum
• Brooklyn Museum
• IKEA
• Balthazar Restaurant
• Cafe Grumpy
• Brass Monkey
• Bar Matchless
• Governor's Island

So what does Urbagram hope to do with the data? They say, "By analysing such geo-social datasets we can hope to understand the basis for a more sociable, more usable city." Or we can find out how many times we have to check-in to become the mayor of Central Park.

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