Geo-spatial Information Science

Prikaz časopisa Geo-spatial Information Science koji je pokrenulo kinesko Sveučilište u Wuhanu 1998., a danas je suizdavač poznata izdavačka kuća Taylor & Francis. Objavljuje članke iz područja geodetske izmjere i kartiranja uključujući fotogrametriju, daljinska istraživanja, geoinformacijske sustave, kartografiju, inženjersku geodeziju, GPS, satelitsku i fizikalnu geodeziju, geomatiku, geofiziku i ostala srodna područja

Reading the social preferences of tourist destinations through social media data

The social preferences of individuals have been traditionally identified through traditional means using field techniques such as direct interviewing, observation and people-counting. The virtual layer of the social system currently allows new ways to identify the most preferred urban areas or venues. With that in mind, this paper aims to study how data from two Location-Based Social Networks: Foursquare and Twitter can shed light on empirical and theoretical observations about the spatial patterns characterizing where people tend to be and socialise in a tourist city. The methodology proposed consists of three stages. First, a self-developed desktop application retrieves geospatial data from the selected social networks. Then, the dataset obtained is organised and sorted. Finally, the georeferenced data is visualised and analysed and the trends are noted and discussed. To that end, the city of Benidorm was selected as a case study and the data was collected during the off-peak tourist season. The results demonstrate a correlation between the empirical assumptions and the findings from the social networks analysis about people’s preferred places. Foursquare provides a ranking of urban spaces and venues related to tourism, and the location of the tweets confirms the seasonal nature of Benidorm. Despite the fact that information from location-based social media has to be treated carefully, since each service has its own unique purpose, the method proposed has proven to be effective and reliable to depict a representative sample of people’s social patterns and preferences in tourist cities

Ruđer Bošković i geoznanosti / Ruđer Bošković and the Geosciences

Dan je prikaz monografije Ruđer Bošković i geoznanosti / Ruđer Bošković and the Geosciences

Reading the social preferences of tourist destinations through social media data

The social preferences of individuals have been traditionally identified through traditional means using field techniques such as direct interviewing, observation and people-counting. The virtual layer of the social system currently allows new ways to identify the most preferred urban areas or venues. With that in mind, this paper aims to study how data from two Location-Based Social Networks: Foursquare and Twitter can shed light on empirical and theoretical observations about the spatial patterns characterizing where people tend to be and socialise in a tourist city. The methodology proposed consists of three stages. First, a self-developed desktop application retrieves geospatial data from the selected social networks. Then, the dataset obtained is organised and sorted. Finally, the georeferenced data is visualised and analysed and the trends are noted and discussed. To that end, the city of Benidorm was selected as a case study and the data was collected during the off-peak tourist season. The results demonstrate a correlation between the empirical assumptions and the findings from the social networks analysis about people’s preferred places. Foursquare provides a ranking of urban spaces and venues related to tourism, and the location of the tweets confirms the seasonal nature of Benidorm. Despite the fact that information from location-based social media has to be treated carefully, since each service has its own unique purpose, the method proposed has proven to be effective and reliable to depict a representative sample of people’s social patterns and preferences in tourist cities

Using Twitter in Higher Education in Spain and the USA

El presente artículo examina los usos y las percepciones de estudiantes y profesores en relación a Twitter a partir de una investigación comparada con metodologías mixtas. Los participantes (n=153) fueron alumnos de educación de dos universidades en España y Estados Unidos (EE.UU.) que usaron Twitter como parte de una actividad del curso. El marco teórico abarca la investigación internacional sobre Twitter así como un breve repaso a la introducción de la tecnología en los dos sistemas educativos nacionales. Los datos cuantitativos se recogieron con un cuestionario mientras que los datos cualitativos se obtuvieron a través de los textos reflexivos escritos de los estudiantes. La mayoría de los participantes de los dos contextos percibieron los beneficios educativos de Twitter. Sin embargo, su uso de Twitter y la naturaleza de sus percepciones en relación a su valor educativo difirieron de forma significativa. Los participantes de EE.UU. usaron Twitter por más tiempo y de manera más frecuente a la vez que demostraron creencias más positivas en relación a la relevancia educativa de Twitter. Mientras que los participantes españoles valoraron el uso de Twitter para encontrar y compartir información, los estudiantes americanos destacaron los usos para la interacción y la colaboración. El estudio destapa algunos retos del formato breve de Twitter para el aprendizaje. En las conclusiones discutimos las implicaciones para la enseñanza aprendizaje en la era de la ubicuidad de los medios socialesThis article examines student teachers’ use and perceptions of Twitter, based on a mixed-method comparative approach. Participants (N=153) were education majors who used Twitter as a part of required coursework in their programs at two universities in Spain and the United States. The theoretical background covers research on international work carried out on Twitter as well as a brief overview of the introduction of technology in two educational national systems. Quantitative data were collected via a survey, while qualitative data were obtained from students’ reflective written texts. The majority of participants from both contexts perceived educational benefits to Twitter. However, their use of Twitter, and the nature of their perceptions of its educational value, appeared to differ in important ways. The USA participants’ longer and more frequent use of Twitter was accompanied by more positive beliefs regarding the educational relevance of Twitter. While many Spanish participants saw value in the use of Twitter to find and share information, USA students highlighted interactive and collaborative uses. The study uncovers some challenges for learning related to Twitter’s short format. In the conclusion section we discuss implications for learning and teaching in an age of ubiquitous social medi

#DíaInternacionaldelPuebloGitano: una mirada a la realidad educativa de la etnia gitana a través de Twitter

The current paper tries to identify the activity and educational demands associated with the ROMA inside Spain across Twitter, in order determine which are the diverse opinions on this question. For it, we have used a hybrid based methodology on the one hand, in the quantitative analysis of the tweets gathered thanks to the use of the data mining and structure of networks across Twitter's API. For other one, a qualitative methodology due to the study of all the tweets extracted with the hashtag #DíaInternacionaldelPuebloGitano, thanks to that we have determined the demands and opinions as well as, the emotional cataloguing of the above mentioned texts. The analysis of the 726 tweets in official languages of the Kingdom of Spain, being this territorial - linguistic element a delimitator used to include the public opinion in a geographical concrete space.The analysis of the information has been realized using the software SPSS 21 with which we could have determined that the number of tweets issued by the users was of 726, whose spread increased due to the retweets and favorites up to a total of 2061 in April 8. The busiest time was of 12:00-17:59 with a total of 959.Finally, we could have determined as the activity in the social network, it has great similarities with the studies up to the date on the ROMA in relation with the education. Thus, the protests and complaints for the inequality and the intolerance, the existence and functioning of school centers where there exists a high number of ROMA student body. Conversely, also we find similarities, as the slow increase, of student body of ROMA with major studies, and that are seen so much in social networks like inside the community, as examples to continuing.El presente estudio trata de identificar la actividad y demandas educativas asociadas con la etnia gitana dentro de España a través de la red social Twitter, con el fin de determinar cuáles son los diversos dictámenes sobre esta cuestión. Para ello, hemos  empleado una metodología híbrida basada por un lado, en el análisis cuantitativo de los tweets recogidos gracias al uso de la minería de datos y estructura de redes a través de la API de Twitter. Por otro, una metodología cualitativa debido al estudio de todos los tweets extraídos con el hashtag #DíaInternacionaldelPuebloGitano, gracias al cual hemos determinado las demandas y opiniones así como, la catalogación emocional de dichos textos. El análisis de los 726 tweets en lenguas oficiales del Reino de España, siendo este elemento territorial-lingüístico un delimitador utilizado para comprender la opinión pública en un espacio geográfico concreto.El análisis de los datos se ha realizado empleando el software SPSS 21 con el cuál hemos podido determinar que el número de tweets emitidos por los usuarios fue de 726, cuya propagación aumentó debido a los retweets y favoritos hasta un total de 2061 en el día 8 de abril. La franja horaria de mayor actividad fue de 12:00-17:59 con un total de 959.Finalmente, hemos podido determinar como la actividad en la red social, tiene grandes similitudes con los estudios hasta la fecha sobre la etnia gitana en relación con la educación. De este modo, las protestas y quejas por la desigualdad y la intolerancia, la existencia y funcionamiento de centros escolares dónde existe un alto número de alumnado gitano. Por el contrario, también encontramos similitudes, como el incremento lento, de alumnado de etnia gitana con mayores estudios, y que son vistos tanto en redes sociales como dentro de la comunidad, como ejemplos a seguir

Experiment for Analysing the Impact of Financial Events on Twitter

Twitter, as the heart of publicly accessible Social Media, is one of the currently used platforms to share financial information and is a valuable source of information for different roles in the financial market. For all these roles, the quality analysis of Twitter as a source of financial information is essential to take decisions. The work in this paper is aligned with the ongoing work of the authors to a solution for irregularity monitoring in the financial market by harnessing data in online social media. To do so, the permeability of a variety of social media data feeders to financial irregularities should be analysed. That is the case of the experiment in this paper by putting the focus on Twitter microblogging platform and checking if this general purpose social media is permeable to a specific financial event. For this, we detail the analysis of Twitter permeability to a specific event in the past few months: the announcement about the merge of Tesco and Booker to create a UK’s Leading Food Business on the 27th January 2017. Both companies Tesco PLC and Booking Group PLC are listed in the main market of LSE (London Stock Exchange). Our findings provide promising evidences to address the problem of real-time detection of irregularities in the financial market via Twitter according to the volume (as a sign of the importance of the irregularity) and to other features (as signs of the potential origin causing the irregularity)

Using Twitter in Higher Education in Spain and the USA / Uso de Twitter en Educación Superior en España y Estados Unidos

This article examines student and teachers’ use and perceptions of Twitter, based on a mixed-method comparative approach. Participants (N=153) were education majors who used Twitter as a part of required coursework in their programs at two universities in Spain and the United States. The theoretical background covers research on international work carried out on Twitter as well as a brief overview of the introduction of technology in two educational national systems. Quantitative data were collected via a survey, while qualitative data were obtained from students’ reflective written texts. The majority of participants from both contexts perceived educational benefits to Twitter. However, their use of Twitter, and the nature of their perceptions of its educational value, appeared to differ in important ways. The U.S. participants’ longer and more frequent use of Twitter was accompanied by more positive beliefs regarding the educational relevance of Twitter. While many Spanish participants saw value in the use of Twitter to find and share information, U.S. students highlighted interactive and collaborative uses. The study uncovers some challenges for learning related to Twitter’s short format. In the conclusion section we discuss implications for learning and teaching in an age of ubiquitous social media