Cartographic Vandalism in the Era of Location-Based Games—The Case of OpenStreetMap and Pokémon GO

User-generated map data is increasingly used by the technology industry for background mapping, navigation and beyond. An example is the integration of OpenStreetMap (OSM) data in widely-used smartphone and web applications, such as Pokémon GO (PGO), a popular augmented reality smartphone game. As a result of OSM’s increased popularity, the worldwide audience that uses OSM through external applications is directly exposed to malicious edits which represent cartographic vandalism. Multiple reports of obscene and anti-semitic vandalism in OSM have surfaced in popular media over the years. These negative news related to cartographic vandalism undermine the credibility of collaboratively generated maps. Similarly, commercial map providers (e.g., Google Maps and Waze) are also prone to carto-vandalism through their crowdsourcing mechanism that they may use to keep their map products up-to-date. Using PGO as an example, this research analyzes harmful edits in OSM that originate from PGO players. More specifically, this paper analyzes the spatial, temporal and semantic characteristics of PGO carto-vandalism and discusses how the mapping community handles it. Our findings indicate that most harmful edits are quickly discovered and that the community becomes faster at detecting and fixing these harmful edits over time. Gaming related carto-vandalism in OSM was found to be a short-term, sporadic activity by individuals, whereas the task of fixing vandalism is persistently pursued by a dedicated user group within the OSM community. The characteristics of carto-vandalism identified in this research can be used to improve vandalism detection systems in the future

Behaviour of Humans and Behaviour of Models in Dynamic Space

This paper addresses new trends in quantitative geography research. Modern social science research – including economic and social geography – has in the past decades shown an increasing interest in micro-oriented behaviour of actors. This is inter alia clearly reflected in spatial interaction models (SIMs), where discrete choice approaches have assumed a powerful position. This paper aims to provide in particular a concise review of micro-based research, with the aim to review the potential – but also the caveats – of micro-models to map out human behaviour. In particular, attention will be devoted to interactive learning principles that shape individual decisions. Lessons from cognitive sciences will be put forward and illustrated, amongst others on the basis of computational neural networks or spatial econometric approaches. The methodology of deductive reasoning under conditions of large data bases in studying human mobility will be questioned as well. In this context more extensive attention is given to ceteris paribus conditions and evolutionary thinkin

Data-in-Place: Thinking through the Relations Between Data and Community

We present findings from a year-long engagement with a street and its community . The work is targeted at exploring how the production and use of data is bound up with place, both in terms of physical and social geography. We detail three strands of the project. First, we consider how residents have sought to curate existing data about the street in the form of an archive with physical and digital components. Second, we report endeavours to capture data about the street’s environment, especially of traffic moving through it. Third, we draw on the possibilities afforded by technologies for polling opinion. We reflect on how these engagements have: materialised distinctive relations between the community and their data; surfaced flows and contours of data , and spatial, temporal and social boundaries ;and enacted a multiplicity of ‘small worlds’. We consider how such a conceptualisation of data-in-place is relevant to the design of data technologies

Modelling and Simulation of Human-Environment Interactions

Computational models provide intelligent environmental decision support systems to understand how human decisions are shaped by, and contribute to changes in, the environment. These models provide essential tools to tackle the important issues raised by climate change, including migrations and conflicts due to resource scarcity (e.g., water resources), while accounting for the necessity of co-managing ecosystems across a population of stakeholders with diverse goals. Such socio-environmental systems are characterized by their complexity, which is reflected by an abundance of open questions. This book explores several of these open questions, based on the contributions from over 50 authors. While several books account for methodological developments in modeling socio-environmental systems, our book is unique in combining case studies, methodological innovations, and a holistic approach to training the next generation of modelers. One chapter covers the ontological, epistemological, and ethical issues raised at the intersection of sustainability research and social simulation. In another chapter, we show that the benefits of simulations are not limited to managing complex eco-systems, as they can also serve an educational mission in teaching essential rules and thus improve systems thinking competencies in the broader population

The Structure of Cluster Knowledge Networks Uneven, not Pervasive and Collective

This study focuses on the relationship between industrial clustering and innovation. It contributes to this literature by showing two empirical properties of the cluster learning process: first, that the structure of the knowledge network in a cluster is related with the heterogeneous distribution of firm knowledge bases and, second, that business interactions and inter-firm knowledge flows are not highly co-occurring phenomena. In particular, this paper highlights how the heterogeneity of firms’ knowledge bases generates uneven distribution of knowledge and selective inter-firm learning. This study has been based on empirical evidence collected at firm level in three wine clusters in Italy and Chile. Methods of social network analysis have been applied to process the data.Industrial clusters, knowledge flows, business interactions, networks.

Contextual Social Networking

The thesis centers around the multi-faceted research question of how contexts may be detected and derived that can be used for new context aware Social Networking services and for improving the usefulness of existing Social Networking services, giving rise to the notion of Contextual Social Networking. In a first foundational part, we characterize the closely related fields of Contextual-, Mobile-, and Decentralized Social Networking using different methods and focusing on different detailed aspects. A second part focuses on the question of how short-term and long-term social contexts as especially interesting forms of context for Social Networking may be derived. We focus on NLP based methods for the characterization of social relations as a typical form of long-term social contexts and on Mobile Social Signal Processing methods for deriving short-term social contexts on the basis of geometry of interaction and audio. We furthermore investigate, how personal social agents may combine such social context elements on various levels of abstraction. The third part discusses new and improved context aware Social Networking service concepts. We investigate special forms of awareness services, new forms of social information retrieval, social recommender systems, context aware privacy concepts and services and platforms supporting Open Innovation and creative processes. This version of the thesis does not contain the included publications because of copyrights of the journals etc. Contact in terms of the version with all included publications: Georg Groh, [email protected] zentrale Gegenstand der vorliegenden Arbeit ist die vielschichtige Frage, wie Kontexte detektiert und abgeleitet werden können, die dazu dienen können, neuartige kontextbewusste Social Networking Dienste zu schaffen und bestehende Dienste in ihrem Nutzwert zu verbessern. Die (noch nicht abgeschlossene) erfolgreiche Umsetzung dieses Programmes führt auf ein Konzept, das man als Contextual Social Networking bezeichnen kann. In einem grundlegenden ersten Teil werden die eng zusammenhängenden Gebiete Contextual Social Networking, Mobile Social Networking und Decentralized Social Networking mit verschiedenen Methoden und unter Fokussierung auf verschiedene Detail-Aspekte näher beleuchtet und in Zusammenhang gesetzt. Ein zweiter Teil behandelt die Frage, wie soziale Kurzzeit- und Langzeit-Kontexte als für das Social Networking besonders interessante Formen von Kontext gemessen und abgeleitet werden können. Ein Fokus liegt hierbei auf NLP Methoden zur Charakterisierung sozialer Beziehungen als einer typischen Form von sozialem Langzeit-Kontext. Ein weiterer Schwerpunkt liegt auf Methoden aus dem Mobile Social Signal Processing zur Ableitung sinnvoller sozialer Kurzzeit-Kontexte auf der Basis von Interaktionsgeometrien und Audio-Daten. Es wird ferner untersucht, wie persönliche soziale Agenten Kontext-Elemente verschiedener Abstraktionsgrade miteinander kombinieren können. Der dritte Teil behandelt neuartige und verbesserte Konzepte für kontextbewusste Social Networking Dienste. Es werden spezielle Formen von Awareness Diensten, neue Formen von sozialem Information Retrieval, Konzepte für kontextbewusstes Privacy Management und Dienste und Plattformen zur Unterstützung von Open Innovation und Kreativität untersucht und vorgestellt. Diese Version der Habilitationsschrift enthält die inkludierten Publikationen zurVermeidung von Copyright-Verletzungen auf Seiten der Journals u.a. nicht. Kontakt in Bezug auf die Version mit allen inkludierten Publikationen: Georg Groh, [email protected]

Lead generation and communication strategies for Targomo GMBH

More and more importance has been given to the customers’ role in communication strategies in the recent years. Especially in the high tech industry, the increasingly fast pace of innovation has made it vital to understand the customers’ needs and motives. This is crucial in order to base lead generation creation processes and therefore better communicate with the market (Derunova and Semenov, 2013). Buyer personas are archetypes of real buyers which allow marketers to craft strategies to promote services and products. The term has become almost a marketing mantra, but buyer personas also involve the sales department and the concept of lead generation (Adele Ravella, 2015). This paper aims to collect the knowledge required for the subsequent development of buyer personas for each of the solutions of the tech start-up Targomo. Creating personas aims to better embody the behaviours, pain points, goals, and characteristics of real customers or target audiences (Junior and Filgueiras, 2005). The aim of this paper is therefore to collect the information required to subsequently implement the personas in the context of Targomo. Hence, they can later be used as a tool for developing the company’s communication strategy. Moreover, the knowledge acquired can also be applied to the wider context of communication strategy. This is especially beneficial, as the existing academic literature on the topic of buyer personas remains extremely scarce.Mais e mais importância foi dada ao papel dos clientes nas estratégias de comunicação nos últimos anos. Especialmente na indústria de alta tecnologia, o ritmo cada vez mais rápido da inovação tornou essencial entender as necessidades e os motivos dos clientes. Isto é crucial para basear os processos de criação de geração de leads e, portanto, se comunicar melhor com o mercado (Derunova and Semenov, 2013). As personas dos compradores são arquétipos de compradores reais que permitem aos profissionais de marketing elaborar estratégias para promover serviços e produtos. O termo tornou-se quase um mantra de marketing, mas as personas dos compradores também envolvem o departamento de vendas e o conceito de geração de leads (Adele Ravella, 2015). Este artigo tem como objetivo coletar o conhecimento necessário para o desenvolvimento subsequente de personas de compradores para cada uma das soluções da Targomo, uma startup de tecnologia. A criação de personas visa incorporar melhor os comportamentos, pontos problemáticos, objetivos e características de clientes reais ou públicos-alvo (Junior and Filgueiras, 2005). O objetivo deste artigo é, portanto, recolher informação necessária para implementar posteriormente as personas no contexto da Targomo. Posteriormente, podem ser usadas como uma ferramenta para o desenvolvimento da estratégia de comunicação da empresa. Além disso, o conhecimento adquirido também pode ser aplicado ao contexto mais amplo da estratégia de comunicação. Isso é especialmente benéfico, pois a literatura acadêmica existente sobre o tema das personas dos compradores permanece extremamente escassa