SPOTSENSING a platform for social web sensing

Social Networking Sites (SNS) have an unprecedented ability to capture Human activity, including information about the specific physical settings in which those activities are taking place. This represents a major potential for uncovering, on a large scale, new knowledge about aggregate behaviors in the use of places. In this paper, we explore the concept of social web sensor, as a systematic data collection process that can be virtually attached to a particular location to retrieve locationbased information from social network sites. This process is completely based on geographically scoped queries to SNS APIs and does not depend on real physical sensors. The objective of this study is mainly to assess the viability of this concept and uncover the potential and limitations of this approach as a reality mining tool for urban environments. We have created an initial implementation and conducted the respective evaluation through the deployment of a number of sensors in the city of London and the analysis of the respective results

Extracting Touristic Information from Online Image Collections

In this paper, we present a Geographical Information Retrieval system, which aims to automatically extract and analyze touristic information from photos of online image collections (in our case of study Flickr). Our system collect all the photos, and the related information, that are associated to a specific city. We then use Google Maps service to geolocate the retrieved photos, and finally we analyze geo-referenced data to obtain our goals: 1) determining and locating the most interesting places of the city, i.e. the most visited locations, and 2) reconstructing touristic routes of the users visiting the city. Information is filtered by using a set of constraints, which we apply to select only the users that reasonably are tourists visiting the city. Tests were performed on an Italian city, Palermo, that is rich in artistic and touristic attractions, but preliminary tests showed that our technique could successfully be applied to any city in the world with a reasonable number of touristic landmarks

Visual representations of tourist destinations through the Internet: the case of Valladolid (Mexico)

Las imágenes tienen gran importancia en la caracterización de los espacios turísticos y en la toma de decisiones de los visitantes; en este sentido, Internet adquiere gran protagonismo en la búsqueda de información y en su puesta en común, ofreciendo visiones diferentes y en ocasiones complementarias a las ofrecidas por las instituciones responsables de la promoción turística. Para conocer la representación visual de la localidad de Valladolid (Yucatán, México) se han analizado y comparado las imágenes de seis portales oficiales y Flickr. Tras el examen del contenido visual se revela que la imagen turística oficial es más limitada que la de la red social en cuanto a temáticas y, sin embargo, vincula el sitio de Internet con elementos ajenos a su entorno inmediato. En ambas fuentes se presenta una imagen estereotipada y el territorio se muestra fragmentado, pues la atención de visitantes y gestores se centra en una parte del espacio. Así, su mirada se fija en ciertos elementos, olvidando el resto, lo cual tiene importantes consecuencias a nivel socio-territorial.The images have great importance in the characterization of tourist spaces and in the decisionmaking of the visitors; In this sense, Internet acquires great prominence in the search for information and in its sharing, offering different and sometimes complementary visions to those offered by the institutions responsible for tourism promotion. To know the visual representation of the town of Valladolid (Yucatán, Mexico), the images of six official portals and Flickr have been analyzed and compared. After the examination of the visual content, it is revealed that the official tourist image is more limited than the one in social networks in terms of themes and, nevertheless, it links the Internet site with elements beyond its immediate surroundings. In both sources, a stereotyped image is presented and the territory is fragmented, since the attention of visitors and managers is focused on a portion of the space. Thus, he gaze is fixed on certain elements, forgetting the rest, which has important consequences at the socio-territorial level

Exploratory Browsing

In recent years the digital media has influenced many areas of our life. The transition from analogue to digital has substantially changed our ways of dealing with media collections. Today‟s interfaces for managing digital media mainly offer fixed linear models corresponding to the underlying technical concepts (folders, events, albums, etc.), or the metaphors borrowed from the analogue counterparts (e.g., stacks, film rolls). However, people‟s mental interpretations of their media collections often go beyond the scope of linear scan. Besides explicit search with specific goals, current interfaces can not sufficiently support the explorative and often non-linear behavior. This dissertation presents an exploration of interface design to enhance the browsing experience with media collections. The main outcome of this thesis is a new model of Exploratory Browsing to guide the design of interfaces to support the full range of browsing activities, especially the Exploratory Browsing. We define Exploratory Browsing as the behavior when the user is uncertain about her or his targets and needs to discover areas of interest (exploratory), in which she or he can explore in detail and possibly find some acceptable items (browsing). According to the browsing objectives, we group browsing activities into three categories: Search Browsing, General Purpose Browsing and Serendipitous Browsing. In the context of this thesis, Exploratory Browsing refers to the latter two browsing activities, which goes beyond explicit search with specific objectives. We systematically explore the design space of interfaces to support the Exploratory Browsing experience. Applying the methodology of User-Centered Design, we develop eight prototypes, covering two main usage contexts of browsing with personal collections and in online communities. The main studied media types are photographs and music. The main contribution of this thesis lies in deepening the understanding of how people‟s exploratory behavior has an impact on the interface design. This thesis contributes to the field of interface design for media collections in several aspects. With the goal to inform the interface design to support the Exploratory Browsing experience with media collections, we present a model of Exploratory Browsing, covering the full range of exploratory activities around media collections. We investigate this model in different usage contexts and develop eight prototypes. The substantial implications gathered during the development and evaluation of these prototypes inform the further refinement of our model: We uncover the underlying transitional relations between browsing activities and discover several stimulators to encourage a fluid and effective activity transition. Based on this model, we propose a catalogue of general interface characteristics, and employ this catalogue as criteria to analyze the effectiveness of our prototypes. We also present several general suggestions for designing interfaces for media collections

Understanding Geographic Bias in Crowd Systems

University of Minnesota Ph.D. dissertation. December 2017. Major: Computer Science. Advisors: Loren Terveen, Brent Hecht. 1 computer file (PDF); ix, 159 pages.Crowd platforms are increasingly geographic, from the sharing economy to peer production systems like OpenStreetMap. Unfortunately, this means that existing geographic advantages or disadvantages (e.g. by income, urbanness, or race) may also impact these crowd systems. This thesis focuses on two primary themes: (1) how these geographic advantages and disadvantages interact with crowd platform services, and (2) how people’s geographic behavior within these platforms may lead to these biases being reflected. The first chapter in my thesis finds that sharing economy services fare less well in low-income, non-white, and more suburban areas. This chapter introduces the spatial Durbin model to the field of HCI, and shows that geographic factors like distance, socioeconomic status and demographics inform where sharing economy workers provide service. The second chapter in my thesis provides focuses on people in peer production communities contribute geographic content. By considering peer production as a spatial interaction process, this study finds that some kinds of content tend to be produced much more locally than others. Finally, my third contribution focuses on individual contributor behavior, and shows geographic “born, not made” trends. People tend to be consistent in the places, and kinds of places (urban, and non-high poverty counties) they contribute. The findings of this third study help identify mechanisms for how geographic biases may come about. Looking forward, my work helps inform an exciting agenda of future work, including building systems that provide individual crowd members sufficient geographic context to counteract these worrying geographic biases

Points of interest in tourism : conceptual framework, analytical relevance, methodological proposal, and case studies

La presente tesis doctoral está dedicada al estudio de los puntos de interés turístico, aspecto que ha sido escasamente abordado en la literatura científica sobre el turismo. En concreto, este trabajo se centra en analizar cuatro dimensiones relativas a dichos puntos de interés. De este modo, el objetivo de la investigación se centra en analizar el marco conceptual en el que se inserta el término de punto de interés, identificar cuáles son las implicaciones derivadas de su estudio, realizar una propuesta metodológica que permita identificarlos y, finalmente, aplicar la investigación a un caso de estudio que permita comprender la relevancia de la laguna en la investigación que pretende cubrirse. En lo referente al marco conceptual, esta tesis parte de las definiciones de otros conceptos relacionados y propone una definición de punto de interés que se inserte dentro del marco terminológico existente. Además, la relevancia del trabajo realizado es puesta en valor al establecerse las implicaciones que podrían derivar del análisis de los puntos de interés de cara a mejorar la gestión de los destinos turísticos (especialmente para prevenir problemas relacionados con la congestión de espacios turísticos) y a abrir un nuevo campo de trabajo en la investigación turística. La tesis también se centra en identificar técnicas de rastreo para identificar puntos de interés de los destinos, desarrollar una taxonomía que permite clasificarlos y en estudiar un modo de analizarlos de cara a mejorar la comprensión del comportamiento de los turistas durante sus viajes. Por último, para abordar la dimensión práctica de esta investigación, se ha aplicado el análisis de puntos de interés al caso de Lanzarote. La investigación realizada tiene implicaciones para la mejora de la gestión de destinos turísticos, en concreto relativas a la búsqueda de soluciones a problemas relacionados con la congestión de los espacios turísticos. Esta tesis se ha elaborado bajo la modalidad de compendio de artículos, que exige que se hayan publicado un mínimo de tres artículos en revistas científicas indexadas en índices de prestigio. Por ello, la tesis cuenta con un total de ocho estudios, cada uno de ellos representando un trabajo de investigación ya publicado. En concreto, cuatro de las ocho publicaciones que conforman esta tesis son las que permiten cumplir con el requisito exigido por la normativa de la universidad relativa a esta modalidad de tesis, dado que son artículos publicados en revistas indexadas en bases de datos de prestigio. Otros cuatro trabajos incluidos en este documento ofrecen resultados complementarios y permiten alcanzar una visión más completa de la investigación que hemos realizado a lo largo de los últimos años. En el anexo se incluye la primera página o carta de aceptación de los artículos y capítulos de libro incluidos en esta tesis doctoral.This dissertation is based on the study of ‘points of interest’, which, until recently, have received little attention in tourism research. Specifically, this dissertation focuses on studying four different dimensions related to points of interest. The objectives are to study the conceptual framework in which the concept of points of interest is placed, to describe the implications derived from their study, to propose a methodological approach that identifies and analyses points of interest, and to apply the research to a case study that highlights their relevance and covers some existing gaps in tourism literature. Regarding the conceptual framework, this dissertation analyzes the definitions of other concepts and proposes a definition of points of interest that fits within the existing terminology framework. In addition, the analytical relevance of this research is addressed by indicating the implications that could derive from an analysis of points of interest in order to improve destination management (particularly to prevent problems related to congestion and overtourism) as well as to open a new field of study in tourism research. This dissertation also focuses on proposing tracking techniques as tools to identify points of interest within destinations, as well as a taxonomy for classifying and analyzing these techniques in order to improve understanding of tourists’ behavior during their trips. Finally, to address the practical application of this research, the analysis of points of interest has been applied to the case of the island of Lanzarote, Canary Islands. The study has implications related to the improvement of destination management, particularly to solving problems linked to overtourism in tourist spaces. This dissertation has been prepared under the modality of paper compendium that requires a minimum of three papers to be published in scientific journals in prestige indexes. Therefore, the dissertation has a total of eight studies, each of them representing a publication. Four of these publications fulfill the university requirement regarding the minimum number of papers needed to defend a paper compendium dissertation. The other works offer complementary results to achieve a wider scope of the research carried out. The reader can find the first page or acceptance letter of the papers and book chapters used to complete this dissertation

Metropolitan Tourism Experience Development. Selected studies from the Tourism Network Workshop of the Regional Studies Association, held in Budapest, Hungary, 2015

On January 28-30, 2015 Corvinus University of Budapest hosted the latest workshop of the Regional Studies Association’s Tourism Research Network. The event had been held previously in Izmir, Aalborg, Warsaw, Östersund, Antalya, Leeds and Vila-seca Catalonia. The aim of the RSA research network is to examine tourism diversity from the perspective of regional development in order to identify current challenges and opportunities in a systematic manner, and hence provide the basis for a more well-informed integration of tourism in regional development strategies and move beyond political short-termism and buzzword fascination. In the frame of the network a series of workshops have been organised from various topics of destination management till rural tourism