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Human Dynamics Research in Smart and Connected Communities pp 223–234Cite as

The Opportunities and Challenges with Social Media and Big Data for Research in Human Dynamics

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Part of the book series: Human Dynamics in Smart Cities ((HDSC))

Abstract

Geographers and scientists can collect and analyze social media and Big Data via smartphones, sensors, and mobile devices with locational contents, such as global positioning system tags, check-ins, place names, and user location profiles. The dynamic characteristics of social media and Big Data offer geographers research opportunities for examining and modeling human behaviors, communications, and movements. To discuss this emerging research themes in the field of geography and GIScience, a series of special paper sessions were organized at AAG annual meetings in 2015 and 2016, Human Dynamics in the Mobile Age: Linking Physical and Virtual Spaces and Symposium on Human Dynamics Research: Social Media and Big Data. This short viewpoint paper first reports on a summary of papers presented in these AAG sessions. Then we discuss the current state-of-the-arts in human dynamics research and highlight their key concepts, opportunities, and challenges.

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Acknowledgements

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1634641, IMEE project titled “Integrated Stage-Based Evacuation with Social Perception Analysis and Dynamic Population Estimation” and Grant No. 1416509, IBSS project titled “Spatiotemporal Modeling of Human Dynamics Across Social Media and Social Networks”. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, USA

    Atsushi Nara, Ming-Hsiang Tsou & Cheng-Chia Huang

  2. Qualcomm Institute, University of California, La Jolla, San Diego, CA, USA

    Jiue-An Yang

Authors
  1. Atsushi Nara
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  2. Ming-Hsiang Tsou
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  3. Jiue-An Yang
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  4. Cheng-Chia Huang
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Correspondence to Atsushi Nara .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA

    Shih-Lung Shaw

  2. Department of Geography, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA

    Daniel Sui

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Nara, A., Tsou, MH., Yang, JA., Huang, CC. (2018). The Opportunities and Challenges with Social Media and Big Data for Research in Human Dynamics. In: Shaw, SL., Sui, D. (eds) Human Dynamics Research in Smart and Connected Communities. Human Dynamics in Smart Cities. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73247-3_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73247-3_12

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-73246-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-73247-3

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