A GIS representation framework for location‐based social media activities

Abstract

AbstractThe past couple of decades have witnessed tremendous growth of location‐based social media activities (LBSMA) data in virtual spaces, including virtual geographic environments. Such data become innovative resources for the analysis of human activities. Meanwhile, a shift of human interactions from geographical spaces to virtual spaces has been observed. Although this is an exciting research opportunity, it also imposes significant challenges on GIScience, as current GIS representation models are no longer sufficient to handle the increased sophistication of human activities data. This research formalizes an ontology for LBSMA data and a conceptual framework for representing such data in GIS. The framework contributes to GIScience as it enables interconnections of human activities in both the physical and virtual worlds to be represented, organized, retrieved, analyzed, and visualized. The proposed GIS representation model integrates a social dimension into the existing spatial–temporal representation models and allows data analysis in the spatial–temporal–social (STS) dimensions. The research tested this conceptual framework with a prototype and a case study using Facebook data. The prototype and the case study prove that the proposed framework can significantly enhance GIS capabilities for data organization, retrieval, and analysis of LBSMA data in STS dimensions.