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Mapping Hidden Twitter Data For Epidemiology

Posted by kdawson on from the just-landed dept.

jamie found this visualization of air travel, which might be usable in some sort of proxy for the spread of flu virus (to choose a random application). Jer Thorp, an artist and educator from Vancouver, Canada (and a former geneticist), searched Twitter for the phrase "Just landed in" and obtained lat/lon coordinates for both the indicated airport and the Twitter user's home location, as recorded in their Twitter profile. He then produced videos of multi-hour stretches of air travel that had been latent in the Twitter information stream.

4 of 75 comments (clear)

  1. Just landed in'); DROP TABLE Location;-- by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    For Fun! -- Signed Mrs Tables

  2. Re:Just landed in... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    The Hudson River.

  3. Self absorbed twits by icebike · · Score: 5, Funny

    Who would have thought these self absorbed narcissists actually could serve a useful purpose in spite of themselves.

    --
    Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
  4. Can be abused? I hope so by Henry+V+.009 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Oh fun. Everybody with a Twitter account, use the phrase "bleeding from my anus" in the next 10 minutes and see if you can't trigger a CDC Ebola alert.