BU Research Blog

Many of you will be familiar with the revolution that the internet is undergoing, with its growth of social networking, web applications, blogs and wikis. What I had not appreciated, until very recently, is what the full implications are for how we go about our research. I am sure that colleagues in DEC and the MediaSchoolare well ahead of the curve on this, but for the rest of us, the penny is perhaps only just beginning to drop. I recently attended a fascinating conference hosted by the European Social Simulation Association in Salzburg. This is a group of researchers united by a common interest in using computer programs to simulate human behaviour, and its implications for human society. This was very much a new arena for me; I was really attending to learn something about the agent-based modelling approaches that are the flavour of the month in these circles. But what most impressed me was the way researchers are now using web technologies to access data to explore in their models. For example, although I’d heard of “crowdsourcing” before, I’d never really seen it in practice, and what it can deliver. I was most impressed by groups using tools such as Twitter, together with mapping applications such as Google maps, to produce highly informative maps showing the movements and wellbeing of large numbers of people. A great example is what the LSE is doing to map happiness – yes, really – http://www.mappiness.org.uk/. Another example, from the University of Leeds, has been using Twitter to map the movements of commuters in and out of the city. What is perhaps most astonishing is that large numbers of people seem keen to participate in these research projects. Potentially useful tools being used by this research community include open source mapping initiatives such as Open Street Map http://www.openstreetmap.org/ and Maptube http://www.maptube.org/, as well as Survey mapper http://www.surveymapper.com/current.aspx. You might find this reference useful if you’re interested in learning more – http://ssc.sagepub.com/content/27/4/524