GES 777 - Public and Crowdsourced Spatial Data

Credits: [3]

Description: The generation of crowdsourced data is being produced in unprecedented quantities and is used in numerous ways from research to navigating daily life. This course introduces students to topics ranging from the conceptual to the applied with particular attention to public and crowdsourced data, their utility in drawing insights about place and space, and ethical and legal concerns with data and data gathering processes. Students will first learn the behavioral aspects of how geographic data are sensed, surveilled, volunteered, or gathered from crowdsourcing platforms and covers the principals of spatial thinking that lead to our understanding of geographic patterns such data. Crowdsourcing platforms are discussed and presented to students so that they understand the sources of data, followed by in-depth analyses of data from some of the platforms as a segue into conducting analysis of these data. Students will engage in assignments and projects that assess the quality of crowdsourced data, gaining a comprehensive knowledge-base of the statistical properties and limitations when using data naturally generated and limitations when using data gathered through purpose-driven initiatives. Students will learn to use the crowdsourcing platforms (Neighborland, City Atlas, Twitter, Instagram, Place Pulse, SeeClickFix, Amazon Mechanical Turk, Google AdWords, GrubHub, Yelp, eBird, iNaturalist) to conduct geographical analysis to identify trends and estimate changes to space and place.
Course ID: 103035
Components: Lecture
Grading Method: A-F