Cluj Geoweb (concept)

Cluj Geoweb is an urban study conducted by Radu Becus and myself and started in 2014.
The aim of the project was to investigate the informational density of Cluj-Napoca, Romania, a city of around 400,000 inhabitants, and to use this as a method for urban analysis, to better understand the city.
While our initial ambitions were broader, we started by gathering data from three social media websites (Flickr, Foursquare, and Twitter) and saw how different social media websites are used more and less in different parts of the city. Flickr, a website where people post geolocated pictures of places, shows points of interest throughout the city. One almost does not need to see the map underneath to understand where the main roads are, the historical center, or the two malls.
 Radu organized a workshop during the Architecture Days in Cluj 2014 about the Cluj Geoweb and in 2015 I presented the project at a Young Inventor conference at the Armed Forces Military Academy in Sibiu, where serious national security people work. The amount of work and time spent on this was huge. It should be revived.

Initial mindmap of the project. We want to create a methodology for one city and extend it to others.

(up) Metaball representation of Foursquare check-ins registered between 2009 and 2015 in Cluj-Napoca, Romania.

[x - longitude, y - latitude, z - number of check-ins]

(down) Metaball representation of Flickr photo locations registered between 2005 and 2015 in Cluj-Napoca, Romania.

[x - longitude, y - latitude, z = 1]

Spatial explorations of Cluj on 2 social media platforms: Foursquare (green) and Flickr (orange). The informational density shows 3 major poles - the city’s historical center and the 2 shopping malls.
Foursquare covers the city more evenly. Spikes in the metaball show neighbourhood centers, supermarkets,
the airport and the train station, and 'information' agglometations along some of the major streets in the city.

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