Real Time Mapping from Social Networking Sites

Well the MLB All Star Game just ended and my team (NL) lost AGAIN - 13 years in a row without a victory!

In light of baseball season, here's an idea for creating your own 'thematic maps' which kids can get into.  It was inspired by the map below which shows the areas of the continental US which support each of the 30 teams in Major Baseball Teams.  In essence, this is meant to be a map of each team's "fan base".  This could be used to explain the Gravity Model, but also to disprove it!  Some teams have fans fairly far from the city in which they play. 

But how can one test if this map is true or not?  I think it would be interesting for students to attempt to 're-create' this map using 'real-time' data - this can be done using the social networking site "Twitter".  The map below was created for me by the author of a great blog called Mibazaar (www.mibazaar.com).  It shows a mashup in Google Maps of all of the 'tweets' which have the term "go cubs" in them.  In this way, students are able to plot the locations of 'cubs fans' across the nation based on what they are writing on twitter.  Wouldn't it be cool to aggregate all of the plots over time and see if the map above is correct or not?  After all, "Cubs Nation" as shown in the map above is of quite an awkward shape, spilling over into Iowa and parts of Indiana.  How about across the rest of the USA - are there Cubs fans that the map above doesn't show?  Could one do this for all 30 major league teams and, in essence, 're-create' the map above?  



View Larger Map


Can you spot any problems with the map above?  I've yet to figure out:

1.  How to aggregate all of the 'tweets' so you get a full picture of the cumulative total?

2. How to write the code so only "go cubs" (as a phrase) comes up in the results and not "go" and "cubs" seperately?

3. How to do this for the entire USA and not just the 'east' and the 'west'

But, overall, I think this is really cool and a great way to get students interested in mapping something they are interested in.  Any comments?  Ways to make this better or more 'useable' in the classroom?  Is anyone doing something like this at the moment in their Geography classrooms?  Would love to hear!