Visualizing the "Pulse" of World Cities on Twitter

Abstract

We present a large-scale analysis of activity on Twitter in 50 majorcities around the world throughout all of 2012. Our study consists oftwo parts: First, we created heatmap visualizations, through whichperiods of comparatively intense and sparse activity are readilyapparent — these visual patterns reflect diurnal cycles, culturalnorms, and even religious practices. Second, we performed a clusteranalysis of these activity patterns to identify groupings of citiesthat are similar in the ways their inhabitants use Twitter. Notsurprisingly, cities cluster geographically, although we are able toidentify cross-cultural similarities as well.