Small Stories in Big Data: Gaining Insights From Large Spatial Point Pattern Datasets

Ate Poorthuis
Matthew Zook
University of Kentucky

With the onset of big data, it is now relatively easy to gain access to a wide variety and great magnitude of data sources. Data, however, do not necessarily equate to useful insights and meaningful analysis. In this article, we outline a specific step-by-step approach to gaining insight into the spatial footprint of online, point-based data—in this particular case, data from the popular social media service Twitter.