Kolloquium Geoinformatik The dialectic of space in Ambient Geospatial Information

The data shared on online photo platforms like Flickr and Tumblr are an example for so-called Ambient Geospatial Information (AGI). Opposing Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI), AGI data is not made and distributed with the purpose of an usage beyond the personal level (i.e. it is “ambient” of other uses), and the geographic information - namely the location - contained in the AGI is merely a byproduct. Under the umbrella of Big Data analytics AGI are often seen with the mindset of solutionism - believing that these data sets offer new insights, characterized by objectivity, truth, and accuracy (boyd/Crawford, 2013) - and “proto-naïve neo-positivism” (Boeckler, 2014), which is based on the belief that in the age of Big Data there is no need for a hypothesis anymore and no need for causal correlations. Both can be seen as the nightmare of (not only) any critical social scientist, fearing a new age of apophenia and so many AGI based studies show significant flaws. But AGI still hold great potentials, if we are aware of their origin and characteristics, as AGI link two types of spaces, what we might call a material and a virtual space. The material space is the space that the person actually encounters and interacts with. The virtual space is the space represented on the platforms later. I argue that these are not the same spaces, as the process of making photos, as well as the process of uploading the photos, is a process of selection following distinct rules. So, online platforms provide a source of Geospatial Information of a space which can be considered as a deviant reproduction of the material space originally encountered by the photographer. However, this dialectic of space provides manifold research opportunities. Based on the field of tourism research, I demonstrate the opportunities discussed in current research projects with a special focus on a GPS tracking/AGI combination connecting measured stopping times of tourists with the amount of photos taken.