Ald,

Your travels sound very enjoyable.

Here are two new World University and Schools re your travels, with much MIT OCW and Yale OYC:

South Africa World University and School - 
http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/South_Africa

Côte d'Ivoire World University and School - 
http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Côte_d'Ivoire -

accessible here in the main Africa WUaS - 
http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Africa.

Please let folks know that they can sign up here -
http://worlduniversityandschool.org -

(or learn more here about matriculation at the Admissions' page - http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Admissions_at_World_University_and_School#World_University_and_School_Links).

Looking forward to traveling with you in Oregon, thank you, and glad we'll be together in Union as well!

Scott

*

Sas, Gaë, and Sébas,

Very nice to see you.

I've gotten the following resources about "Big Data" from a recent email thread in the Association of Internet Researchers (http://aoir.org/mailing-lists/).

Gaël, this book, Digital Humanitarians (2014), in particular might be germane and accessible in nearby Berkeley libraries re Big Data, if you haven't seen it already -
http://www.digital-humanitarians.com/.

This might be helpful too - "A very short history of big data" -
http://www.forbes.com/sites/gilpress/2013/05/09/a-very-short-history-of-big-data/.

"In Europe, the DMI <https://wiki.digitalmethods.net/Dmi/ToolDatabase>, Netherlands (mentioned earlier in this thread by Nick) works closely with MediaLab <http://tools.medialab.sciences-po.fr/> (France) and they star product is Gephi <http://gephi.github.io/>."

I'm attaching further resources from this thread too in a Word Doc, which resources I'll also add here also at WUaS's Data wiki subject page - http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Data - for open teaching and learning. What might you wiki-add?


For "Big Data" questions vis-a-vis WUaS - which is, for example, like Wikipedia (in 288 languages) with MIT OCW (in 7 languages) - the developing Wikidata database written for Wikipedia's 288 languages is fascinating, especially vis-a-vis emergent "Artificial Intelligence" coding and possibilities - and I've created a new wiki subject for this - http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Wikidata_databases_and_ecosystems - which will grow with time. See, too my blog about this e.g.
http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2015/04/magenta-ghost-flower-favorite-rdf-ai.html.

Here, too, are the beginning ...

France World University and School -
http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/France

French language WUaS -
http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/French_language

... which will become "Big Data" in Wikidata probably, and neither yet in French, a first UN language WUaS would like to develop in, and planned as a large online university in French accrediting in many countries of the world.

There's only a little about "Big Data" vis--a-vis Tourism here - http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Tourism_Studies - but this too will grow, and perhaps in regards to your talk.

Nice to see you again last night, see you Friday, and looking forward to your talk. Apologies again for my lack of French. :)

Best,
Scott


*



Hi Gaë, Sébas, Sas,

I just found this article online in the progressive Utne Reader:

"Transparency, Big Data and Internet Activism: Internet activism—and internet democracy—depend on accessible public meeting spaces online. So why are there so few of them?" By Micah L. Sifry October 2014
http://www.utne.com/media/internet-activism-ze0z1410zcwil.aspx


Concerning this article, you'll find in the key "SUBJECT_TEMPLATE" at WUaS which informs all 700 pages at WUaS Wikia presently -

http://worlduniversity.wikia.com -

about 10 group video conferencing opportunities, all with free aspects -

http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/SUBJECT_TEMPLATE#Video_Communication -

and loosely paralleling Google + group video Hangouts, which I think are the best for this, and where courses at WUaS for free degrees will take place.

What other implications for "Big Data" and activist tourism these have, I'll leave up to you.

World University and School, like MIT OCW, are in some ways activist and part of "Big Data" ... will students engaging them online be online student tourists? ... :)

Cheers,
Scott


*

One further question concerning "Big Data and Tourism" I have revolves around the emergence of a virtual Harbin (see - "The making of virtual Harbin Hot Springs as ethnographic field site" -



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nhvcHw54GE) / virtual Earth / virtual world, and which would be interactive movie realistic with 7 billion realistic avatars and for doing science and STEM research eg in archaeology, marine biology, urban planning, http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/earth-atmospheric-and-planetary-sciences/, and even virtual realistic space travel etc. Think Google making Google Earth with OpenSimulator / Second Life - including with the oceans, the earth itself, and the cosmos - realistically. See, for example Google's -


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BpSO5kN8-4 - which you'll find here too - http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2015/03/loggerhead-sea-turtle-installation-of.html. But this isn't yet an interactive virtual world with avatars, such as in OpenSim or Second Life, and these are still cartoonesque etc but they are importantly buildable by us. Such a realistic virtual world to come will indeed be and generate "Big Data," and be important for tourism studies, if we can also do tourism / tourism research in it. How to begin to conceive of such a realistic virtual world for research in terms of  "Big Data and Tourism" is one question I have and am thinking about.

Ethnographically, I could imagine making a virtual Harbin in a realistic OpenSim/Second Life (both of which again are build-able by us). And while simply writing ethnographically about a specific virtual field site such as Harbin in terms of "Big Data and Tourism," and about emergent virtual world as big data as a form of tourism studies, and re all the emergent "big data" it will generate, are only some of many many approaches to "Big Data and Tourism," - there are so many other.

Looking forward to hearing what you have to say and in what ways you might or might not touch on related questions.

Cheers,
Scott


*

Aphilo Aarde in Second Life (anthropologist Scott MacLeod ~ http://scottmacleod.com ~ in real life) introduces the making of virtual Harbin Hot Springs as ethnographic field site (in northern California in real life - http://harbin.org) in the Gardens of Bliss in SL and on Harvard's Berkman Island in Second Life. Aphilo also provides an overview about how building works in Second Life. April 29, 2009 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nhvcHw54GE.

*

...