Economist Technology Highlight: Go with the (People) Flow

Just wanted to highligh an interesting article (click past the sponsor page) about a group of MIT researchers who have made some insights around the data that tracks movement of people based on their mobile signal. Since traffic sensors only detect cars (and not bike/foot traffic) and street cameras don’t have continuous tracking abilities, the mobile phone is becoming the best source of GIS data for tracking where people go.

I think the most interesting thing is that instead of MIT focusing on one data set, they’re working with euro-carriers, taxi companies, architects, metropolitan transit authorities, etc…obviously alot of organizations see immense value in this and it’s great that the data is being shared to help get them there.