Foursquare Data Viz Shows The Pulse Of New York, London, Tokyo

Digital traces in the physical world. Our smartphones are the digital recorders of every step we take and every move we make (they’ll be watching us, sorry Sting for the pun). These timelapse visualisations made by location-based social network Foursquare show how people move in big cities like London, New York, Tokyo or Istanbul over the course of a day (you might remember a similar project about Geneva, Ville Vivante). It’s a beautiful display of the pulse of big city life, but should serve as a reminder that the data is out there and can be used for less beautiful purposes.