Posts Tagged gowalla

An Australian sport wiki

Posted by Laura on Monday, 11 October, 2010

I’m currently toying around with the idea of creating a large Australian sport wiki. I’ve had a lot of data for a while to allow me to do this. Some of the data I have includes:

  • A list of Australian sport teams.  List is about 3,000 teams long.  It often contains some other information like when teams were founded, team colors, etc.  This can be combined with a list of Australian sport teams on Twitter and Facebook.
  • A list of Australian sport venues.  This can be merged with a list of Australian sport venues on Gowalla and Foursquare.
  • A list of Australian athletes on Twitter and Facebook.  This is probably about 100 large.
  • A list of Australian sport organizations on Twitter and Facebook.  This is probably about 50 large.
  • A list of Australian sport fans on Twitter, Facebook, LiveJournal and its clones, bebo, orkut, Wikipedia.  This list is probably close to about 20,000 long.

This data could easily be supplemented with the following information that would be easily mineable:

  • A list of AFL, NRL and other Australian professional athletes sorted by team.
  • A list of other Australian athletes.
  • A list of Australian sport organizations.
  • A list of Australian sport journalists and broadcasters.
  • A list of Australian sport websites.

This list could be further supplemented by:

  • Importing Australian sport pictures from Flickr.
  • Importing Australian sport videos from YouTube.

The quality of the wiki wouldn’t necessarily be all that high.  Most of the initial content would be stub.  Still, if I had a bot programmer and I was willing to devote a month to the project, it would be reasonably comprehensive in terms of initial content for others to use to build from.  It would possibly help in terms of developing a large idea of the scope of sport in Australia by giving an idea as to the size of the fan community, the depth of the interest in various sports, the number of teams, when those teams were created and folded, where sports are more popular than others.  (Though that all depends on the data mining that goes into the initial content.)  What keeps me from doing this is the fact that I feel like it might be a time sink of a month to create this content and I’m not sure if the time sink is worth the effort.  Basically, I need external motivation.

Related Posts:

World Cup, through finals: Foursquare and gowalla checkin totals

Posted by Laura on Monday, 12 July, 2010

Yay! It is over. This is the final total. Rankings changed through out the tournament. For the two sites, there were audiences I’d like to call distinct. The data when examined in total suggests that different fan communities inside a wider community of football fans use geolocation services differently. As previously mentioned, this may be useful for people involved with the Rugby World Cup in 2011. I should also see about getting some of my AFL and NRL data out… but that’s not as on point.

The winner of the World Cup was not the winner for average checkins per game they played. English speaking countries didn’t dominate at the top of the ladder. You didn’t need to be a team who made it through more than the first round to crack the leaderboard’s top 10, though it certainly helped. The home team didn’t necessarily hold a major advantage.

Foursquare

Country Total Checkins Total Unique Visitors Average Checkins Average Unique Visitors Games played Grounds
Ghana 819 362 163.80 68.40 5 Loftus Versfeld Stadium; Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Soccer City ; Soccer City
Spain 1105 608 157.86 86.86 7 Moses Mabhida Stadium; Ellis Park Stadium ; Loftus Versfeld Stadium ; Cape Town Stadium ; Ellis Park Stadium ; Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Soccer City
Uruguay 1103 466 157.57 66.57 7 Green Point Stadium ; Loftus Versfeld Stadium ; Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Soccer City ; Cape Town Stadium ; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium
South Africa 399 179 133.00 59.67 3 Soccer City Soccer Stadium; Loftus Versfeld Stadium; Free State Stadium
Netherlands 885 427 126.43 61.00 7 Soccer City Soccer Stadium; Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Cape Town Stadium ; Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Cape Town Stadium ; Soccer City
Germany 801 434 114.43 62.00 7 Moses Mabhida Stadium; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Soccer City ; Free State Stadium ; Cape Town Stadium ; Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium
Mexico 453 199 113.25 49.75 4 Soccer City Soccer Stadium; Peter Mokaba Stadium ; Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Soccer City
Argentina 512 228 102.40 45.60 5 Ellis Park Stadium; Soccer City ; Peter Mokaba Stadium ; Soccer City ; Cape Town Stadium
Portugal 317 166 79.25 41.50 4 Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium; Cape Town Stadium ; Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Cape Town Stadium
Nigeria 228 89 76.00 29.67 3 Ellis Park Stadium; Free State Stadium; Moses Mabhida Stadium
England 302 150 75.50 37.50 4 Royal Bafokeng Stadium; Cape Town Stadium ; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Free State Stadium
Italy 186 99 62.00 33.00 3 Cape Town Stadium; Mbombela Stadium ; Ellis Park Stadium
North Korea 176 83 58.67 27.67 3 Ellis Park Stadium; Cape Town Stadium ; Mbombela Stadium
France 166 82 55.33 27.33 3 Green Point Stadium ; Peter Mokaba Stadium; Free State Stadium
Brazil 265 156 53.00 31.20 5 Ellis Park Stadium; Soccer City ; Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Ellis Park Stadium ; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium
Chile 211 108 52.75 27.00 4 Mbombela Stadium; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Loftus Versfeld Stadium ; Ellis Park Stadium
USA 205 102 51.25 25.50 4 Royal Bafokeng Stadium; Ellis Park Stadium ; Loftus Versfeld Stadium ; Royal Bafokeng Stadium
Honduras 142 75 47.33 25.00 3 Mbombela Stadium; Ellis Park Stadium ; Free State Stadium
Denmark 134 59 44.67 19.67 3 Soccer City Soccer Stadium; Cape Town Stadium ; Royal Bafokeng Stadium
Paraguay 209 115 41.80 23.00 5 Cape Town Stadium; Free State Stadium; Peter Mokaba Stadium ; Loftus Versfeld Stadium ; Ellis Park Stadium
Slovakia 152 95 38.00 23.75 4 Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Free State Stadium ; Ellis Park Stadium ; Moses Mabhida Stadium
Serbia 76 41 38.00 13.67 3 Loftus Versfeld Stadium; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Mbombela Stadium
South Korea 149 77 37.25 19.25 4 Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium; Soccer City ; Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium
Cameroon 110 64 36.67 21.33 3 Free State Stadium; Cape Town Stadium ; Cape Town Stadium
Algeria 102 60 34.00 20.00 3 Peter Mokaba Stadium; Cape Town Stadium ; Loftus Versfeld Stadium
Switzerland 94 55 31.33 18.33 3 Moses Mabhida Stadium; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Free State Stadium
Slovenia 93 43 31.00 14.33 3 Peter Mokaba Stadium; Ellis Park Stadium ; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium
Côte d’Ivoire 88 59 29.33 11.19 3 Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium; Soccer City ; Mbombela Stadium
Australia 85 44 28.33 14.67 3 Moses Mabhida Stadium; Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Mbombela Stadium
New Zealand 75 49 25.00 16.33 3 Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Mbombela Stadium ; Peter Mokaba Stadium
Japan 85 57 21.25 14.25 4 Free State Stadium; Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Loftus Versfeld Stadium
Greece 55 29 17.33 9.67 3 Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium; Free State Stadium ; Peter Mokaba Stadium

Gowalla

Team Total Checkins Average Checkins Games Grounds
Netherlands 30 4.29 7 Soccer City ; Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Cape Town Stadium ; Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Soccer City ; Cape Town Stadium ; Soccer City
Germany 27 3.86 7 Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Soccer City ; Free State Stadium ; Cape Town Stadium ; Moses Mabhida Stadium; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium
Argentina 18 3.60 5 Coca-Cola Park (Ellis Park Stadium) ; Soccer City ; Peter Mokaba Stadium ; Soccer City ; Cape Town Stadium
Ghana 17 3.40 5 Loftus Versveld Stadium ; Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Soccer City ; Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Soccer City
Spain 21 3.00 7 Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Coca-Cola Park (Ellis Park Stadium) ; Loftus Versveld Stadium ; Cape Town Stadium ; Coca-Cola Park (Ellis Park Stadium) ; Moses Mabhida Stadium; Soccer City
Denmark 9 3.00 3 Soccer City ; Loftus Versveld Stadium ; Royal Bafokeng Stadium
Uruguay 20 2.86 7 Loftus Versveld Stadium ; Cape Town Stadium ; Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Soccer City; Cape Town Stadium ; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium
Cameroon 8 2.67 3 Free State Stadium ; Loftus Versveld Stadium ; Cape Town Stadium
England 10 2.50 4 Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Cape Town Stadium ; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Free State Stadium
Algeria 7 2.33 3 Peter Mokaba Stadium ; Cape Town Stadium ; Loftus Versveld Stadium
Italy 7 2.33 3 Cape Town Stadium ; Mbombela Stadium ; Coca-Cola Park (Ellis Park Stadium)
Portugal 9 2.25 4 Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Cape Town Stadium ; Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Cape Town Stadium
Slovakia 8 2.00 4 Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Free State Stadium ; Coca-Cola Park (Ellis Park Stadium) ; Moses Mabhida Stadium
Brazil 9 1.80 5 Coca-Cola Park (Ellis Park Stadium) ; Soccer City ; Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Coca-Cola Park (Ellis Park Stadium) ; Soccer City
Japan 7 1.75 4 Free State Stadium ; Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Loftus Versveld Stadium
Mexico 7 1.75 4 Peter Mokaba Stadium ; Soccer City ; Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Soccer City
United States 7 1.75 4 Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Coca-Cola Park (Ellis Park Stadium) ; Loftus Versveld Stadium ; Royal Bafokeng Stadium
Paraguay 8 1.60 5 Cape Town Stadium ; Free State Stadium ; Peter Mokaba Stadium ; Loftus Versveld Stadium ; Coca-Cola Park (Ellis Park Stadium)
Chile 6 1.50 4 Mbombela Stadium ; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Loftus Versveld Stadium; Coca-Cola Park (Ellis Park Stadium)
Australia 4 1.33 3 Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Mbombela Stadium
France 4 1.33 3 Cape Town Stadium ; Peter Mokaba Stadium ; Free State Stadium
Honduras 4 1.33 3 Mbombela Stadium ; Coca-Cola Park (Ellis Park Stadium) ; Free State Stadium
South Korea 4 1.00 4 Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Soccer City ; Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium
New Zealand 3 1.00 3 Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Mbombela Stadium ; Peter Mokaba Stadium
Nigeria 3 1.00 3 Coca-Cola Park (Ellis Park Stadium) ; Free State Stadium ; Moses Mabhida Stadium
Serbia 3 1.00 3 Loftus Versveld Stadium ; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Mbombela Stadium
Switzerland 3 1.00 3 Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Free State Stadium
North Korea 2 0.67 3 Coca-Cola Park (Ellis Park Stadium) ; Cape Town Stadium ; Mbombela Stadium
Slovenia 2 0.67 3 Peter Mokaba Stadium ; Coca-Cola Park (Ellis Park Stadium) ; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium
South Africa 2 0.67 3 Loftus Versveld Stadium ; Soccer City; Free State Stadium
Côte d’Ivoire 1 0.33 3 Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Soccer City ; Mbombela Stadium
Greece 0 0.00 3 Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Free State Stadium ; Peter Mokaba Stadium

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World Cup, through quarter finals: Foursquare and gowalla checkin totals

Posted by Laura on Friday, 9 July, 2010

The World Cup is done.  Based on averages, there do appear to be trends for usage around different teams.  I don’t have any other large international competition which to compare this two but it might be of interest to others who are organizing such events like the women’s World Cup for soccer and the Rugby World Cup.  Some national contingents will be the same and if we assume that these patterns hold across nationalities… it might give national sides, companies and organizers using geolocation services an idea which one is better for their audience and which games to target.  This is especially true if we assume that Foursquare and Gowalla users are representative of active social media users period who will use other services to discuss the event.

Related to the results: For the Germany vs. Spain game,between getting data before the event and after the event, Foursquare merged two locations.  If I had just used the one, it would have possibly included an additional 43 checks for the game that were from previous games.  Thus, I subtracted the previous venue’s totals from the venue that they were merged into.

Onwards with the results…

Foursquare

Country Total Checkins Total Unique Visitors Average Checkins Average Unique Visitors Games played Grounds
Uruguay 1037 426 172.83 71.00 6 Green Point Stadium ; Loftus Versfeld Stadium ; Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Soccer City ; Cape Town Stadium
Ghana 819 362 163.80 68.40 5 Loftus Versfeld Stadium; Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Soccer City ; Soccer City
South Africa 399 179 133.00 59.67 3 Soccer City Soccer Stadium; Loftus Versfeld Stadium; Free State Stadium
Germany 735 394 122.50 65.67 6 Moses Mabhida Stadium; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Soccer City ; Free State Stadium ; Cape Town Stadium ; Moses Mabhida Stadium
Spain 681 400 113.50 66.67 6 Moses Mabhida Stadium; Ellis Park Stadium ; Loftus Versfeld Stadium ; Cape Town Stadium ; Ellis Park Stadium ; Moses Mabhida Stadium
Mexico 453 199 113.25 49.75 4 Soccer City Soccer Stadium; Peter Mokaba Stadium ; Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Soccer City
Argentina 512 228 102.40 45.60 5 Ellis Park Stadium; Soccer City ; Peter Mokaba Stadium ; Soccer City ; Cape Town Stadium
Portugal 317 166 79.25 41.50 4 Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium; Cape Town Stadium ; Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Cape Town Stadium
Netherlands 461 219 76.83 36.50 6 Soccer City Soccer Stadium; Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Cape Town Stadium ; Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Cape Town Stadium
Nigeria 228 89 76.00 29.67 3 Ellis Park Stadium; Free State Stadium; Moses Mabhida Stadium
England 302 150 75.50 37.50 4 Royal Bafokeng Stadium; Cape Town Stadium ; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Free State Stadium
Italy 186 99 62.00 33.00 3 Cape Town Stadium; Mbombela Stadium ; Ellis Park Stadium
North Korea 176 83 58.67 27.67 3 Ellis Park Stadium; Cape Town Stadium ; Mbombela Stadium
France 166 82 55.33 27.33 3 Green Point Stadium ; Peter Mokaba Stadium; Free State Stadium
Brazil 265 156 53.00 31.20 5 Ellis Park Stadium; Soccer City ; Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Ellis Park Stadium ; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium
Chile 211 108 52.75 27.00 4 Mbombela Stadium; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Loftus Versfeld Stadium ; Ellis Park Stadium
USA 205 102 51.25 25.50 4 Royal Bafokeng Stadium; Ellis Park Stadium ; Loftus Versfeld Stadium ; Royal Bafokeng Stadium
Honduras 142 75 47.33 25.00 3 Mbombela Stadium; Ellis Park Stadium ; Free State Stadium
Denmark 134 59 44.67 19.67 3 Soccer City Soccer Stadium; Cape Town Stadium ; Royal Bafokeng Stadium
Paraguay 209 115 41.80 23.00 5 Cape Town Stadium; Free State Stadium; Peter Mokaba Stadium ; Loftus Versfeld Stadium ; Ellis Park Stadium
Slovakia 152 95 38.00 23.75 4 Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Free State Stadium ; Ellis Park Stadium ; Moses Mabhida Stadium
Serbia 76 41 38.00 13.67 3 Loftus Versfeld Stadium; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Mbombela Stadium
South Korea 149 77 37.25 19.25 4 Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium; Soccer City ; Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium
Cameroon 110 64 36.67 21.33 3 Free State Stadium; Cape Town Stadium ; Cape Town Stadium
Algeria 102 60 34.00 20.00 3 Peter Mokaba Stadium; Cape Town Stadium ; Loftus Versfeld Stadium
Switzerland 94 55 31.33 18.33 3 Moses Mabhida Stadium; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Free State Stadium
Slovenia 93 43 31.00 14.33 3 Peter Mokaba Stadium; Ellis Park Stadium ; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium
Côte d’Ivoire 88 59 29.33 11.19 3 Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium; Soccer City ; Mbombela Stadium
Australia 85 44 28.33 14.67 3 Moses Mabhida Stadium; Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Mbombela Stadium
New Zealand 75 49 25.00 16.33 3 Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Mbombela Stadium ; Peter Mokaba Stadium
Japan 85 57 21.25 14.25 4 Free State Stadium; Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Loftus Versfeld Stadium
Greece 55 29 17.33 9.67 3 Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium; Free State Stadium ; Peter Mokaba Stadium

Gowalla

Team Total Checkins Average Checkins Games Grounds
Germany 26 4.33 6 Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Soccer City ; Free State Stadium ; Cape Town Stadium ; Moses Mabhida Stadium
Netherlands 26 4.33 6 Soccer City ; Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Cape Town Stadium ; Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Soccer City ; Cape Town Stadium
Argentina 18 3.60 5 Coca-Cola Park (Ellis Park Stadium) ; Soccer City ; Peter Mokaba Stadium ; Soccer City ; Cape Town Stadium
Ghana 17 3.40 5 Loftus Versveld Stadium ; Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Soccer City ; Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Soccer City
Uruguay 19 3.17 6 Loftus Versveld Stadium ; Cape Town Stadium ; Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Soccer City; Cape Town Stadium
Denmark 9 3.00 3 Soccer City ; Loftus Versveld Stadium ; Royal Bafokeng Stadium
Cameroon 8 2.67 3 Free State Stadium ; Loftus Versveld Stadium ; Cape Town Stadium
Spain 17 2.83 6 Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Coca-Cola Park (Ellis Park Stadium) ; Loftus Versveld Stadium ; Cape Town Stadium ; Coca-Cola Park (Ellis Park Stadium) ; Moses Mabhida Stadium
England 10 2.50 4 Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Cape Town Stadium ; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Free State Stadium
Algeria 7 2.33 3 Peter Mokaba Stadium ; Cape Town Stadium ; Loftus Versveld Stadium
Italy 7 2.33 3 Cape Town Stadium ; Mbombela Stadium ; Coca-Cola Park (Ellis Park Stadium)
Portugal 9 2.25 4 Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Cape Town Stadium ; Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Cape Town Stadium
Slovakia 8 2.00 4 Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Free State Stadium ; Coca-Cola Park (Ellis Park Stadium) ; Moses Mabhida Stadium
Brazil 9 1.80 5 Coca-Cola Park (Ellis Park Stadium) ; Soccer City ; Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Coca-Cola Park (Ellis Park Stadium) ; Soccer City
Japan 7 1.75 4 Free State Stadium ; Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Loftus Versveld Stadium
Mexico 7 1.75 4 Peter Mokaba Stadium ; Soccer City ; Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Soccer City
United States 7 1.75 4 Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Coca-Cola Park (Ellis Park Stadium) ; Loftus Versveld Stadium ; Royal Bafokeng Stadium
Paraguay 8 1.60 5 Cape Town Stadium ; Free State Stadium ; Peter Mokaba Stadium ; Loftus Versveld Stadium ; Coca-Cola Park (Ellis Park Stadium)
Chile 6 1.50 4 Mbombela Stadium ; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Loftus Versveld Stadium; Coca-Cola Park (Ellis Park Stadium)
Australia 4 1.33 3 Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Mbombela Stadium
France 4 1.33 3 Cape Town Stadium ; Peter Mokaba Stadium ; Free State Stadium
Honduras 4 1.33 3 Mbombela Stadium ; Coca-Cola Park (Ellis Park Stadium) ; Free State Stadium
South Korea 4 1.00 4 Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Soccer City ; Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium
New Zealand 3 1.00 3 Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Mbombela Stadium ; Peter Mokaba Stadium
Nigeria 3 1.00 3 Coca-Cola Park (Ellis Park Stadium) ; Free State Stadium ; Moses Mabhida Stadium
Serbia 3 1.00 3 Loftus Versveld Stadium ; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Mbombela Stadium
Switzerland 3 1.00 3 Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Free State Stadium
North Korea 2 0.67 3 Coca-Cola Park (Ellis Park Stadium) ; Cape Town Stadium ; Mbombela Stadium
Slovenia 2 0.67 3 Peter Mokaba Stadium ; Coca-Cola Park (Ellis Park Stadium) ; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium
South Africa 2 0.67 3 Loftus Versveld Stadium ; Soccer City; Free State Stadium
Côte d’Ivoire 1 0.33 3 Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Soccer City ; Mbombela Stadium
Greece 0 0.00 3 Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Free State Stadium ; Peter Mokaba Stadium

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World Cup, halfway through third round: Foursquare and gowalla checkin totals

Posted by Laura on Saturday, 3 July, 2010

That Ghana versus Uruguay: Wow. Wow.  Also, wow!  It was a major win for Foursquare as the game smashed the record for total checkins set by South Africa for the first game with 676 checkins compared to 335.  The game booted South Africa and Mexico from the top of the Foursquare table.  Sadly, it didn’t do this so much for Brazil and the Netherlands.   Gowalla sadly didn’t see the same Foursquare response.  There just doesn’t seem to be the same audience and there isn’t the same level of deviation of for national sides and between rounds.3.8 average checkin for the top team on Gowalla and 0 for the team on the bottom.  Foursquare has 179 on top and 17.3 on bottom.

There appears to be something going on with Foursquare.  I’ve included at the bottom a table which demonstrates what I’m talking about.  It looks like for four venues Foursquare removed a number of checkins or a large number of people deleted their own checkins.  I’m not certain what exactly happened as I can’t see who checked in and what games were effected.  It is annoying.  (And I don’t know who else is covering Foursquare and the World Cup to see if they’ve noticed these issues.)

Foursquare

Country Total Checkins Total Unique Visitors Average Checkins Average Unique Visitors Games played Grounds
Uruguay 895 364 179.00 72.80 5 Green Point Stadium ; Loftus Versfeld Stadium ; Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Soccer City
Ghana 819 362 163.80 68.40 5 Loftus Versfeld Stadium; Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Soccer City ; Soccer City
South Africa 399 179 133.00 59.67 3 Soccer City Soccer Stadium; Loftus Versfeld Stadium; Free State Stadium
Mexico 453 199 113.25 49.75 4 Soccer City Soccer Stadium; Peter Mokaba Stadium ; Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Soccer City
Argentina 367 155 91.75 38.75 4 Ellis Park Stadium; Soccer City ; Peter Mokaba Stadium ; Soccer City
Portugal 317 166 79.25 41.50 4 Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium; Cape Town Stadium ; Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Cape Town Stadium
Nigeria 228 89 76.00 29.67 3 Ellis Park Stadium; Free State Stadium; Moses Mabhida Stadium
England 302 150 75.50 37.50 4 Royal Bafokeng Stadium; Cape Town Stadium ; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Free State Stadium
Netherlands 319 157 63.80 31.40 5 Soccer City Soccer Stadium; Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Cape Town Stadium ; Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium
Italy 186 99 62.00 33.00 3 Cape Town Stadium; Mbombela Stadium ; Ellis Park Stadium
North Korea 176 83 58.67 27.67 3 Ellis Park Stadium; Cape Town Stadium ; Mbombela Stadium
France 166 82 55.33 27.33 3 Green Point Stadium ; Peter Mokaba Stadium; Free State Stadium
Spain 218 133 54.50 33.25 4 Moses Mabhida Stadium; Ellis Park Stadium ; Loftus Versfeld Stadium ; Cape Town Stadium
Brazil 265 156 53.00 31.20 5 Ellis Park Stadium; Soccer City ; Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Ellis Park Stadium ; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium
Chile 211 108 52.75 27.00 4 Mbombela Stadium; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Loftus Versfeld Stadium ; Ellis Park Stadium
USA 205 102 51.25 25.50 4 Royal Bafokeng Stadium; Ellis Park Stadium ; Loftus Versfeld Stadium ; Royal Bafokeng Stadium
Germany 190 98 47.50 24.50 4 Moses Mabhida Stadium; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Soccer City ; Free State Stadium
Honduras 142 75 47.33 25.00 3 Mbombela Stadium; Ellis Park Stadium ; Free State Stadium
Denmark 134 59 44.67 19.67 3 Soccer City Soccer Stadium; Cape Town Stadium ; Royal Bafokeng Stadium
Slovakia 152 95 38.00 23.75 4 Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Free State Stadium ; Ellis Park Stadium ; Moses Mabhida Stadium
Serbia 76 41 38.00 13.67 3 Loftus Versfeld Stadium; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Mbombela Stadium
South Korea 149 77 37.25 19.25 4 Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium; Soccer City ; Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium
Cameroon 110 64 36.67 21.33 3 Free State Stadium; Cape Town Stadium ; Cape Town Stadium
Paraguay 146 71 36.50 17.75 4 Cape Town Stadium; Free State Stadium; Peter Mokaba Stadium ; Loftus Versfeld Stadium
Algeria 102 60 34.00 20.00 3 Peter Mokaba Stadium; Cape Town Stadium ; Loftus Versfeld Stadium
Switzerland 94 55 31.33 18.33 3 Moses Mabhida Stadium; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Free State Stadium
Slovenia 93 43 31.00 14.33 3 Peter Mokaba Stadium; Ellis Park Stadium ; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium
Côte d’Ivoire 88 59 29.33 11.19 3 Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium; Soccer City ; Mbombela Stadium
Australia 85 44 28.33 14.67 3 Moses Mabhida Stadium; Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Mbombela Stadium
New Zealand 75 49 25.00 16.33 3 Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Mbombela Stadium ; Peter Mokaba Stadium
Japan 85 57 21.25 14.25 4 Free State Stadium; Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Loftus Versfeld Stadium
Greece 55 29 17.33 9.67 3 Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium; Free State Stadium ; Peter Mokaba Stadium

Gowalla

Team Total Checkins Average Checkins Games Grounds
Netherlands 19 3.80 5 Soccer City ; Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Cape Town Stadium ; Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Soccer City
Ghana 17 3.40 5 Loftus Versveld Stadium ; Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Soccer City ; Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Soccer City
Germany 13 3.25 4 Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Soccer City ; Free State Stadium
Spain 12 3.00 4 Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Coca-Cola Park (Ellis Park Stadium) ; Loftus Versveld Stadium ; Cape Town Stadium
Denmark 9 3.00 3 Soccer City ; Loftus Versveld Stadium ; Royal Bafokeng Stadium
Cameroon 8 2.67 3 Free State Stadium ; Loftus Versveld Stadium ; Cape Town Stadium
England 10 2.50 4 Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Cape Town Stadium ; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Free State Stadium
Uruguay 12 2.40 5 Loftus Versveld Stadium ; Cape Town Stadium ; Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Soccer City
Algeria 7 2.33 3 Peter Mokaba Stadium ; Cape Town Stadium ; Loftus Versveld Stadium
Italy 7 2.33 3 Cape Town Stadium ; Mbombela Stadium ; Coca-Cola Park (Ellis Park Stadium)
Argentina 9 2.25 4 Coca-Cola Park (Ellis Park Stadium) ; Soccer City ; Peter Mokaba Stadium ; Soccer City
Portugal 9 2.25 4 Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Cape Town Stadium ; Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Cape Town Stadium
Slovakia 8 2.00 4 Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Free State Stadium ; Coca-Cola Park (Ellis Park Stadium) ; Moses Mabhida Stadium
Brazil 9 1.80 5 Coca-Cola Park (Ellis Park Stadium) ; Soccer City ; Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Coca-Cola Park (Ellis Park Stadium) ; Soccer City
Japan 7 1.75 4 Free State Stadium ; Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Loftus Versveld Stadium
Mexico 7 1.75 4 Peter Mokaba Stadium ; Soccer City ; Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Soccer City
Paraguay 7 1.75 4 Cape Town Stadium ; Free State Stadium ; Peter Mokaba Stadium ; Loftus Versveld Stadium
United States 7 1.75 4 Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Coca-Cola Park (Ellis Park Stadium) ; Loftus Versveld Stadium ; Royal Bafokeng Stadium
Chile 6 1.50 4 Mbombela Stadium ; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Loftus Versveld Stadium; Coca-Cola Park (Ellis Park Stadium)
Australia 4 1.33 3 Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Mbombela Stadium
France 4 1.33 3 Cape Town Stadium ; Peter Mokaba Stadium ; Free State Stadium
Honduras 4 1.33 3 Mbombela Stadium ; Coca-Cola Park (Ellis Park Stadium) ; Free State Stadium
South Korea 4 1.00 4 Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Soccer City ; Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium
New Zealand 3 1.00 3 Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Mbombela Stadium ; Peter Mokaba Stadium
Nigeria 3 1.00 3 Coca-Cola Park (Ellis Park Stadium) ; Free State Stadium ; Moses Mabhida Stadium
Serbia 3 1.00 3 Loftus Versveld Stadium ; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Mbombela Stadium
Switzerland 3 1.00 3 Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Free State Stadium
North Korea 2 0.67 3 Coca-Cola Park (Ellis Park Stadium) ; Cape Town Stadium ; Mbombela Stadium
Slovenia 2 0.67 3 Peter Mokaba Stadium ; Coca-Cola Park (Ellis Park Stadium) ; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium
South Africa 2 0.67 3 Loftus Versveld Stadium ; Soccer City; Free State Stadium
Côte d’Ivoire 1 0.33 3 Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Soccer City ; Mbombela Stadium
Greece 0 0.00 3 Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Free State Stadium ; Peter Mokaba Stadium

Foursquare Checkin Losses

Checkins Unique Visitors Checkins Unique Visitors Checkins Unique Visitors
Facility Name Type Link 1-Jul-10 1-Jul-10 2-Jul-10 2-Jul-10 Difference Difference
Free State Stadium Vodacom Park http://foursquare.com/venue/2070295 1 1 1 1 0 0
Free State Stadium Free State Stadium (Vodacom Park) Stadium http://foursquare.com/venue/4410678 160 87 154 90 -6 3
Loftus Versfeld Stadium Loftus Versveld Stadium Stadium http://foursquare.com/venue/593221 216 141 212 142 -4 1
Moses Mabhida Stadium Moses Mabhida Stadium Stadium http://foursquare.com/venue/4408569 255 153 253 156 -2 3
Moses Mabhida Stadium Moses Mabhida Stadium Durban http://foursquare.com/venue/4570899 42 31 42 31 0 0
Moses Mabhida Stadium KEG – Moses Mabhida Stadium Pub http://foursquare.com/venue/1816495 6 6 6 6 0 0
Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium Nelson Mandela Stadium Stadium http://foursquare.com/venue/4410289 344 186 435 233 91 47
Peter Mokaba Stadium Peter Mokaba Stadium Soccer http://foursquare.com/venue/3949867 59 29 60 29 1 0
Royal Bafokeng Stadium Royal Bafokeng Stadium Soccer http://foursquare.com/venue/3949992 366 200 363 202 -3 2
Royal Bafokeng Stadium royal bafokeng stadium http://foursquare.com/venue/4668670 24 24 24 24 0 0
Soccer City Soccer City Soccer Stadium Stadium http://foursquare.com/venue/4410569 1174 546 1850 800 676 254
Mbombela Stadium Mbombela Stadium Soccer http://foursquare.com/venue/4410484 220 126 220 130 0 4
Ellis Park Stadium Ellis Park Stadium (Coca-Cola Park) Stadium http://foursquare.com/venue/4410611 556 288 728 390 172 102
Cape Town Stadium Green Point Stadium Stadium http://foursquare.com/venue/4410404 909 415 914 424 5 9

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World Cup, end of the second round: Foursquare and gowalla checkin totals

Posted by Laura on Friday, 2 July, 2010

The second round came to an end and the third round is about to start.  My initial thinking was that as the tournament went on, you’d see more checkins at games.  My assumptions were that ticket prices would go up for later rounds, leading to a more affluent, social media connected audience attending these game.  I also assumed that the stadiums would be at capacity, where early first round games would not be. My assumption was South Africa would have the highest average checkins for all team, because of the home country advantage.  I also figured most of the teams left in would be big name team, which would have a wider audience than their own national base. I also thought that Foursquare would always beat Gowalla by a lot. I don’t quite know what I based these assumption on; it just felt like what I thought obvious patterns should be.

Some of these assumptions appeared to be a bit true.  Some of them not.  Appearing in the second round did not mean that a team climbed the ladder of total checkins.  Witness Japan, Paraguay, South Korea, Slovakia, Brazil and Germany who are averaging less than 50 checkins a game on Foursquare at the end of round 2.  Some of these are popular teams and they are all team who played in the second round.  Chile, Brazil, South Korea all appeared in the bottom 16 teams on Gowalla at the end of the second round.  South Africa wasn’t anywhere close to the top on Gowalla.  It should probably hold on to the top spot on Foursquare.  (Mexico has passed it though for total checkins.)  Patterns that I thought would emerge haven’t.

Anyway, on with the data…

Foursquare

Country Total Checkins Total Unique Visitors Average Checkins Average Unique Visitors Games played Grounds
South Africa 399 179 133.00 59.67 3 Soccer City Soccer Stadium; Loftus Versfeld Stadium; Free State Stadium
Mexico 453 199 113.25 49.75 4 Soccer City Soccer Stadium; Peter Mokaba Stadium ; Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Soccer City
Argentina 367 155 91.75 38.75 4 Ellis Park Stadium; Soccer City ; Peter Mokaba Stadium ; Soccer City
Portugal 317 166 79.25 41.50 4 Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium; Cape Town Stadium ; Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Cape Town Stadium
Nigeria 228 89 76.00 29.67 3 Ellis Park Stadium; Free State Stadium; Moses Mabhida Stadium
England 302 150 75.50 37.50 4 Royal Bafokeng Stadium; Cape Town Stadium ; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Free State Stadium
Italy 186 99 62.00 33.00 3 Cape Town Stadium; Mbombela Stadium ; Ellis Park Stadium
North Korea 176 83 58.67 27.67 3 Ellis Park Stadium; Cape Town Stadium ; Mbombela Stadium
Netherlands 228 110 57.00 27.50 4 Soccer City Soccer Stadium; Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Cape Town Stadium ; Moses Mabhida Stadium
France 166 82 55.33 27.33 3 Green Point Stadium ; Peter Mokaba Stadium; Free State Stadium
Uruguay 219 110 54.75 27.50 4 Green Point Stadium ; Loftus Versfeld Stadium ; Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium
Spain 218 133 54.50 33.25 4 Moses Mabhida Stadium; Ellis Park Stadium ; Loftus Versfeld Stadium ; Cape Town Stadium
Chile 211 108 52.75 27.00 4 Mbombela Stadium; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Loftus Versfeld Stadium ; Ellis Park Stadium
USA 205 102 51.25 25.50 4 Royal Bafokeng Stadium; Ellis Park Stadium ; Loftus Versfeld Stadium ; Royal Bafokeng Stadium
Germany 190 98 47.50 24.50 4 Moses Mabhida Stadium; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Soccer City ; Free State Stadium
Honduras 142 75 47.33 25.00 3 Mbombela Stadium; Ellis Park Stadium ; Free State Stadium
Denmark 134 59 44.67 19.67 3 Soccer City Soccer Stadium; Cape Town Stadium ; Royal Bafokeng Stadium
Brazil 174 109 43.50 27.25 4 Ellis Park Stadium; Soccer City ; Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Ellis Park Stadium
Slovakia 152 95 38.00 23.75 4 Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Free State Stadium ; Ellis Park Stadium ; Moses Mabhida Stadium
Serbia 76 41 38.00 13.67 3 Loftus Versfeld Stadium; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Mbombela Stadium
South Korea 149 77 37.25 19.25 4 Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium; Soccer City ; Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium
Cameroon 110 64 36.67 21.33 3 Free State Stadium; Cape Town Stadium ; Cape Town Stadium
Paraguay 146 71 36.50 17.75 4 Cape Town Stadium; Free State Stadium; Peter Mokaba Stadium ; Loftus Versfeld Stadium
Ghana 143 88 35.75 22.00 3 Loftus Versfeld Stadium; Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Soccer City
Algeria 102 60 34.00 20.00 3 Peter Mokaba Stadium; Cape Town Stadium ; Loftus Versfeld Stadium
Switzerland 94 55 31.33 18.33 3 Moses Mabhida Stadium; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Free State Stadium
Slovenia 93 43 31.00 14.33 3 Peter Mokaba Stadium; Ellis Park Stadium ; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium
Côte d’Ivoire 88 59 29.33 11.19 3 Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium; Soccer City ; Mbombela Stadium
Australia 85 44 28.33 14.67 3 Moses Mabhida Stadium; Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Mbombela Stadium
New Zealand 75 49 25.00 16.33 3 Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Mbombela Stadium ; Peter Mokaba Stadium
Japan 85 57 21.25 14.25 4 Free State Stadium; Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Loftus Versfeld Stadium
Greece 55 29 17.33 9.67 3 Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium; Free State Stadium ; Peter Mokaba Stadium

Gowalla

Team Total Checkins Average Checkins Games Grounds
Netherlands 15 3.75 4 Soccer City ; Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Cape Town Stadium ; Moses Mabhida Stadium
Germany 13 3.25 4 Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Soccer City ; Free State Stadium
Ghana 12 3.00 4 Loftus Versveld Stadium ; Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Soccer City ; Royal Bafokeng Stadium
Spain 12 3.00 4 Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Coca-Cola Park (Ellis Park Stadium) ; Loftus Versveld Stadium ; Cape Town Stadium
Denmark 9 3.00 3 Soccer City ; Loftus Versveld Stadium ; Royal Bafokeng Stadium
Cameroon 8 2.67 3 Free State Stadium ; Loftus Versveld Stadium ; Cape Town Stadium
England 10 2.50 4 Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Cape Town Stadium ; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Free State Stadium
Algeria 7 2.33 3 Peter Mokaba Stadium ; Cape Town Stadium ; Loftus Versveld Stadium
Italy 7 2.33 3 Cape Town Stadium ; Mbombela Stadium ; Coca-Cola Park (Ellis Park Stadium)
Argentina 9 2.25 4 Coca-Cola Park (Ellis Park Stadium) ; Soccer City ; Peter Mokaba Stadium ; Soccer City
Portugal 9 2.25 4 Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Cape Town Stadium ; Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Cape Town Stadium
Slovakia 8 2.00 4 Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Free State Stadium ; Coca-Cola Park (Ellis Park Stadium) ; Moses Mabhida Stadium
Japan 7 1.75 4 Free State Stadium ; Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Loftus Versveld Stadium
Mexico 7 1.75 4 Peter Mokaba Stadium ; Soccer City ; Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Soccer City
Paraguay 7 1.75 4 Cape Town Stadium ; Free State Stadium ; Peter Mokaba Stadium ; Loftus Versveld Stadium
United States 7 1.75 4 Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Coca-Cola Park (Ellis Park Stadium) ; Loftus Versveld Stadium ; Royal Bafokeng Stadium
Uruguay 7 1.75 4 Loftus Versveld Stadium ; Cape Town Stadium ; Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium
Chile 6 1.50 4 Mbombela Stadium ; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Loftus Versveld Stadium; Coca-Cola Park (Ellis Park Stadium)
Australia 4 1.33 3 Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Mbombela Stadium
France 4 1.33 3 Cape Town Stadium ; Peter Mokaba Stadium ; Free State Stadium
Honduras 4 1.33 3 Mbombela Stadium ; Coca-Cola Park (Ellis Park Stadium) ; Free State Stadium
Brazil 5 1.25 4 Coca-Cola Park (Ellis Park Stadium) ; Soccer City ; Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Coca-Cola Park (Ellis Park Stadium)
South Korea 4 1.00 4 Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Soccer City ; Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium
New Zealand 3 1.00 3 Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Mbombela Stadium ; Peter Mokaba Stadium
Nigeria 3 1.00 3 Coca-Cola Park (Ellis Park Stadium) ; Free State Stadium ; Moses Mabhida Stadium
Serbia 3 1.00 3 Loftus Versveld Stadium ; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Mbombela Stadium
Switzerland 3 1.00 3 Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Free State Stadium
North Korea 2 0.67 3 Coca-Cola Park (Ellis Park Stadium) ; Cape Town Stadium ; Mbombela Stadium
Slovenia 2 0.67 3 Peter Mokaba Stadium ; Coca-Cola Park (Ellis Park Stadium) ; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium
South Africa 2 0.67 3 Loftus Versveld Stadium ; Soccer City; Free State Stadium
Côte d’Ivoire 1 0.33 3 Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Soccer City ; Mbombela Stadium
Greece 0 0.00 3 Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Free State Stadium ; Peter Mokaba Stadium

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Canberra Raiders data

Posted by Laura on Wednesday, 30 June, 2010

I’m a little late with this so I figured I would have a new top level post rather than edit my existing post.  If you wanted to see the data I presented the Canberra Raiders, it is available here in PDF format. It includes some Foursquare data, Gowalla data, Facebook data, Twitter data and some general NRL data.

If you want similar data related to a specific club, let me know and we can see if we can work out some sort of arrangement.  I’d love to be able to talk to more Canberra based professional, state and national teams.

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Problematic gathering of Foursquare data

Posted by Laura on Monday, 28 June, 2010

One of the challenges of social media metrics is identifying what numbers matter, how to get those numbers ,  how to organize that data in a way that facilitates quickly getting the data and making it useful, and making sure your data set is complete.  The latter can be problematic as people can always create new communities, groups, hashtags, accounts, etc. If you don’t organize your data in a useful way and regularly update it, you can create such a huge mess as to make your data almost unusable.

This is a problem I’ve run into with my AFL and NRL Foursquare data.  When I first started gathering this data in late April, I spent a day or two looking for all the venues.  Slightly problematic issue arose in that not all venues had been created.  I never went back to regularly check to see if these venues had been created.  What this means is that my NRL data has several huge holes in it, because venues don’t exist or the venue that does exist was not the more popular of the ones created.

Another problem was the data was not collected in a way that I found entirely logical when I revisited it to try to create a table to show the average number of checkins at home and away matches for the NRL.  (I wanted to do the NRL first, before I tackled the AFL because I’m focusing on the AFL and trial and erroring on the NRL seemed wiser.)  I gathered the total checkins and unique visitors every Thursday through Monday night for all venues that played NRL and AFL games that I had identified.  In hindsight, this wasn’t the best way to go about this.  I should have identified everything by games being played as it would have made processing the data much, much easier and I wouldn’t have as much “garbage” data that I have to wade through.  I’ve spent most of the morning correcting this mistake by identifying games and venue locations so I can more easily and efficiently track total checkins for AFL games and some NRL games.  (Later, I can try to do this when the A-League, W-League and NBL start up.)

Looking through existing Foursquare data though, I really don’t know if I will want to process it.  I’d almost rather go through the last quarter of the season, where I know I have a complete data set than try to piece together the data dating back to late April.  I probably won’t do that but I’ll likely have to figure out what to do.  It isn’t pretty and I’m really kicking myself for what could have been a lot of time wasted each data gathering data that I can’t use.

My gowalla data faces similar issues.  The big difference there is I’ve always known I haven’t had a complete data set and it was through processing World Cup data on Gowalla that I realized my collection issues with Foursquare data collection.  I’d love to use Gowalla for AFL/NRL analysis but it isn’t going to happen.  I mean, it really isn’t going to happen, especially as Foursquare is the bigger priority as it has greater penetration in Australia and I never had a complete venue list for Gowalla.

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World Cup, end of the first round: Foursquare and gowalla checkin totals

Posted by Laura on Saturday, 26 June, 2010

The first round has ended and we’ve now a fair amount of data for Foursquare and Gowalla. This can be used to try to figure out which fans were most likely to checkin. The top of the table surprised me a bit with who was there and who wasn’t there. The bottom of the table was also a bit surprising. I rather thought that there would be fewer English speaking countries near the bottom and that the Asian and African sides would be over represented. That doesn’t appear to be the case.

Foursquare

Country Total Checkins Total Unique Visitors Average Checkins Average Unique Visitors Games played Grounds
South Africa 399 179 133 59.66 3 Soccer City Soccer Stadium; Loftus Versfeld Stadium; Free State Stadium
Mexico 375 163 125 54.3 3 Soccer City Soccer Stadium; Peter Mokaba Stadium ; Royal Bafokeng Stadium
Argentina 289 119 96.3 39.66 3 Ellis Park Stadium; Soccer City ; Peter Mokaba Stadium
England 260 130 86.66 43.3 3 Royal Bafokeng Stadium; Cape Town Stadium ; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium
Nigeria 228 89 76 29.66 3 Ellis Park Stadium; Free State Stadium; Moses Mabhida Stadium
Portugal 189 101 63 33.66 3 Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium; Cape Town Stadium ; Moses Mabhida Stadium
Italy 186 99 62 33 3 Cape Town Stadium; Mbombela Stadium ; Ellis Park Stadium
Uruguay 186 98 62 32.66 3 Green Point Stadium ; Loftus Versfeld Stadium ; Royal Bafokeng Stadium
North Korea 176 83 58.66 27.66 3 Ellis Park Stadium; Cape Town Stadium ; Mbombela Stadium
Netherlands 176 81 58.66 27 3 Soccer City Soccer Stadium; Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Cape Town Stadium
USA 171 75 57 25 3 Royal Bafokeng Stadium; Ellis Park Stadium ; Loftus Versfeld Stadium
Chile 170 80 56.66 26.66 3 Mbombela Stadium; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Loftus Versfeld Stadium
France 166 82 55.3 27.3 3 Green Point Stadium ; Peter Mokaba Stadium; Free State Stadium
Germany 148 78 49.3 26 3 Moses Mabhida Stadium; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Soccer City
Honduras 142 75 47.3 25 3 Mbombela Stadium; Ellis Park Stadium ; Free State Stadium
Denmark 134 59 44.66 19.66 3 Soccer City Soccer Stadium; Cape Town Stadium ; Royal Bafokeng Stadium
Brazil 133 81 44.3 27 3 Ellis Park Stadium; Soccer City ; Moses Mabhida Stadium
Paraguay 127 56 42.3 18.66 3 Cape Town Stadium; Free State Stadium; Peter Mokaba Stadium
South Korea 116 65 38.66 21.66 3 Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium; Soccer City ; Moses Mabhida Stadium
Serbia 76 41 38 13.66 3 Loftus Versfeld Stadium; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Mbombela Stadium
Cameroon 110 64 36.66 21.3 3 Free State Stadium; Cape Town Stadium ; Cape Town Stadium
Ghana 109 61 36.3 20.3 3 Loftus Versfeld Stadium; Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Soccer City
Algeria 102 60 34 20 3 Peter Mokaba Stadium; Cape Town Stadium ; Loftus Versfeld Stadium
Slovakia 100 66 33.3 22 3 Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Free State Stadium ; Ellis Park Stadium
Switzerland 94 55 31.3 18.3 3 Moses Mabhida Stadium; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Free State Stadium
Slovenia 93 43 31 14.3 3 Peter Mokaba Stadium; Ellis Park Stadium ; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium
Spain 90 68 30 22.66 3 Moses Mabhida Stadium; Ellis Park Stadium ; Loftus Versfeld Stadium
Côte d’Ivoire 88 59 29.3 11.185 3 Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium; Soccer City ; Mbombela Stadium
Australia 85 44 28.3 14.66 3 Moses Mabhida Stadium; Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Mbombela Stadium
New Zealand 75 49 25 16.3 3 Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Mbombela Stadium ; Peter Mokaba Stadium
Japan 66 42 22 14 3 Free State Stadium; Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Royal Bafokeng Stadium
Greece 55 29 17.3 9.666 3 Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium; Free State Stadium ; Peter Mokaba Stadium

Gowalla

Team Total Checkins Average Checkins Games Grounds
Netherlands 13 4.33 3 Soccer City ; Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Cape Town Stadium
Germany 11 3.66 3 Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Soccer City
Denmark 9 3 3 Soccer City ; Loftus Versveld Stadium ; Royal Bafokeng Stadium
Cameroon 8 2.66 3 Free State Stadium ; Loftus Versveld Stadium ; Cape Town Stadium
England 8 2.66 3 Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Cape Town Stadium ; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium
Algeria 7 2.33 3 Peter Mokaba Stadium ; Cape Town Stadium ; Loftus Versveld Stadium
Italy 7 2.33 3 Cape Town Stadium ; Mbombela Stadium ; Coca-Cola Park (Ellis Park Stadium)
Slovakia 6 2 3 Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Free State Stadium ; Coca-Cola Park (Ellis Park Stadium)
Spain 6 2 3 Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Coca-Cola Park (Ellis Park Stadium) ; Loftus Versveld Stadium
United States 5 1.66 3 Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Coca-Cola Park (Ellis Park Stadium) ; Loftus Versveld Stadium
Uruguay 5 1.66 3 Loftus Versveld Stadium ; Cape Town Stadium ; Royal Bafokeng Stadium
Ghana 3 1.5 3 Loftus Versveld Stadium ; Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Soccer City
Australia 4 1.33 3 Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Mbombela Stadium
France 4 1.33 3 Cape Town Stadium ; Peter Mokaba Stadium ; Free State Stadium
Honduras 4 1.33 3 Mbombela Stadium ; Coca-Cola Park (Ellis Park Stadium) ; Free State Stadium
Japan 4 1.33 3 Free State Stadium ; Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Royal Bafokeng Stadium
Paraguay 4 1.33 3 Cape Town Stadium ; Free State Stadium ; Peter Mokaba Stadium
Argentina 3 1 3 Coca-Cola Park (Ellis Park Stadium) ; Soccer City ; Peter Mokaba Stadium
Chile 3 1 3 Mbombela Stadium ; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Loftus Versveld Stadium
New Zealand 3 1 3 Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Mbombela Stadium ; Peter Mokaba Stadium
Nigeria 3 1 3 Coca-Cola Park (Ellis Park Stadium) ; Free State Stadium ; Moses Mabhida Stadium
Portugal 3 1 3 Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Cape Town Stadium ; Moses Mabhida Stadium
Serbia 3 1 3 Loftus Versveld Stadium ; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Mbombela Stadium
Switzerland 3 1 3 Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Free State Stadium
Brazil 2 0.66 3 Coca-Cola Park (Ellis Park Stadium) ; Soccer City ; Moses Mabhida Stadium
North Korea 2 0.66 3 Coca-Cola Park (Ellis Park Stadium) ; Cape Town Stadium ; Mbombela Stadium
Slovenia 2 0.66 3 Peter Mokaba Stadium ; Coca-Cola Park (Ellis Park Stadium) ; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium
South Africa 2 0.66 3 Loftus Versveld Stadium ; Soccer City; Free State Stadium
South Korea 2 0.66 3 Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Soccer City ; Moses Mabhida Stadium
Côte d’Ivoire 1 0.33 3 Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Soccer City ; Mbombela Stadium
Mexico 1 0.33 3 Peter Mokaba Stadium ; Soccer City ; Royal Bafokeng Stadium
Greece 0 0 3 Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Free State Stadium ; Peter Mokaba Stadium

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An interview with Ben Pollack from the Canberra Raiders

Posted by Laura on Thursday, 24 June, 2010

On Wednesday, June 23, 2010, I had the pleasure of talking to Ben Pollack and another staff member at the Canberra Raider.  I really appreciated the opportunity to talk to them as it was provided additional insight into how sport clubs view fandom and social media. I’ve tried to convey as accurately as possible what they have told me based on my memory and I asked their permission to reference them in my blog and paper while I met with them.

If you’re not familiar with the Canberra Raiders, they are a Rugby League team that competes at the top level in the National Rugby League in Australia.  They are based in Australia’s capital, Canberra, and play their home games at Bruce Stadium.  The NRL has a profit sharing scheme, where revenues are shared between all teams.

My purpose in talking to them was to help provide background knowledge for my literature review and to generally enhance my understanding of Australian team sport as it may apply other parts of my research.  Going in, I had four questions I wanted answers to.  These questions were:

1. How do you define fandom?
2. How do you reach out to the fan community?
3. How much influence does league management provide in terms of defining fandom and how to engage in outreach?  Do they give guidance on social media policies?
4. How much do other sports, teams and leagues play a role in development and implementation of concepts related to fan engagement and social media?

The Canberra Raiders define fandom very broadly as people who barrack for them and who attend games.  Their goal is to have this definition encompass all ages, both genders and across the demographic spectrum.  They focus on the Canberra area. They want to take interest in the club and translate that into getting people into the stadium, with bums on seats.  They did not mention trying to get fans to watch on television or buy their merchandise.  It may be something that they define as fandom but I did not follow up to ask about that.

When I inquired about the regional aspect in the NRL helping teams by enabling them to develop a local fanbase, they said that this worked a lot in their favor as the Canberra area was very supportive of the team.  This may not be as true for some of the Sydney based teams where there is much more market overlap and a few teams play at the same venue.  There, clubs need to market more towards traditional understandings of who composes their fanbase.  Sydney based teams are much like many of the Melbourne based AFL clubs in this regard.

I had some data from Facebook that said that there were roughly twice as many UCanberra students and alumni who were fans of the club compared to ANU.  I asked them why their fanbase was stronger at the University of Canberra, if it had to do with different cultures or possibly class related affiliations that each university has.  The club responded that they thought they probably had more fans at UC because the university has a well-known sport program and tends to attract more sport fans than ANU.

I had some bebo related geographic data.  It showed that there were a number of fans from the Brisbane area.  I asked the Raiders if they could explain that.  They told me that this geographic fanbase dates to the club’s founding, when several of the players came from Brisbane.  The club has managed to maintain this fanbase in Queensland over time.

The club primarily reaches out to their fanbase using traditional advertising: Newspapers, television and mail outs.  They have a member list and every week they send out a newsletter to their members.  The newsletter contains injury information, game summaries and information on any special deals that the club has.  They do some outreach on social media, but that is primarily confined to Facebook.

The NRL is a huge influence in how the club handles their website and their social media.  The league requires that clubs post certain types of web and video content every week.  This includes a match report and the post-game press conference.  The NRL has incentivized clubs to try to draw traffic to their websites; at the end of the season, revenues earned by the clubs on their sites are distributed to the clubs.  According to the Raiders, the league brought in Bernie Mullin to help it develop a plan regarding their online activities.  The NRL also guides clubs by encouraging them to push to increase their membership.  Some of this push is based around the idea of local clubs and increasing attendance at local grounds and keeping that local identity.

The Canberra Raiders thus use social media as a way to drive traffic to their site.  Based on our conversation, I did not get the feeling that using social media to develop a fanbase was a goal unto itself.  Rather, I was left with the impression that social media was a tool to drive traffic to their site to help increase their revenue.

The NRL does watch other leagues to see what they are doing in terms of social media.  The Raiders do less of this and spend less time developing their own social media strategy.  This is largely because the Raiders feel the NRL has better resources and more money to handle this.  The Raiders also do not have much time to do this on their own.

One of the major areas where the team has acted regarding social media is in giving in their players training in the use of social media training.  The Australian Federal Police conducted this training.  Details about the training can be found on the club’s website at www.raiders.com.au/default.aspx?s=article-display&id=27038 .  This was something the club felt was important because a number of their players are on Facebook.  Some have 2,000 to 3,000 friends, many of whom they do not know personally.  There have been a number of high profile incidents involving players getting negative media attention as a result of their comments on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter; they want to avoid that.  In general, the club advises players to be careful, not to talk about the team and to keep things personal.  The club does not ban the use of it and the NRL is aware of these problems and is encouraging training.

After getting my questions answered, I asked the Raiders about specific aspects of their social media strategy and asked the club if they had any questions based on the data packet I had provided.  The club does have an official Facebook page and Twitter account.  Ben is most familiar with Facebook, which is one of the reasons they use it more than Twitter.  The club’s original Facebook strategy involved creating a user account, friending people and trying to convert these friends into fans of the official fanpage.  The conversion rate was very low and they did not find it very effective in accomplishing their goals.

They are not entirely certain how Twitter fits into their social media strategy and there is a question of how they chose people to follow.  (Compared to other teams in the NRL, they follow almost no one.)  They were interested in increasing their number of followers but were not certain how to do it.  They also did not think that anyone had replied to them or reTweeted them, though this could be a result of not being familiar enough with the site.

We also discussed Foursquare and Gowalla, how they were used and if it was worth it for the team to explore using them.  They were unsure in this regard, as their time is limited.  If it is the next big thing, it might be worth them investigating.

I asked the club about their web traffic, citing some traffic data from Compete.  They said that a number of teams in the NRL share names with other sport teams.  In the case of the Canberra Raiders, it is the Oakland Raiders.  During the season for the other team, they often see an increase in traffic from US based visitors who mistakenly find their site.

I asked if the club had considered using YouTube.  They had.  One of their ideas involved uploading preview clips to Youtube, with attached notices that the full clip could be viewed on their site. They were not certain of the potential ROI and in the end did not use it.  I then asked them if visitors could embed official Raiders videos on their own blogs.  They were not certain but said that fans could definitely link to their videos.

While social media is a big potential audience for the club, most of their dedicated fans online congregate on a message board not controlled by the club.  They do monitor it and find it occasionally to be a concern because of that lack of control.  The club is aware of the fact that the media also monitor this message board and occasionally use it to generate less than favorable story ideas about the site.

In preparation for talking with the Canberra Raiders, I completed an overview of the size of the online community for the team.  If you are interested in this document, please contact me at laura[@]fanhistory[dot]com or my university e-mail address, laura.hale@ucanberra.

One of their ideas involved uploading preview clips to Youtube, with attached notices that the full clip could be viewed on their site.  I then asked them if visitors could embed official Raiders videos on their own blogs.

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World Cup, day 8: Foursquare and gowalla checkin totals

Posted by Laura on Saturday, 19 June, 2010

On Foursquare, there were changes near the top and near the bottom of the ladder.  Yesterday featured one swarm badge, which was the same as the day before and the day before that. It will be interesting to see how teams progress into the second and third games. After the first round, will totals probably matter more than averages? What audience is seeing second round games?

Foursquare

Country Total Checkins Total Unique Visitors Average Checkins Average Unique Visitors Games played Grounds
South Africa 371 164 185.5 82 2 Soccer City Soccer Stadium; Loftus Versfeld Stadium
Mexico 349 148 174.5 74 2 Soccer City Soccer Stadium; Peter Mokaba Stadium
Argentina 283 116 141.5 58 2 Ellis Park Stadium; Soccer City
Italy 119 52 119 52 1 Cape Town Stadium;
Paraguay 119 52 119 52 1 Cape Town Stadium;
Nigeria 222 83 111 41.5 2 Ellis Park Stadium; Free State Stadium
England 208 102 104 51 2 Royal Bafokeng Stadium; Cape Town Stadium
Chile 104 49 104 49 1 Mbombela Stadium;
Honduras 104 49 104 49 1 Mbombela Stadium;
Denmark 96 34 96 34 1 Soccer City Soccer Stadium;
Netherlands 96 34 96 34 1 Soccer City Soccer Stadium;
Uruguay 160 83 80 41.5 2 Green Point Stadium ; Loftus Versfeld Stadium
USA 159 66 79.5 33 2 Royal Bafokeng Stadium; Ellis Park Stadium
France 138 67 69 33.5 2 Green Point Stadium ; Peter Mokaba Stadium
Brazil 65 39 65 39 1 Ellis Park Stadium;
North Korea 65 39 65 39 1 Ellis Park Stadium;
Australia 59 27 59 27 1 Moses Mabhida Stadium;
South Korea 110 59 55 29.5 2 Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium; Soccer City
New Zealand 50 32 50 32 1 Royal Bafokeng Stadium ;
Slovakia 50 32 50 32 1 Royal Bafokeng Stadium ;
Côte d’Ivoire 49 37 49 37 1 Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium;
Portugal 49 37 49 37 1 Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium;
Algeria 90 51 45 25.5 2 Peter Mokaba Stadium; Cape Town Stadium
Germany 90 45 45 22.5 2 Moses Mabhida Stadium; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium
Spain 40 33 40 33 1 Moses Mabhida Stadium;
Switzerland 40 33 40 33 1 Moses Mabhida Stadium;
Ghana 35 17 35 17 1 Loftus Versfeld Stadium;
Serbia 66 35 33 17.5 2 Loftus Versfeld Stadium; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium
Cameroon 29 17 29 17 1 Free State Stadium;
Japan 29 17 29 17 1 Free State Stadium;
Greece 49 26 24.5 13 2 Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium; Free State Stadium
Slovenia 41 15 20.5 7.5 2 Peter Mokaba Stadium; Ellis Park Stadium

Gowalla
Gowalla doesn’t have the checkin strength of Foursquare. A big game on it doesn’t even get to the low count for foursquare and a lot of games have 0s. The ladder is also pretty much completely different.

Team Total Checkins Average Checkins Games Grounds
Denmark 5 5 1 Soccer City
Netherlands 5 5 1 Soccer City
Australia 4 4 1 Moses Mabhida Stadium
England 7 3.5 2 Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Cape Town Stadium
Ghana 3 3 1 Loftus Versveld Stadium
Spain 3 3 1 Moses Mabhida Stadium
Switzerland 3 3 1 Moses Mabhida Stadium
Algeria 5 2.5 2 Peter Mokaba Stadium ; Cape Town Stadium
Uruguay 5 2.5 2 Loftus Versveld Stadium ; Cape Town Stadium
Argentina 2 2 1 Coca-Cola Park (Ellis Park Stadium)
Chile 2 2 1 Mbombela Stadium
Honduras 2 2 1 Mbombela Stadium
Italy 2 2 1 Cape Town Stadium
Paraguay 2 2 1 Cape Town Stadium
France 4 2 2 Cape Town Stadium ; Peter Mokaba Stadium
Germany 4 2 2 Moses Mabhida Stadium ; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium
Serbia 3 1.5 2 Loftus Versveld Stadium ; Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium
United States 3 1.5 2 Royal Bafokeng Stadium ; Coca-Cola Park (Ellis Park Stadium)
New Zealand 1 1 1 Royal Bafokeng Stadium
Slovakia 1 1 1 Royal Bafokeng Stadium
Nigeria 2 1 2 Coca-Cola Park (Ellis Park Stadium) ; Free State Stadium
South Africa 2 1 2 Loftus Versveld Stadium ; Soccer City
Mexico 1 0.5 2 Peter Mokaba Stadium ; Soccer City
Slovenia 1 0.5 2 Peter Mokaba Stadium ; Coca-Cola Park (Ellis Park Stadium)
Brazil 0 0 1 Coca-Cola Park (Ellis Park Stadium)
Cameroon 0 0 1 Free State Stadium
Côte d’Ivoire 0 0 1 Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium
Greece 0 0 2 Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium ; Free State Stadium
Japan 0 0 1 Free State Stadium
North Korea 0 0 1 Coca-Cola Park (Ellis Park Stadium)
Portugal 0 0 1 Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium
South Korea 0 0 1 Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium

How different are these two tables? Teams were ranked based on total average checkins. The difference was then calculated and 12 teams had positions that differed by 10 or more places with only two teams sharing the same position.

Gowalla Foursquare Difference
Mexico 23 2 21
South Africa 19 1 18
Nigeria 19 6 13
Brazil 25 15 10
North Korea 25 15 10
Argentina 10 3 7
South Korea 25 18 7
Italy 10 4 6
Paraguay 10 4 6
United States 17 12 5
Côte d’Ivoire 25 21 4
Portugal 25 21 4
Chile 10 7 3
Honduras 10 7 3
New Zealand 19 19 0
Slovakia 19 19 0
England 4 7 -3
France 10 14 -4
Cameroon 25 29 -4
Japan 25 29 -4
Greece 25 31 -6
Uruguay 5 13 -8
Denmark 1 10 -9
Netherlands 1 10 -9
Slovenia 23 32 -9
Serbia 17 28 -11
Germany 10 23 -13
Australia 3 17 -14
Algeria 8 23 -15
Spain 5 25 -20
Switzerland 5 25 -20
Ghana 5 27 -22

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