Profiles of mapping of content creators in a geo-social network: The case of 21 Brazilian cities.

A geo-social network (GSN) is a type of social network where geolocated information shared among users plays an important role. The fast development of GSNs in recent years has made this system a valuable tool for people to learn about places on a large scale, using information provided by non-specialists. This paper examines how value is created in GSNs by studying the collective behavior of content creators in a popular GSN, Foursquare. In particular, this study examines the multifaceted aspect of content contribution behavior, and investigates how it occurs in multiple cities of an area previously studied by few: 21 medium- and large-sized Brazilian cities. Our study leverages cluster analyses to explain how users differ in how they collaborate. We discovered four profiles of content creators, and identify how such profiles are useful to GSNs.