Mirror: Mobile Data to Improve Decision Making in African Cities

Africa's population is booming, with almost 75% of the 30 countries with the largest population growth rates according to United Nations and World Bank. However, phenomena in African cities often cannot be analyzed due to the lack of accurate census data or limited urban infrastructure. Fundamental facts like actual city boundaries and real populations are unknown in many cases.

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Mirror is an initiative between Idiap and EPFL that aims at tapping into the potential of mobile crowdsourcing, social media, and mobile phone data to contribute to the understanding of urban issues in African cities. Our work spans social media data mining, mobile data visualization, and mobile applications.