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Blog: Using Photographs as Data Sources to Tell Societal Stories

Even though humans produce more photographs than ever, their value is becoming increasingly hidden. The problem is not that photographs have lost their meaning, but that we are surrounded by so many of them that we have started to stop looking at them carefully. This loss of attention matters because photography can do much more than simply preserve a memory. Besides freezing a moment, photographs can document a place, show damage after a crisis, capture public emotion, or make visible something that numbers alone may fail to express. Today, society is increasingly documented through images produced by smartphones, social media, Google Street View, CCTV, news media, and public archives. For societal computing, this makes photographs especially important. They can become data sources for understanding social life, infrastructure, inequality, crisis, collective behavior, and public space. However, in order to use them responsibly, we first need to take them seriously again and see them...
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Blog: Urban Trees, Unequal Heat: What Berlin Is Teaching Us

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On a hot summer day, the difference between standing beneath a tree and standing beside a wall of concrete is not subtle. One place gives shade, softness, and a small but immediate sense of relief. The other holds heat, reflects it back, and makes the day feel heavier. That contrast is what drew our attention to Berlin. The question is not whether Berlin is getting hotter. Residents have already felt the city's summer heat intensify. The more interesting question is how that heat is distributed across the city, and whether urban greenery influences who experiences the highest temperatures. Recent work highlights the importance of this question is. The Artha Global Climate Study found that neighbourhood-scale heat exposure is closely tied to urban form and tree cover, and that household-level vulnerability cannot be understood from citywide averages alone. Reddington et al. (2025) reached a similar conclusion from another direction, showing that tropical deforestation is associate...
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Blog: Privacy 101

Maybe it’s just me, but the state of the world has me thinking more about data privacy than ever before. I always knew I had to be mindful about my online activity, but now it’s constantly on my mind—and even on my Instagram feed. It all started when I saw a post about how data from Strava was used to identify the locations of active military bases and operational routines. That led me down the rabbit hole of the latest #StravaLeaks, where Le Monde uncovered the location of the Charles de Gaulle, a French nuclear-capable submarine, based on one personnel's running data. Then there was the case of a Russian commander allegedly shot during his jog after posting his route on the app.   Now, Strava is just a fitness app on our phones. I’m sure none of us think twice before installing it, especially regarding privacy. But it really shows how intertwined our data is and how easily it can be accessed. So, I started looking for privacy-aware alternatives for the things I spend most of my t...
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Blog: Beyond RGB: What Satellite Imagery Really Contains

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Figure: Conceptual illustration of satellite image dimensions (AI-generated based on author description) When we look at a photograph, we see colour, shape, and shadow captured in three channels: red, green, and blue. A satellite image looks similar on the surface, but it is a fundamentally different kind of data. Understanding that difference is the first step toward analysing it properly. A satellite image has three key dimensions. The first is spatial resolution. Every pixel in a satellite image corresponds to a precise latitude and longitude on the ground. This means a pixel is not just a visual element, it has a geographic connotation. You can locate it on Earth, associate it with a real place, and study the spatial patterns of features across an area. The second dimension is spectral resolution. Satellites carry multiple sensors, each measuring a different part of the electromagnetic spectrum. The Sentinel-2 satellite, for example, captures 12 spectral bands. Each band records a ...
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Blog: The Luck Factor - A Behavioral Perspective on Opportunity in Societal Systems

Here are three questions to think about. Why do some people find the right partner while others move from one relationship to another? Why do some individuals repeatedly succeed while others struggle despite similar effort? Why do some careers accelerate while others stagnate? According to Prof. Richard Wiseman, these questions are often explained by a single word: luck . As humans, we typically see luck as a random, unpredictable force that changes our life outcomes. However, some research in psychology suggests a different perspective. Rather than a purely chance-based thing, luck may be partly shaped by behavior, mindset, and interaction with the environment . Rethinking Luck Psychologist Prof. Richard Wiseman proposes that luck is not only accidental, but it is influenced by the consistent patterns of our thinking and behavior. His research suggests that individuals who consider themselves “lucky” tend to act in ways that increase their exposure to opportunities and improv...
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Blog: How Society Gets Under the Skin - A Biological Signal for Societal Computing

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As a result of the research in the past decades, everyone knows that health is strongly shaped by social conditions. Factors such as socioeconomic status, neighborhood environment, stress, and early-life adversity all influence long-term health outcomes. Importantly, these differences often remain even after accounting for genetics and individual behaviors such as smoking, diet, or exercise. This raises an important question:   Fig1. How different cells rise to different tissues (partly) To answer this question, we would first need to explain what biological embedding means. Biological embedding is the process by which repeated social and environmental experiences affect the body over time. Epigenetics is one of the main ways this happens, as it controls how genes work without changing the DNA itself. In this way, epigenetics helps us understand how social conditions can “get under the skin,” not as fixed outcomes for individuals, but as general patterns seen across groups of peopl...
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Blog: LLMs in Qualitative Analysis: Navigating the Intersection of Efficiency and Ethical Use

Large Language Models (LLMs) are rapidly becoming part of research practices, and qualitative analysis is no exception. They enable researchers to broaden the scope of their work, analyze large volumes of textual and visual data, and save time on repetitive tasks. The question is no longer whether these advanced tools will be used, but how they can be integrated transparently and ethically into research workflows. Qualitative analysis is a complex practice that relies heavily on human interpretation, reflexivity, and judgment. From initial coding to theme development and the writing of analytical claims supported by evidence, the human element remains essential. Models for using LLMs in qualitative analysis vary widely. These range (1) from integrations with traditional analysis applications, which can provide a secure working environment but are limited by predefined features, to (2) dedicated qualitative AI applications, which offer speed but can be costly and may rely too heavily...
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