Follow The Money

April 23, 2010 2:35 PM

Follow the money attempts to detect and visualize the structure of large-scale communities in the US based on the flow of money using data from Where's George? [via]
posted by gruchall (9 comments total)

It's an interesting analysis, but it also reminds me of how uncomfortable I am with Where's George?. Not that I have any particular reason to believe that they would violate their privacy policy (and not that there aren't ways to anonymize any communications that I would have with them), but making transactions in cash is still reasonably anonymous, in a world that increasingly isn't, and the mild curiosity that I might have about which paths that my currency might take doesn't really mitigate that.

I should go on the record that I'm not talking about tipping strippers here. Not necessarily, anyway.
posted by Halloween Jack at 3:02 PM on April 23, 2010 [1 favorite]

That is so very cool.

I'm thinking it's been a long time since I've seen a bill with a Where's George stamp on it.
posted by warbaby at 3:13 PM on April 23, 2010

Does fig. 2 indicate that people in Detroit don't hand marked one dollar bills to people in Grand Rapids?
posted by Hoenikker at 3:17 PM on April 23, 2010

warbaby wrote: "I'm thinking it's been a long time since I've seen a bill with a Where's George stamp on it."

I got one just the other day. It's still in my wallet, I think. I have not entered it into the website.
posted by wierdo at 3:32 PM on April 23, 2010

The video is a good introduction to what's going on here, with colorful graphics too.
posted by Hoenikker at 3:41 PM on April 23, 2010

I would guess there are some fairly large effects of self-selection among Where's George? users.
posted by benzenedream at 6:25 PM on April 23, 2010

I wonder how these borders compare with the facebook friends borders that showed up here on mefi recently.
posted by notyou at 6:35 PM on April 23, 2010

That video is fricking fantastic.
posted by ErWenn at 7:37 PM on April 23, 2010

Not surprisingly, their map recapitulates the regions of the member banks of the Federal Reserve System.
posted by euphorb at 9:54 PM on April 23, 2010 [5 favorites]