Social media sensing is a method that has been widely employed in business and social sciences, and it has now been expanded to built-environment disciplines. Oecumene Space For Dignity applies it in this tool to  investigate the local population’s perceptions of the Tunisian public realm through social media opinion analysis. The project applies text analysis and, in the future, text mining to extract sentiment orientation from comments on public-space-related social media posts. The outcome of this current study will be used as a foundation for public engagement in place-based public realm initiatives in Tataouine, Tunisia, where it will be complemented with other participatory methodologies to overcome existing limitations, as will be discussed further below.

Social media sensing has been widely utilized in the fields of business and social sciences, and it is now being extended to disciplines focused on the built environment. In TPSSMSP, this method is employed as a tool to examine the perceptions of the local population regarding public spaces and public space interventions in Tataouine,Tunisia. The summarized data is graphically represented and geolocalized on an open access map, allowing practitioners and local authorities to tap into user feedback about the space and previous works in it.

The project utilizes text analysis and has plans to incorporate text mining in the future to extract sentiment orientation from comments on public-space-related social media posts. The outcome of this current study will be used as a foundation for public engagement in place-based public realm initiatives. To address existing limitations, this study will be supplemented with other participatory methodologies, which will be further elaborated on later.