A visual study of collective life · Illustrative signals

vibe Get the app
Vibe / A social data lab

Understand the city.
Make more of it.

Vibe turns raw social data into public intelligence to improve experiences. Signals from the Vibe app, venue sensors and Vibe AI become anonymous insights that help you discover places, connect with people and understand your city.

See how it works How we think about privacy ↗
11:42 PM · peak — the Valley is the busiest precinct in the city
01 / The thesis

A city gives us insight.
It should get value back.

Understanding society is only useful if it improves life within it. Our app, sensors and AI already form a working network. Our long-term goal is to use what it learns to improve life for everyone who contributes.

A map of inner Brisbane: the fastest routes from Paddington to West End, then Woolloongabba, then Fortitude Valley, found street by street.
Illustrative useA clearer choice of where to go
01 / People

Find your place in the city.

See where the city is active, find events that fit your interests and connect with friends who choose to share. A clearer view of the places and people around you.

Explore the Vibe app ↗
02 / How it works

From a signal
to something useful.

Vibe is a network before it is an app. Signals arrive from the people who use it, the venues that host them and the models that read the result. The lab is everything in between arriving and being useful.

The app, venue sensors and Vibe AI contribute. People, venues and research receive.Illustrative view
Contributed, not taken. Every signal comes from someone choosing to use Vibe, or a venue choosing to take part. Checked before it counts. A missing reading, an old listing and a current observation are not the same thing, and are not treated as one. Useful at the other end. The test is whether it helps somebody make a better decision about their own city.
See the whole network ↗
03 / From the lab

What we are
working on.

The lab publishes as it goes, including the parts that are still questions. Four strands, all open to one you bring.

01 / Atlas

Atlas

Brisbane in more than one dimension. Move a slice through the city and watch the picture change.

Open the Atlas 02 / Economics

Economics

What social activity does for the places around it, and where that value actually lands.

Explore the questions 03 / Social impacts

Social impacts

Who a busier city is better for, who it misses, and how we would know either way.

Consider the impact 04 / Perspectives

From the lab

Working notes and the thinking behind Vibe, including the parts still being argued.

Read the blog
04 / A little more context

Good questions.
Clear answers.

A new idea should invite curiosity. Here are a few places to start.

What do you mean by “social data”?

Signals about social life: where people gather, what they take part in and how places change. Vibe brings together sources including its app, venue sensors and Vibe AI to study these patterns.

Is Vibe an app or a research lab?

Vibe is a social data lab. The app is one way to contribute to the network and use what it learns. We also develop tools for venues and explore research about the wider city. Meet the lab.

Does “anonymous insights” mean the app holds no personal data?

No. The app uses personal information for features such as accounts, location and social connections. City-level insights are a different use of data. Our privacy policy explains collection, sharing and your choices.

Why start with going out?

Social life is at the centre of our work, and going out is a practical place to begin: people need useful information, venues need context and communities need to understand their local area. Our longer-term ambition is to learn from social data to improve life across the city.