Abstract
Abstract. The rise of crowdsourced mapping data is well documented and attempts to integrate such information within existing or potential NSDIs [National Spatial Data Infrastructures] are increasingly being examined. The results of these experiments, however, have been mixed and have left many researchers uncertain and unclear of the benefits of integration and of solutions to problems of use for such combined and potentially synergistic mapping tools. This paper reviews the development of the crowdsource mapping movement and discusses the applications that have been developed and some of the successes achieved thus far. It also describes the problems of integration and ways of estimating success, based partly on a number of on-going studies at the University of Nottingham that look at different aspects of the integration problem: iterative improvement of crowdsource data quality, comparison between crowdsourced data and prior knowledge and models, development of trust in such data, and the alignment of variant ontologies. Questions of quality arise, particularly when crowdsource data are combined with pre-existing NSDI data. The latter is usually stable, meets international standards and often provides national coverage for use at a variety of scales. The former is often partial, without defined quality standards, patchy in coverage, but frequently addresses themes very important to some grass roots group and often to society as a whole. This group might be of regional, national, or international importance that needs a mapping facility to express its views, and therefore should combine with local NSDI initiatives to provide valid mapping. Will both groups use ISO (International Organisation for Standardisation) and OGC (Open Geospatial Consortium) standards? Or might some extension or relaxation be required to accommodate the mostly less rigorous crowdsourced data? So, can crowdsourced data ever be safely and successfully merged into an NSDI? Should it be simply a separate mapping layer? Is full integration possible providing quality standards are fully met, and methods of defining levels of quality agreed? Frequently crowdsourced data sets are anarchic in composition, and based on new and sometimes unproved technologies. Can an NSDI exhibit the necessary flexibility and speed to deal with such rapid technological and societal change?
Highlights
It was probably Howe who in 2006 first coined the term “crowdsourcing” (Howe, 2008), and assigned it to the discovery and use of data by citizens for themselves and by themselves
As a geoscientist I tend to think of crowdsourcing as being inherently concerned with locational data, but it is worth noting that Howe said crowdsourcing could be categorised as: the act of a company or institution taking a function once performed by employees and outsourcing to an undefined network of people in the form of an open call . . . (Howe, wired.com) which contains no spatial concept as a main theme
OSM is very active in Germany and remarkably complete – in 2009 nearly 50% of all edits were completed, but by 2010 the percentage reduced to 30%; possibly as a result of increasing activity in the disaster mapping arena? Quantity is not quality
Summary
It was probably Howe who in 2006 first coined the term “crowdsourcing” (Howe, 2008), and assigned it to the discovery and use of data by citizens for themselves and by themselves From the start this included both locational, spatial and thematic information. The was harnessing the power of the crowd – commonly termed crowdsourcing He envisioned the use of data on an epic scale, which is certainly the case. Boulos (2011) considers that using the web to bring together the instinct and abilities of experts, the wisdom implicit in crowdsourced material, and the International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Volume XL-1/W1, ISPRS Hannover Workshop 2013, 21 – 24 May 2013, Hannover, Germany power of computer analysis results in the synergism envisioned Collection of information may not necessarily be either overtly by Anderson
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