Volunteered Geographic Information Systems Research Articles

Needs, drivers, participants and engagement actions: a framework for motivating contributions to volunteered geographic information systems

This work addresses motivation for participating in volunteered geographic information systems (VGIS), which enable a crowdsourcing process to create information-driven value. VGIS, implemented by executing a project and its crowdsourcing strategy, are driven by online networked community participation enabled by a technological infrastructure. However, without community engagement, crowdsourcing, the core process of a VGIS, fails to create value and its main advantage becomes one of its biggest challenges. To address this problem, we present a conceptual framework to assist in designing engagement strategies to motivate and facilitate goal-oriented participation. To this end, we examine the relation between Maslow’s human needs and VGI, its different goals, and current studies on motivation. We analyze intrinsic and internalized motivation, focusing on the needs outlined in self-determination theory. Finally, we apply Vroom’s expectancy theory of motivation in relation to VGI. As a result, the proposed framework consists of three design tools: core drivers, participant types to whom efforts to motivate should be aligned with the project rationale, and an engagement process consisting of three main actions: Enroll, Grow and Retain. With this framework, future VGIS developments can have a structured approach that guides participation and the design of engagement strategies.

An Approach to Control the Positional Accuracy of Point Features in Volunteered Geographic Information Systems

Volunteered geographic information (VGI) is a huge source of user-generated geographic information. There is an enormous potential to use VGI in different mapping activities due to its significant advantages. VGI is found to be richer and more up-to-date than authoritative geographic information. However, VGI quality is an obvious challenge that needs to be addressed in order to get the full potential of VGI. Positional accuracy is one of the important aspects of VGI quality. Although VGI positional accuracy can be high in some contexts, VGI datasets are characterized by a large spatial heterogeneity. This paper proposes an approach for controlling positional accuracy as well as decreasing the spatial heterogeneity of point features in VGI systems. A case study has been conducted in order to ensure the applicability and effectiveness of the proposed approach.

Assessing Utilization and Effectiveness in Public Participative and Volunteered Geographic Information Systems for Environmental Data

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) can serve as a planning tool to promote community health at many levels, such as the policy, organizational and public levels. The Brownfields to Healthfields (B2H) program involves creating new opportunities to support community public health, including the development of park spaces and new hospital facilities. However, there was no existing portal for organizations to access a map of brownfields data to meet the required criteria of the organization in seeking a space for transformation to a “healthfield” or other public services facility. Since the various types of community and demographic data were scattered, it was necessary to combine the data in a web application available to all stakeholders. This paper discusses the utilization of a new concept of operation, which includes participative and volunteered approaches that are addressed to include the contribution of various stakeholder groups, and to further improve planning for public health.

Applying VGI to collaborative research in the humanities: the case of ARTL@S

ABSTRACTUsing Artl@s as an example of a project that relies on volunteered geographic information (VGI), this article examines the specific challenges that exist, beyond those frequently discussed in general VGI systems (e.g., participants’ motivation and data quality control) in regard to sharing research data in humanities: (1) most data from the humanities is qualitative and collected from multiple data sources which are often inconsistent and unmappable; (2) data is usually interconnected with multiple relationships among different tables which creates challenges for both mapping and query functionality; (3) data is both geographical and historical. Consequently addresses that no longer exist have to be geolocated and visualized on historical basemaps and spaces must be represented diachronically; (4) the design of web map application needs to balance both sophisticated research requirements and a user-friendly interface; (5) finally contributors expect their data to be cited or acknowledged when used in other studies and users need metadata and citation information in order to reuse and repurpose datasets.In this article, we discuss how Artl@s, a project which developed a georeferenced historical database of exhibition catalogues, addresses these challenges. Artl@s provides a case study for VGI adoption by digital humanities scholars for research data sharing, as it offers features, such as flexible batch data contribution, interrelated spatial query, automatic geolocalization of historical addresses, and data citation mechanisms.

VISUALIZATION OF VGI DATA THROUGH THE NEW NASA WEB WORLD WIND VIRTUAL GLOBE

GeoWeb 2.0, laying the foundations of Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) systems, has led to platforms where users can contribute to the geographic knowledge that is open to access. Moreover, as a result of the advancements in 3D visualization, virtual globes able to visualize geographic data even on browsers emerged. However the integration of VGI systems and virtual globes has not been fully realized. The study presented aims to visualize volunteered data in 3D, considering also the ease of use aspects for general public, using Free and Open Source Software (FOSS). The new Application Programming Interface (API) of NASA, Web World Wind, written in JavaScript and based on Web Graphics Library (WebGL) is cross-platform and cross-browser, so that the virtual globe created using this API can be accessible through any WebGL supported browser on different operating systems and devices, as a result not requiring any installation or configuration on the client-side, making the collected data more usable to users, which is not the case with the World Wind for Java as installation and configuration of the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) is required. Furthermore, the data collected through various VGI platforms might be in different formats, stored in a traditional relational database or in a NoSQL database. The project developed aims to visualize and query data collected through Open Data Kit (ODK) platform and a cross-platform application, where data is stored in a relational PostgreSQL and NoSQL CouchDB databases respectively.

VISUALIZATION OF VGI DATA THROUGH THE NEW NASA WEB WORLD WIND VIRTUAL GLOBE

Abstract. GeoWeb 2.0, laying the foundations of Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) systems, has led to platforms where users can contribute to the geographic knowledge that is open to access. Moreover, as a result of the advancements in 3D visualization, virtual globes able to visualize geographic data even on browsers emerged. However the integration of VGI systems and virtual globes has not been fully realized. The study presented aims to visualize volunteered data in 3D, considering also the ease of use aspects for general public, using Free and Open Source Software (FOSS). The new Application Programming Interface (API) of NASA, Web World Wind, written in JavaScript and based on Web Graphics Library (WebGL) is cross-platform and cross-browser, so that the virtual globe created using this API can be accessible through any WebGL supported browser on different operating systems and devices, as a result not requiring any installation or configuration on the client-side, making the collected data more usable to users, which is not the case with the World Wind for Java as installation and configuration of the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) is required. Furthermore, the data collected through various VGI platforms might be in different formats, stored in a traditional relational database or in a NoSQL database. The project developed aims to visualize and query data collected through Open Data Kit (ODK) platform and a cross-platform application, where data is stored in a relational PostgreSQL and NoSQL CouchDB databases respectively.

A Systems Perspective on Volunteered Geographic Information

Volunteered geographic information (VGI) is geographic information collected by way of crowdsourcing. However, the distinction between VGI as an information product and the processes that create VGI is blurred. Clearly, the environment that influences the creation of VGI is different than the information product itself, yet most literature treats them as one and the same. Thus, this research is motivated by the need to formalize and standardize the systems that support the creation of VGI. To this end, we propose a conceptual framework for VGI systems, the main components of which—project, participants, and technical infrastructure—form an environment conducive to the creation of VGI. Drawing on examples from OpenStreetMap, Ushahidi, and RinkWatch, we illustrate the pragmatic relevance of these components. Applying a system perspective to VGI allows us to better understand the components and functionality needed to effectively create VGI.

Geospatial Metadata 2.0 – An approach for Volunteered Geographic Information

There has been greater tendency towards embracing the potential of the Web 2.0 in knowledge creation with user contributions becoming significantly important in the development of open data such as Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI). An increasing number of volunteers which add value to geospatial data require effective ways of organising and providing access to value-added or newly created data. Metadata records are often unavailable for VGI, making it problematic for users to discover data in the VGI system. This paper discusses potential approaches that can be used to create metadata for VGI. This includes Linked Data, professionally created metadata and metadata created by volunteers. The paper then discusses the shortcomings of these approaches and proposes an unconventional alternative, Geospatial Metadata 2.0. This approach involves VGI users in the creation of metadata, and builds on folksonomies created by them. The paper presents the design and implementation of this idea in a prototype system along with an assessment result. The implementation includes Geospatial Metadata 2.0 add-ons in Geonetwork, and the assessment benefits from the input of metadata experts worldwide. The assessment of the benefits results indicate such an approach of metadata creation is promising and has the potential to be employed in VGI systems.