Crowdsourcing, citizen science or volunteered geographic information? The current state of crowdsourced geographic information
Citizens are increasingly becoming an important source of geographic information, sometimes entering domains that had until recently been the exclusive realm of authoritative agencies. This activity has a very diverse character as it can, amongst other things, be active or passive, involve spatial o...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
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MDPI
2016
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/41141/ |
| _version_ | 1848796205329416192 |
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| author | See, Linda Mooney, Peter Foody, Giles M. Bastin, Lucy Comber, A. Estima, Jacinto Fritz, Steffen Kerle, Norman Jiang, Bin Laakso, Mari Liu, Hai-Ying Milčinski, Grega Nikšič, Matej Painho, Marco Podor, Andrea Olteanu-Raimond, Ana-Maria Rutzinger, Martin |
| author_facet | See, Linda Mooney, Peter Foody, Giles M. Bastin, Lucy Comber, A. Estima, Jacinto Fritz, Steffen Kerle, Norman Jiang, Bin Laakso, Mari Liu, Hai-Ying Milčinski, Grega Nikšič, Matej Painho, Marco Podor, Andrea Olteanu-Raimond, Ana-Maria Rutzinger, Martin |
| author_sort | See, Linda |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Citizens are increasingly becoming an important source of geographic information, sometimes entering domains that had until recently been the exclusive realm of authoritative agencies. This activity has a very diverse character as it can, amongst other things, be active or passive, involve spatial or aspatial data and the data provided can be variable in terms of key attributes such as format, description and quality. Unsurprisingly, therefore, there are a variety of terms used to describe data arising from citizens. In this article, the expressions used to describe citizen sensing of geographic information are reviewed and their use over time explored, prior to categorizing them and highlighting key issues in the current state of the subject. The latter involved a review of ~100 Internet sites with particular focus on their thematic topic, the nature of the data and issues such as incentives for contributors. This review suggests that most sites involve active rather than passive contribution, with citizens typically motivated by the desire to aid a worthy cause, often receiving little training. As such, this article provides a snapshot of the role of citizens in crowdsourcing geographic information and a guide to the current status of this rapidly emerging and evolving subject. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:44:17Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-41141 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:44:17Z |
| publishDate | 2016 |
| publisher | MDPI |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-411412020-05-04T17:44:54Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/41141/ Crowdsourcing, citizen science or volunteered geographic information? The current state of crowdsourced geographic information See, Linda Mooney, Peter Foody, Giles M. Bastin, Lucy Comber, A. Estima, Jacinto Fritz, Steffen Kerle, Norman Jiang, Bin Laakso, Mari Liu, Hai-Ying Milčinski, Grega Nikšič, Matej Painho, Marco Podor, Andrea Olteanu-Raimond, Ana-Maria Rutzinger, Martin Citizens are increasingly becoming an important source of geographic information, sometimes entering domains that had until recently been the exclusive realm of authoritative agencies. This activity has a very diverse character as it can, amongst other things, be active or passive, involve spatial or aspatial data and the data provided can be variable in terms of key attributes such as format, description and quality. Unsurprisingly, therefore, there are a variety of terms used to describe data arising from citizens. In this article, the expressions used to describe citizen sensing of geographic information are reviewed and their use over time explored, prior to categorizing them and highlighting key issues in the current state of the subject. The latter involved a review of ~100 Internet sites with particular focus on their thematic topic, the nature of the data and issues such as incentives for contributors. This review suggests that most sites involve active rather than passive contribution, with citizens typically motivated by the desire to aid a worthy cause, often receiving little training. As such, this article provides a snapshot of the role of citizens in crowdsourcing geographic information and a guide to the current status of this rapidly emerging and evolving subject. MDPI 2016-04-27 Article PeerReviewed See, Linda, Mooney, Peter, Foody, Giles M., Bastin, Lucy, Comber, A., Estima, Jacinto, Fritz, Steffen, Kerle, Norman, Jiang, Bin, Laakso, Mari, Liu, Hai-Ying, Milčinski, Grega, Nikšič, Matej, Painho, Marco, Podor, Andrea, Olteanu-Raimond, Ana-Maria and Rutzinger, Martin (2016) Crowdsourcing, citizen science or volunteered geographic information? The current state of crowdsourced geographic information. ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information, 5 (5). 55/1-55/23. ISSN 2220-9964 crowdsourcing; volunteered geographic information; citizen science; mapping http://www.mdpi.com/2220-9964/5/5/55 doi:10.3390/ijgi5050055 doi:10.3390/ijgi5050055 |
| spellingShingle | crowdsourcing; volunteered geographic information; citizen science; mapping See, Linda Mooney, Peter Foody, Giles M. Bastin, Lucy Comber, A. Estima, Jacinto Fritz, Steffen Kerle, Norman Jiang, Bin Laakso, Mari Liu, Hai-Ying Milčinski, Grega Nikšič, Matej Painho, Marco Podor, Andrea Olteanu-Raimond, Ana-Maria Rutzinger, Martin Crowdsourcing, citizen science or volunteered geographic information? The current state of crowdsourced geographic information |
| title | Crowdsourcing, citizen science or volunteered geographic information? The current state of crowdsourced geographic information |
| title_full | Crowdsourcing, citizen science or volunteered geographic information? The current state of crowdsourced geographic information |
| title_fullStr | Crowdsourcing, citizen science or volunteered geographic information? The current state of crowdsourced geographic information |
| title_full_unstemmed | Crowdsourcing, citizen science or volunteered geographic information? The current state of crowdsourced geographic information |
| title_short | Crowdsourcing, citizen science or volunteered geographic information? The current state of crowdsourced geographic information |
| title_sort | crowdsourcing, citizen science or volunteered geographic information? the current state of crowdsourced geographic information |
| topic | crowdsourcing; volunteered geographic information; citizen science; mapping |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/41141/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/41141/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/41141/ |