"The imptnce of open-source sftware is not that it introduces us to a wholly new idea; it is that it makes us see clearly a very old idea." source of crowdsourced geographic information how about something like open source and improvisation??? as an alternative form of software development it has much wider implications. ******************** user generated content -spatially explicit applications : place matters >> collecting info about places -local familiarity influence data collection -mapping happens in high population density areas *motivations -value of feely available digital geographical info -desire to help others with free geo info -fascination with mapping -belief on the goal of the project -representation of place -develop new perspective about the local area -develop mapping skull place influences motivation -show maps of different cities, regions -OSMer typical profile >>> socio economic profile, populated places unlike other crowdsourcing activities, geography (and places) are both limiting and motivating contribution to them. In many ways, OpenStreetMap is similar to other open source and open knowledge projects, such as Wikipedia. These similarities include the patterns of contribution and the importance of participation inequalities, in which a small group of participants contribute very significantly, while a very large group of occasional participants contribute only occasionally; the general demographic of participants, with strong representation from educated young males; or the temporal patterns of engagements, in which some participants go through a peak of activity and lose interest, while a small group joins and continues to invest its time and effort to help the progress of the project. These aspects have been identified by researchers who explored volunteering and leisure activities, and crowdsourcing as well as those who explored commons-based peer production networks (Benkler & Nissenbaum 2006). Does geography make some fundamental changes to the basic principles of crowdsourcing, or should OSM be treated as ‘wikipedia for maps’? geography is playing a ‘tyrannical’ role in OSM and other projects that are based on crowdsourced geographical information and shapes the nature of the project beyond what is usually accepted. participants are driven to mapping activities by their desire to represent the places they care about and fix the errors on the map. Both of these motives require local knowledge. places that are highly populated, and therefore have a larger pool of potential participants, showing better coverage than suburban areas of well-mapped cities. here is an ongoing discussion within the OSM community about the value of mapping without local knowledge and the impact of such action on the willingness of potential contributors to fix errors and contribute to the map. ******************************* fields of community engagement, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Mapping technology ******************** crowdsourced geographic information Haiti – how can VGI help? Comparison of OpenStreetMap and Google Map Maker 18 January, 2010 http://povesham.wordpress.com/2010/01/18/haiti-how-can-vgi-help-comparison-of-openstreetmap-and-google-map-maker/ Po Ve Sham – Muki Haklay’s personal blog Usability of Geospatial Technologies, GIScience & Environmental Information using the data for the relief effort. ********************************* the beauty of OSM is that there is plenty of room for any level of craftsman detail of an area someone cares a lot about *and* there is room for bulk imports to fill in the large lonely areas in between. I would argue that the bulk imports are (at least in areas I have edited) a much better starting point than a blank map and serve a vital connecting role between areas where mappers are active. there is nothing stopping the craftspeople from contributing to the main map, making the areas they love as perfect and beautiful as they like, meeting together as they have in the past, expanding the boundaries of their beautiful part of the map if they want to. The only difference now is that the frontier is not completely empty because it has been sketched by other hands before. As with any area in OSM, if you can do better than the existing work already done in an area, you are encouraged to improve the map. you referred to the “craftspeople” as a “small club”, but if you look at it in terms of OSM then there are around 5,500 people in the craftsman way of doing things all around the world, and approximately 200 people fixing up the bulk imports. ********** The strength of OSM is the community. The creation of this dedicated community is a high-quality map. There are ways to help the community, and there is usefulness in using other data sources to assist. But if we continue down the path of treating the community as a mechanism to “fix-up” broken or low-quality data imports, whether that be TIGER, GNIS, NaPTAN or any of the others, then we’ll ruin ourselves in doing so. ***************** http://vimeo.com/9182869 OpenStreetMap - Project Haiti http://itoworld.blogspot.com/2010/02/ito-world-at-ted-2010-project-haiti.html We all followed the crisis that unfolded following the Haiti earthquake, many of us chose to donate money, a few were flown out and deployed as part of the relief effort. But what practical impact can many have without being there in Haiti itself? Well, during this crisis a remarkable story unfolded; of how people around the world could virtually collaborate and contribute to the on-the-ground operations. Enter OpenStreetMap, the wiki map of the world, CrisisMappers and an impromptu community of volunteers who collaborated to produce the most authoritative map of Haiti in existence. Within hours of the event people were adding detail to the map, but on January 14th high resolution sattelite imagery of Haiti was made freely available and the Crisis Mapping community were able to trace roads, damaged buildings, and enter camps of displaced people into OpenStreetMap. This is the story of OpenStreetMap - Project Haiti: ************* http://www10.giscafe.com/video/Open-Solutions-Group-Haiti-Crisis-Mapping-Earthquake-by-Jeffrey-Johnson-John-Crowley-Schuyler-Erle/31793/media.html?interstitial_displayed=Yes "Haiti: Crisis Mapping the Earthquake" by Jeffrey Johnson, John Crowley and Schuyler Erle Video more than 10000 people collaboration coase's penguin >> benkler commons-based peer production UN agencies using street map help in crisis >> changes the faces of disasters people want to help OSM community did it in a week Johnson, Jeffrey, John Crowley & Schulyer Erle. Haiti: Crisis Mapping the Earthquake. GIS Café 2010. http://www10.giscafe.com/video/Open-Solutions-Group-Haiti-Crisis-Mapping-Earthquake-by-Jeffrey-Johnson-John-Crowley-Schuyler-Erle/31793/media.html ************** James Silver http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2010/09/features/data-information?page=all