Citizens as sensors: the world of volunteered geography
Abstract:
In recent months there has been an explosion of interest in using the Web to create, assemble, and disseminate geographic information provided voluntarily by individuals. Sites such as Wikimapia and OpenStreetMap are empowering citizens to create a global patchwork of geographic information, while Google Earth and other virtual globes are encouraging volunteers to develop interesting applications using their own data. I review this phenomenon, and examine associated issues: what drives people to do this, how accurate are the results, will they threaten individual privacy, and how can they augment more conventional sources? I compare this new phenomenon to science and the role of the amateur in geographic observation.
Abstract:
In recent months there has been an explosion of interest in using the Web to create, assemble, and disseminate geographic information provided voluntarily by individuals. Sites such as Wikimapia and OpenStreetMap are empowering citizens to create a global patchwork of geographic information, while Google Earth and other virtual globes are encouraging volunteers to develop interesting applications using their own data. I review this phenomenon, and examine associated issues: what drives people to do this, how accurate are the results, will they threaten individual privacy, and how can they augment more conventional sources? I compare this new phenomenon to science and the role of the amateur in geographic observation.
- amateurs
- cartography
- geodata
- geospatial
- GIS
- GUI
- metadata
- positioning technologies
- pro-am revolution
- Remote Sensing
- standards
- trust
Goodchild, Michael F. (2007). “Citizens as sensors: the world of volunteered geography”, GeoJournal 69: 211-221
Hypotheses that reference this signal:
Forecasts that reference this signal:
| Title | Author | Excerpt |
|---|---|---|
| Growing infrastructures for "citizen science" will help shape 21st century science | Hyungsub Choi | We have thought a bit about the trend leading from the 20th century "science cities" to the 21st century "city science." This is the turn from the "Big" science and technology toward more distributed research activities. What would be the necessary infrastructure for this transition? Jeff Johannes, medicinal chemist at a large pharmaceutical company, wrote an interesting posting on the blog Sceptical Chymist (http://blogs.nature.com/thescepticalchymist/features/10_miles_from_academia/): |