Volunteered Geographic Information System Design: Project and Participation Guidelines

Abstract

This article sets forth the early phases of a methodological proposal for designing and developing Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) initiatives based on a system perspective analysis in which the components depend and interact dynamically among each other. First, it focuses on those characteristics of VGI projects that present different goals and modes of organization, while using a crowdsourcing strategy to manage participants and contributions. Next, a tool is developed in order to design the central crowdsourced processing unit that is best suited for a specific project definition, associating it with a trend towards crowd-based or community-driven approaches. The design is structured around the characterization of different ways of participating, and the task cognitive demand of working on geo-information management, spatial problem solving and ideation, or knowledge acquisition. Then, the crowdsourcing process design helps to identify what kind of participants are needed and outline subsequent engagement strategies. This is based on an analysis of differences among volunteers' participatory behaviors and the associated set of factors motivating them to contribute, whether on a crowd or community-sourced basis. From a VGI system perspective, this paper presents a set of guidelines and methodological steps in order to align project goals, processes and volunteers and thus successfully attract participation. This methodology helps establish the initial requirements for a VGI system, and, in its current state, it mainly focuses on two components of the system: project and participants.

Towards Enhancing Integrated Pest Management Based on Volunteered Geographic Information

“…Therefore, being suited to the transformative paradigm, exploring high level VGI-based IPM approaches is suggested for future research. Indeed, this has been echoed by Gómez-Barrón et al [51] who draw a line between crowd-based participation and community-driven participation, describing that volunteers' level of involvement or engagement ranges from simple participation to collaboration, and up to co-creation. A successful VGI-based IPM should offer greater flexibility, collaboration, and co-creation possibilities.…”

“…Defining clearly these elements guides the establishment of a VGI system (VGI-based IPM, in our case) and enables better management of VGI contributions and contributors, which should be constantly comprehended, evaluated, and expanded to ensure efficiency and effectiveness of the system [50][51][52]. To develop this framework, we were mostly influenced by Mertens [27], Johnson and Onwuegbuzie [48], and Deng and Chang [53].…”

“…Indeed, for VGI project management, building or framing VGI systems should consider the abovementioned elements (i.e., the types of data contributions and sense making, and data quality assurance methods) at the onset of a project [50][51][52]. Defining clearly these elements guides the establishment of a VGI system (VGI-based IPM, in our case) and enables better management of VGI contributions and contributors, which should be constantly comprehended, evaluated, and expanded to ensure efficiency and effectiveness of the system [50][51][52].…”

Integrando SIG con fines sociales en el currículum educativo: el caso de Zaragoza Accesible

“…El abaratamiento y la posterior proliferación de tecnologías de posicionamiento global portátiles, así como la aparición de numerosos servicios web orientados a simplificar interfaces y formas de interactuar con información geoespacial (por ejemplo: Carto 4 , Mapzen 5 , Mapbox 6 o, muy especialmente, OpenStreetMap 7 −de ahora en adelante OSM−) han dado lugar a un crecimiento exponencial en la elaboración de mapas, pudiendo éstos no sólo ser elaborados por técnicos expertos sino también por un amplio sector de la población, no experto en su mayoría sino curioso e interesado por las grandes posibilidades que brinda su aplicación a cuestiones comunes de la vida diaria. Hablamos entonces de neogeografía (Haklay, 2013;Rana y Joliveau, 2009) o de Información Geográfica Voluntaria (IGV) (Coleman, Georgiadou, y Labonte, 2009;Gómez-Barrón, Manso-Callejo, Alcarria, y Iturrioz, 2016;Sui, Elwood, y Goodchild, 2012).…”

Mapping and the Citizen Sensor

“…Thus issues such as attracting and retaining volunteers, and understanding participant motivations and what incentives can be used to attract volunteers, are as important as the spatial information that is collected, particularly in designing new VGI applications. The importance of the volunteer has been recognised in a recent paper by Gómez-Barrón et al (2016), where the authors consider motivational factors for VGI as a critical part of the participation planning phase in the design of any VGI system. There are biases observed in participation that are a general characteristic of any application of user-generated content.…”