Voluntary geographic information for spatial data infrastructures?

This workshop took place on April 16, 2010. Below you can find a description of the contents of the workshop and whenever available, the presentations that were given by the invited speakers.

Date

16 April 2010

Description

Traditionally geographic data are captured by well trained aspecialist using state of the art technology. Recent developments like Web 2.0 platforms, GPS enabled cell phones and sensor technology make capturing of geographic data no longer the exclusive domain of well trained professionals, but opens new possibilities for involvement of citizens.

Every human is able to capture geographic information about social and environmental phenomena. Internet provides the means to upload those observations and share it with other users. Information about places of interests, bird species, GPS tracking of bike and hiking routes are examples of this user generated content. The term “Volunteered Geographic Information” (VGI) is used to describe user generated geographic information.

In this one day workshop, on the occasion of the PhD defence of Lukasz Grus, the nature, developments and challenges of voluntary geographic information were presented. The (potential) influence of VGI on Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI) was discussed.

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Presentations available for download

Three papers discussed during the presentations:

Coleman, D.J., Sabone, B. and N. Nkhwanana [2010]. "Volunteering Geographic Information to Authoritative Databases: Linking Contributor Motivations to Program Effectiveness". Geomatica Vol. 64, No. 1 pp. 383-396. Special Issue on Volunteered Geographic Information. March.

Coleman, D.J., Georgiadou, Y. and Labonte, J. [2009]. "Volunteered Geographic Information: The Nature and Motivation of Produsers." International Journal of Spatial Data Infrastructures Research Vol. 4. Available on the Web at: http://ijsdir.jrc.ec.europa.eu/index.php/ijsdir/article/view/140/198.     

Coleman, D. and Y. Georgiadou [2010]. "Volunteered Geographic Information: Why and What Do Individuals Contribute?" GeoInformatics, Vol. 13, No. 2, pp. 50-52. March. Available on the Web at http://fluidbook.webtraders.nl/geoinformatics/02-2010/.