Crowd-sourcing free and open geographic data: information poverty solutions for developing nations Stephen A. Debique

1. Research Problem Research Question(s) Review and Closing Remarks
Crowd-sourcing free and open geographic data:
information poverty solutions for developing
nations
in partial fulfillment of the Masters of Philosophy in Information
Technology
Stephen A. Debique
Supervisor: Dr. Adel M. Sharaf, P. Eng, SMIEEE
Information and Communications Technology
Center for Energy Studies
University of Trinidad and Tobago
September 9, 2011

2. Research Problem Research Question(s) Review and Closing Remarks
Outline
1 Research Problem
What is Geographic Data and Information?
Digital Commons, Produsers and Web 2.0: Paradigm Shift
Crowd-sourcing
Geographic Information Poverty in T&T

3. Research Problem Research Question(s) Review and Closing Remarks
Outline
1 Research Problem
What is Geographic Data and Information?
Digital Commons, Produsers and Web 2.0: Paradigm Shift
Crowd-sourcing
Geographic Information Poverty in T&T
2 Research Question(s)
Literature Review
Identification of Research Questions
Methods and Variables of Interest

4. Research Problem Research Question(s) Review and Closing Remarks
Outline
1 Research Problem
What is Geographic Data and Information?
Digital Commons, Produsers and Web 2.0: Paradigm Shift
Crowd-sourcing
Geographic Information Poverty in T&T
2 Research Question(s)
Literature Review
Identification of Research Questions
Methods and Variables of Interest
3 Review and Closing Remarks

5. Research Problem Research Question(s) Review and Closing Remarks
Research Area and Topic
Digital user production,
Web 2.0, and the public
domain
Geographic information
science (GIS) and
volunteered geographic
information (VGI)
Behavioral economics and
social psychology
Participatory GIS,
crowdsourcing, and citizen
science

6. Research Problem Research Question(s) Review and Closing Remarks
Data vs. Information
Definition
Data are symbols that represent selective measurements of the
physical and social aspects of our world (DiBiase 2011).
Definition
Whereas information is “data that is created or selected in
response to a question” (Dibiase 2011).

7. Research Problem Research Question(s) Review and Closing Remarks
What Can Be Answered by Geographic Data and
Technology?
Questions about single entities
Questions about space
Questions about attributes
Questions about time
Questions concerning multiple entities
Spatial relationships
Attribute relationships
Temporal relationships

8. Research Problem Research Question(s) Review and Closing Remarks
Applications of Geographic Data and Technology
Public health
Emergency and disaster management
Social justice and community empowerment
Transportation planning and information dissemination
Utility and energy planning
Asset management
Crime fighting
Environmental monitoring...

9. Research Problem Research Question(s) Review and Closing Remarks
Applications - Public Health

10. Research Problem Research Question(s) Review and Closing Remarks
Applications - Emergency and Disaster Management

11. Research Problem Research Question(s) Review and Closing Remarks
Applications - Social Justice and Community
Empowerment

12. Research Problem Research Question(s) Review and Closing Remarks
Copyright and the Devaluation of Freedom

13. Research Problem Research Question(s) Review and Closing Remarks
Copyright and the Devaluation of Freedom
Traditional texts and sharing
Statute of Anne, Copyright Act 1709
1886 Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and
Artistic Works
1994 Agreement of Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual
Property Rights (the TRIPs Agreement)
Utilitarian view of the majority of original lawmakers

14. Research Problem Research Question(s) Review and Closing Remarks
The World Wide Web (WWW) and the Changing
Economic Dynamics
Free software and the Free Software Definition
Definition
Freedom 0: The freedom to run the program for any purpose.
Freedom 1: The freedom to study how the program works, and
change it to make it do what you wish.
Freedom 2: The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help
your neighbor.
Freedom 3: The freedom to improve the program, and release your
improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits.
Tim Berners Lee and the WWW
Widespread peer production and sharing (Web 2.0)

15. Research Problem Research Question(s) Review and Closing Remarks
The Paradigm Shift Extending to Many Information Goods
The Open Knowledge Definition (OKD) sets out
principles to define ‘openness’ in knowledge – that’s any
kind of content or data ‘from sonnets to statistics, genes
to geodata’. The definition can be summed up in the
statement that “A piece of content or data is open if
anyone is free to use, reuse, and redistribute it — subject
only, at most, to the requirement to attribute and
share-alike.”.

16. Research Problem Research Question(s) Review and Closing Remarks
What is Crowd-sourcing
Definition
Crowd-sourcing is the
outsourcing of a task to a large
group of people - normally
solicited through the WWW

17. Research Problem Research Question(s) Review and Closing Remarks
Wikipedia
Established in 2001
Millions of article in 2008
Anyone is free to edit, contribute, and use it content (open)
Quality? (Lih 2004, Nature 2005)

18. Research Problem Research Question(s) Review and Closing Remarks
OpenStreetMap (OSM)?
“OpenStreetMap is a project to build a free geographic
database of the world”
Wiki-like system - anyone free to edit, contribute, and use
A manifestation of volunteered geographic information (VGI)
(Goodchild 2007)
Spatial data infrastructure (SDI) is the aggregate of agencies,
technologies, people, and data that together constitute a
nation’s mapping enterprise (NRC 1993, Goodchild 2007).
Linus’ law and quality work done by Professor Haklay

19. Research Problem Research Question(s) Review and Closing Remarks
What Do I Mean By Geographic Information Poverty?
Lack of freely available data and information for decision
making (Baban 2005)
“...in reality world mapping [and hence collection of
geographic data] has been in decline for several decades”
(Goodchild 2007)
Global trade negotiations have been used to limit freedom of
sharing and knowledge transfer

20. Research Problem Research Question(s) Review and Closing Remarks
Another Example of the Poverty and its Importance
“collate spatial data
concerning administrative
districts, transport networks
and population data for the
Caribbean Basin”

21. Research Problem Research Question(s) Review and Closing Remarks
Is OSM and by Extension VGI Part of the Solution?
Education, professional workforce, use of new technologies
Patchwork SDI and VGI (Hybrid SDI)
Lack of contribution in the Caribbean
“I will spend an hour OpenStreetMapping features on
Caribbean islands from Yahoo! aerial imagery and will also
donate £10 to the OpenStreetMap Foundation but only if 60
other people will do the same.”
Lack of feasibility studies in application areas - local context

22. Research Problem Research Question(s) Review and Closing Remarks
Selection of Key Literature for Developing a Theoretical
Framework
Warschauer 2002
Ostrom et al. 2005
Budhathoki et al. 2008
Coleman et al. 2009
Priedhorsky 2010
Ling et al. 2005
Ek et al. 2010
Dr. Muki Haklay’s work in this space
Mikel Maron
Warren 2010 - Grassroots mapping and others...

23. Research Problem Research Question(s) Review and Closing Remarks
Theoretical Framework for Understanding Crowd-sourced
Geospatial Data Contribution
Both access and digital skills are important (Warschauer 2002)
Free and open data is part of a digital commons and can be
understood in this context (Ostrom et al. 2005)
Several motivating factors for user content contribution and
specifically VGI (Budhathoki et al. 2008)
VGI contribution is done by a multitude of stakeholder groups
(Coleman et al. 2009)
Insights from social science may help in soliciting user work -
social psychology and behavioral economics (Priedhorsky
2010, Ling et al., Ek et al. 2010)
Opportunity cost of contributing
Goal setting
Personal value
Information and social norms

24. Research Problem Research Question(s) Review and Closing Remarks
What are the Research Questions Formulated from this
Theory
1 What factors and socio-technical barriers affect the willingness
of T&T citizens to contribute to OSM?
2 How does personal value, social norms, and goal setting affect
the willingness of T&T citizens to contribute to OSM?
3 What are the motivations for contribution to OSM in T&T
4 What is the feasibility of using OSM data and free software to
dessiminate public transit routing information to the general
public of T&T?

25. Research Problem Research Question(s) Review and Closing Remarks
Research Methods
Pilot study to inform
survey instrumentation
Information/education via
mapping parties
Survey instruments
Interviews
Feasibility study - public
transit

26. Research Problem Research Question(s) Review and Closing Remarks
What are the Preliminary Variables of Interest?
Contribution and potential contribution (predictor)
Internet access (attribute)
Socio-demographics (attribute)
Geographic expertise (attribute)
Information on importance to T&T (treatment)
Goal setting (treatment)
Method of contribution (attribute/treatment)

27. Research Problem Research Question(s) Review and Closing Remarks
Transit Web Planner and Scheduling Feasibility Study
GTFS and free software
Mixed system of public buses, ferries and private mini-buses
and taxis
Multimodal planner proven feasible in the North American
context (Barbeau 2011)

28. Research Problem Research Question(s) Review and Closing Remarks
Summary
Geographic data, its importance and VGI
Lack of contribution
Key literature and theoretical framework
Specific research questions and
Research methods, variables of interest and feasibility study

29. Research Problem Research Question(s) Review and Closing Remarks
Questions?
Thank you for your time.
Contact information
stephen.debique@gmail.com