The paper will detail the state-of-the-art in Citizen Mapping in the world, the advantages and disadvantages of such efforts and what some mapping agencies are doing about this. Speculation is made about Citizen Charting, how it could evolve and how HO\’s might be enticed to get involved and help steer efforts.

1. Citizen Mapping and Charting
How Crowdsourcing Is Helping To
Revolutionize Mapping & Charting
Michael J. Casey,
IIC Technologies Inc.

2. Crowdsourcing ???
“Crowdsourcing is an online, distributed problem solving and
production model. Problems are broadcast to an unknown
group of solvers via the Web in the form of an open call for
solutions. Users--also known as the crowd--typically form into
online communities based on the Web site, and the crowd
submits solutions to the site. The crowd also sorts through the
solutions, finding the best ones.”
Wikipedia, 2009/1/20
US Hydro
Helping Chart Your World
2009

3. Crowdsourcing ...
"the act of a company or institution taking a function once
performed by employees and outsourcing it to an
undefined (and generally large) network of people in the
form of an open call.“
Jeff Howe, author “Crowdsourcing”
US Hydro
Helping Chart Your World
2009

4. Crowdsourcing Examples
Historically:
The Oxford English Dictionary
Christmas Bird Count (since 1900)
… and now …
Linux
Wikipedia
OpenStreetMap
Mapipedia
And on and on ….
US Hydro
Helping Chart Your World
2009

5. Citizen Science
NASA Clickworkers
Vernal Pools
Galaxy Zoo
US Hydro
Helping Chart Your World
2009

6. ... Entertainment Reviews
US Hydro
Helping Chart Your World
2009

7. 10 Great Places for Kids in Portland
US Hydro
Helping Chart Your World
2009

8. Zazzle
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Helping Chart Your World
2009

9. Passive Crowdsourcing ...1
Google PageRank
... and search trends ...
“We have found a close relationship between how many
people search for flu-related topics and how many people
actually have flu symptoms.”
Google.org
US Hydro
Helping Chart Your World
2009

10. 2009 H1N1 (aka “Swine Flu”)
US Hydro
Helping Chart Your World
2009

11. Spatial Technology Becomes Commonplace
“The most profound technologies are those that disappear.
They weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life until
they are indistinguishable from it.”
Weiser, M. (1991). The computer for the twenty-first century.
Scientific American, September, 94-10.
US Hydro
Helping Chart Your World
2009

12. Where are my friends?
US Hydro
Helping Chart Your World
2009

13. Collective Authorship Tools
Lightweight [but useful] Spatial Technology is Commonplace
Growth in Citizen Activism and Online Communities
New Generation of Web/Wireless/Wiki Savvy Users with low
expectation from centralized agencies
An expectation of Free Speech and Free Beer (!)
US Hydro
Helping Chart Your World
2009

14. Not getting the information you want ?...
…Then DIY
US Hydro
Helping Chart Your World
2009

15. More DIY
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Helping Chart Your World
2009

16. Citizen as Sensor
“Mobile phones are allowing us to
communicate, buy, sell, … new
communication paradigms that empower
communities to produce credible
information that can be understood by
non-experts, in order to effect positive
societal change. “
www.urban-atmospheres.net
CO, indoor air pollution,
Pollen count
UV
Noise
Pesticides, …
US Hydro
Helping Chart Your World
2009

17. Crowdsourcing Map Updates
“TomTom ... announces that members of the TomTom Map
Share community have made a total of five million map
updates worldwide.”
TomTom Dec „08
US Hydro
Helping Chart Your World
2009

18. Tom-Tom Crowdsourcing
“The Map Share community has grown ...to over five million users”
US Hydro
Helping Chart Your World
2009

19. Crowdsourcing Navigation
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Helping Chart Your World
2009

20. Navigating Cambridge ...
US Hydro
Helping Chart Your World
2009

21. Route Planning for Cyclists is clearly a popular application
US Hydro 2009
Helping Chart Your World

22. And many, many others ...
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Helping Chart Your World
2009

23. What Is Going On?
Consumers are driving Businesses
e.g. eBay, Amazon, etc.
Users are leading knowledge production
e.g. Wikipedia, etc.
Users are creating the vast majority of content
e.g. YouTube, Blogs, and on and on ....
Formerly passive consumers are now active producers
e.g. special maps for cyclists and …OpenStreetMap,
US Hydro
Helping Chart Your World
2009

24. OpenStreetMap
“If you don’t make [lower-resolution mapping data] publicly
available, there will be people with their cars and GPS devices,
driving around with their laptops .. They will be cataloguing
every lane, and enjoying it, driving 4×4s behind your farm at the
dead of night. There will, if necessary, be a grass-roots
remapping.”
Tim Berners-Lee
US Hydro
Helping Chart Your World
2009

25. OpenStreetMap (cont.)
Steve Coast, Cloudmade.com
US Hydro
Helping Chart Your World
2009

26. OpenStreetMap data gets better by the day
US Hydro
Helping Chart Your World
2009

27. Something to Ponder ...
Is data created by an "trained expert" who is not familiar
with an area somehow more "accurate" than data created
by an "amateur" who lives in that area and has a vested
interest in correct information? Especially given that the
local amateur has the means (through OSM) to make
corrections on the fly?
Jeremy Crampton
Mapping without a net:
Neogeography in the 21st Century
US Hydro
Helping Chart Your World
2009

28. Major Thrust of the GeoSpatialWeb
From top-down, controlled production and
distribution
to
Bottom-up, Crowdsourced,open-sourced
production
US Hydro
Helping Chart Your World
2009

29. Crowdsourcing and Charting
“Large-scale services, while
tremendously important, often suffer
from lowest common denominator
effects as they seek to make a single
system satisfy the needs of
everyone.”
Urban Informatics: Community
Integration and Implementation
Recreational/ Cruising market
Kayak charts
Coast Pilots/Sailing Directions
Wiki-based Nautical Publications are inevitable
US Hydro
Helping Chart Your World
2009