Vici.org is a crowd-sourced map of ancient Rome that allows users to add markers, images, and line tracings to locations. The project aims to open up its database for others to contribute and access geographic data, taking inspiration from Wikipedia. As of mid-2014, the map has over 200 registered users but only 68 have contributed by adding markers, with most markers coming from a small number of top contributors. The project faces challenges in attracting more international contributors and developing community features to further engage users.

1. vici.org, a crowd
sourced Roman map
RenéVoorburg, DH2014,The Hague
rene@digitopia.nl

2. Introduction

8. location aware
HTML5
static JSON data

9. Design considerations
• When creating a database backend, why not opening
it up for others to add / edit data?
• If others provide data, why not help them to retrieve
and access the data?
• Wikipedia as a model, but maps central & multi-lingual
• Map embeddable by other websites
• Open JSON API, Pelagios RDF, downloads

10. Core functionality
Users can add:
• Markers (since February 2012)
• Images (since May 2013)
• KML line tracings (March 2014)
.. but no real community supporting features as of
yet.

13. User engagement

18. User engagement
summarized
• 200 activated user accounts
• 68 users added markers
• 6073 markers added by users
• 90% of all markers were added by 9 users.
!
(June 2014)

27. Discussion
• How to attract users beyond NL, DE and BE?
• What did the 132 users that only registered expect?
• Populating the map ’enough’ appears to have been
essential in engaging users
• Will an investment in community features pay off?
• Stuck in the middle between science and
marketing?