Volunteered geographic information for building SDI

Abstract

Spatial information and mapping has traditionally been captured, managed and controlled by public sector agencies. Over the past decade with the value and potential of spatial information slowly being realised, and the gradual down-sizing of government mapping agencies, the private sector has now become a significant holder of spatial information. However, the exchange mechanisms for value adding of spatial information are still only primarily one-way. A range of institutional factors still limit the potential for sharing of spatial information across governments and the private sector and hence the development of spatial data infrastructures at local and national scales. An emerging trend in the spatial information and the wider information community is the growing use of open portals to collect and share information, both spatial and non-spatial. This trend indicates an acceptance of people to engage in a discourse over the internet which effectively creates an environment for the sharing and distribution of information. Volunteered information is now being embraced by many industries including spatial information providers and distributors. The question is “how can governments and industry effectively harness this phenomenon to improve their sharing and maintenance of spatial information?” This paper examines the motivation for sharing data through social networks and the trends in sharing data across open portals. The implications of volunteered geographic information through open portals such as Openstreetmap and Wikimapia such as data quality, ownership and liability will be discussed.