In recent years there has been a very rapid expansion in the number and size of Web sites devoted to gathering geographic information supplied on a voluntary basis by users. This phenomenon of volunteered geographic information (VGI) is part of a more general trend of user-generated content (UGC) facilitated by a suite of technologies loosely known as Web 2.0.

VGI complements the traditional components of spatial data infrastructure by drawing upon the collective observations and expertise of citizens in their everyday lives. The more than six billion intelligent humans living on the planet are all potential contributors of useful information about their immediate surroundings. The key to realizing this potential lies in developing mechanisms for acquiring, synthesizing, and redistributing that information, and assuring its quality.

A Collaborative Research Project

Researchers from the University of California, Santa Barbara, The Ohio State University and the University of Washington have joined to undertake a systematic and empirically-informed study of VGI. The three areas of investigation are:

• Evaluating content and quality. Inventory and classify current VGI production; assess quality in terms of error and uncertainty.
• Methods and techniques. Developing and evaluating computational methods and techniques for synthesizing and analyzing VGI.
• Social processes. Examining the social production and implications of VGI, including the factors motivating and constraining contributors as well as privacy concerns.