Map Gretel: social map service supporting a national mapping agency in data collection

Abstract

This study presents results from an on-going social map service pilot that supports a national mapping agency (NMA) in data collection. Results from the pilot show that a VGI map service benefits both citizens and the NMA; the data quality is high enough to suit the needs of an NMA; citizens obtain a means to contribute and be involved in ameliorating maps. The social map service works also as a citizen-to-citizen communication channel as all the contributions are immediately visible to all users. Based on the results of this study, VGI should be further integrated with NMA processes in the future. One way of improving the integration are via services offered to both citizens and NMA employees that borrow features from existing social network services but also from popular games. Commenting, voting and gamification elements can be integrated with the VGI services to benefit both citizens and NMAs. Due to the numerous challenges of VGI the European national mapping agencies involvement in using citizens as data collectors is low. It is, however, within the NMA’s grasp to develop the role of VGI in NMA processes further and to make VGI collection fun.