an exploration of volunteered geographic information stakeholders
DESCRIPTION
Presentation from the 18th GISRUK conference (14-16 April 2010) presenting some characteristics of the stakeholder users of VGI.TRANSCRIPT
An Exploration
of VGI Stakeholders
Christopher J. Parker
GISRUK - 15th April 2010
Volunteered Geographic Information I
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1 Introduction
Volunteered Geographic Information o The creation of geographic information by largely untrained volunteers
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Day 0 Day 10
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2 Research Aims
o The nature of VGI users:o Who is producing VGI?o What are the relationships
between stakeholders?o What data flow exists
between stakeholders?
o The value of VGI to users:o What perceptual benefits
may be received from the use of VGI?
o What concerns or tensions are felt by users of VGI which may affect the user experience of VGI systems?
o How do different types of users perceive the information they are producing/ utilising?
o How do the theories of consumer value associate with user perceptions of VGI? 3
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o Consumerso “A Person who make a decision to use a
product or service for personal use”
o Special Interest Mapping Groupso “Individuals who come together to
collaboratively achieve some shared mapping goal”
o Local Communitieso “Local people who have a common desire
to protect and improve their local area”
o Professionalso “Stakeholders who are employed by
organisations that use geographic data to perform their business activities, whether to analyse, report, navigate or otherwise maintain systems.” 4
4 Different Forms of Stakeholder
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3 Methodology
o 15 respondents o OpenStreetMapo Google Mapso GI Professionals
o Semi structured interviews
o Focused on Personal Value o ‘snowball’ non-probability
sampling
o In depth analysis with NVivo 8
o Thematic analysis; 208 salient themes
o Compared stakeholder groups against one another
o Creation of a Rich Picture from results
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5 Data Analysis and Results
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Consumers select their map product to best fit their circumstances with little loyalty to the brand:
Apart from using it like everybody does in terms of looking for places and directions, I’ve used Google My Maps, at the moment mainly for my own use... I’ve used it in a work context because I was trying to organise a meeting.
5 Data Analysis and Results
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Special Interest Mapping Groups (SIMGs), contributors (SIMGCs) and professionals are particularly vested in the use of their groups’ map:
I’ll often check out to see if the local CTC has a website [same map project involved in] to see what’s on there. And being able to find where the tea places are in the locality is quite useful.
5 Data Analysis and Results
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SIMGCs produce data for group members and external parties to use their data:
It’s mainly just a project to collect data... we hope other people will use it for whatever they feel free to use it for.
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SIMGCs are less concerned about inaccuracies as they have a vested interest in improving the data - seeing gaps as opportunities:
It has its faults but there are no glaring errors... It’s very much if you don’t like it you can fix it yourself which appeals to my, well, sense of working I suppose.
5 Data Analysis and Results
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SIMGs and professionals can be in constant tension with each other as their agendas and ideologies do not necessarily fit with each other.
It kind of annoys me that Google are potentially using the same kind of idea. [OpenStreetMap SIMGC]
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Between professional bodies, business rivalry may exist but they work alongside each other.
I will be chatting to my opposite number at Microsoft, and my opposite number at Google... we shouldn't even be friendly for Christ's sake according to the old fashioned rules of how you do business, and those old fashioned rules don't really apply any more.
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6 Conclusion
o The main stakeholder groups are identified
o Consumers, Special Interest Mapping Groups, Local Communities and Professionals
o The Rich Picture effectively provided context to the research outcomes and represented stakeholder relationships in an easily accessible fashion.
o Different stakeholders will perceive elements of VGI very differently, based on which stakeholder group they may be identified with.
o If considering value as the improvement to a stakeholder’s condition through utilising VGI, a salient increase in stakeholder value can be observed in all functional and work related perceptions
o The implication of this work should be to provide a framework of VGI stakeholders to be utilised within future user-centred VGI research
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7 www.UserGeneratedDesign.co.uk