Abstract
Large-scale citizen involvement in disaster mapping is relatively recent yet impactful. Humanitarian OpenStreetMap (HOT) and Public Lab, two particular communities at the forefront of this shift, formed in response to the 2010 Haiti earthquake and the 2010 BP Oil Spill, respectively. This chapter compares and contrasts how these online communities employ crowdsourcing to aid in disaster response efforts. I employ OpenStreetMap (OSM) Analytics; Social Network Analysis; interviews with members from both mapping communities; my own experiences contributing via participant observation; and insights from OSM Users’ Diaries and Public Lab research notes to do so. I also analyze community strategies and interface logistics involved in the work of both groups. Both communities are the result of ecologies of mobile applications, commercial imagery sets, government agencies, NGOs, and concerned citizens. The campaigns that result from these ecologies are branded as more efficient, cost-effective, and resonant with current political, economic, and social transformations. To help identify these changes, I overview imagined public uses of GPS explored within President Bill Clinton’s and President George W. Bush’s administrations. While the disaster response application fits within these intended uses on various levels, the scale of crowdsourcing applications demonstrated through these projects was largely unanticipated. In taking a historical perspective to the public use of GPS, I discuss how the rise of crowdsourced approaches correlates with an increased public unease with more traditional government responses to natural disasters that undergirds these communities.
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Notes
- 1.
National Day of Civic Hacking (2018).
- 2.
- 3.
Hass et al. (2015, pp. 1643–1644).
- 4.
See Jemielniak (2014, p. 13).
- 5.
Richard Armitage hosts Ask the White House (2004), Bryan (2016), Charles G. Groat hosts Ask the White House (2004); “Fact Sheet: U.S.-EU Summit: Agreement on GPS-Galileo Cooperation,” George W. Bush White House Archives, accessed June 26, 2004, https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2004/06/20040626-8.html; “H.R. 2561—Department of Defense Appropriations Bill, FY 2000,” George W. Bush White House Archives, July 21, 1999, https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/omb/legislative/sap/106-1/HR2561-r.html; Press Briefing by FEMA Director David Paulison (2006), Remarks by President George Bush, Prime Minister of Ireland Bertie Ahern, and President of the European Commission Romano Prodi in Press Availability (2004), President Discusses War on Terror at Naval Academy Commencement (2005), U.S.—Canada Smart Border/30 Point Action Plan Update (2002).
- 6.
For more on these initiatives, see Kamensky (2001), PUBLIC LAW 107–347—DEC. 17 2002 (2017), and The President's New Freedom Initiative: The 2007 Progress Report (2017). For a media studies perspective on how Reinventing Government’s view on welfare specifically sublimates into media forms, see Ouellette and Hay (2008).
- 7.
Warren (2010, p. 39).
- 8.
Partnerships (2017).
- 9.
See Radiant Earth (2018).
- 10.
Missing Maps (2018).
- 11.
Ibid.
- 12.
Urban Innovations: Crowdsourcing Non-Camp Refugee Data (2017).
- 13.
About Us (2018).
- 14.
Scoles (2017).
- 15.
“Use of CC BY 4.0 licensed data in OpenStreetMap,” OpenStreetMap Blog, accessed August 13, 2018, https://blog.openstreetmap.org/2017/03/17/use-of-cc-by-data/. See also Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (2018).
- 16.
See Ann Chen, “Balloon mapping False Creek,” National Geographic blog, last modified March 30, 2015, https://blog.nationalgeographic.org/2015/03/30/balloon-mapping-false-creek/ and Ann Chen, “False Creek, Vancouver, January 2015,” MapKnitter, accessed June 4, 2018, https://mapknitter.org/maps/false-creek-vancouver-january-2015.
- 17.
See Dolan (2010, pp. 33–50). I find it worth mentioning here that, as Evgeny Morozov does with digital mapping, Dolan points out that the emergence of digital adhocracies can have both positive and negative valences, such as with hate groups. For a condensed take on Morozov’s connections in this regard, see Warren, “Grassroots Mapping,” p. 24.
- 18.
- 19.
“How Public Lab is Funded.”
- 20.
Willie, “Jakarta Flood Kite Mapping,” February 5, 2014, https://publiclab.org/notes/Willie/02-05-2014/jakarta-flood-kite-mapping; Stevie, “Stormwater Workshop Two Report: Community Mapping,” May 7, 2017, https://publiclab.org/notes/stevie/05-02-2017/stormwater-workshop-two-report-community-mapping.
- 21.
The network visualization omits labels for the nodes in accordance with the aim of this project to ensure anonymity. The intended point—that the network is stabilized mainly by the contributions of a handful of gatekeepers and one clear cog—does not require them.
- 22.
PBS Newshour (2018).
- 23.
Hurricane Harvey: Flooding, Population, and Known Hazard Map (2018).
- 24.
Cartoscope (2018).
- 25.
Public Lab Cartography Collective (2018).
- 26.
Dittus and Capra (2017, p. 40:18).
- 27.
Law et al. (2016, pp. 4098–4110).
- 28.
Anderson-Tarver (2015).
- 29.
Zheng et al. (2011, p. 79).
- 30.
Chandler and Kapelner (2013, p. 123).
- 31.
For research on OSM contributions in the event of earthquakes specifically, see Ahmouda et al. (2018, pp. 195–212).
- 32.
Coetzee et al. (2018, pp. 41–42).
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Prutzer, N. (2019). The Mapping Crowd: Macrotask Crowdsourcing in Disaster Response. In: Khan, VJ., Papangelis, K., Lykourentzou, I., Markopoulos, P. (eds) Macrotask Crowdsourcing. Human–Computer Interaction Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-12334-5_10
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