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Situating the Adoption of VGI by Government

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Crowdsourcing Geographic Knowledge

Abstract

Governments have long been active online, providing services and information to citizens. With the development of Web 2.0 technology, many governments are considering how they can better engage with and accept citizen input online, particularly through the gathering and use of volunteered geographic information (VGI). Though there are several benefits to governments accepting VGI, the process of adopting VGI as a support to decision-making is not without challenge. We identify three areas of challenge to the adoption of VGI by government; these are the costs of VGI, the challenges for governments to accept non-expert data of questionable accuracy and formality, and the jurisdictional issues in VGI. We then identify three ways that governments can situate themselves to accept VGI—by formalizing the VGI collection process, through encouraging collaboration between levels of government, and by investigating the participatory potential of VGI.

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Acknowledgements

This research has been funded by the Quebec Ministère des services gouvernementaux program “Appui au passage à la société de l’information” and the Canadian GEOIDE Network of Centres of Excellence in Geomatics.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography and Environmental Management, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada

    Peter A. Johnson

  2. Department of Geography, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada

    Renee E. Sieber

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  1. Peter A. Johnson
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  2. Renee E. Sieber
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Correspondence to Peter A. Johnson .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. Geography, Ohio State University, N. Oval Mall 154, Columbus, 43210, Ohio, USA

    Daniel Sui

  2. Dept. Geography, University of Washington, Seattle, 98195-3550, Washington, USA

    Sarah Elwood

  3. College of Letters & Science, Dept. Geography, University of California, Santa Barbara, Ellison Hall, Santa Barbara, 93106-4060, California, USA

    Michael Goodchild

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Johnson, P.A., Sieber, R.E. (2013). Situating the Adoption of VGI by Government. In: Sui, D., Elwood, S., Goodchild, M. (eds) Crowdsourcing Geographic Knowledge. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4587-2_5

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