GOOGLE MAPPING OF THE CAPITAL CITY OF NIGERIA - ABUJA: THE LARGEST MAPUP IN AFRICA

- guest blog post by Oludotun Babayemi, Cloneshouse Nigeria

By the end of 2013, over 30 million miles of places in 3,000 cities in 187 countries, (from 13 million in 22 countries in 2008) would have been added to Google Maps! Perhaps, you might want to ask – how are these data generated? A large percentage of that is from contributions from Google Map users through Google Map Maker. Others are from the internal effort from Google Map Maker offices; Google Places for Business and data from government and agencies.

There are millions of Google map users from around the world, but the most unique amongst them are the once in groups or teams that organize a Google supported “MapUp” where they choose a specific time to add places they know to Google Maps, especially because they reside or are familiar with this area. This informed the Abuja MapUp where over 100 people from different works of life came together in Abuja, to organize a 1-week long participatory mapping exercise at the end of January, 2013. It was tagged the largest mapup in Nigeria, well if not in Africa.

Moving from one part of the city to another, for 6 days, these Mappers printed out satellite images of their community from Google maps, reviewed and added places of interest to the imageries on paper while they move within streets and roads. Later in the day, they converge at a pub to upload all edits back into Google maps. “At the start, it looked so tedious, but later, I found out it could be so much fun” said a 16 – year old python programmer who joined the exercise.

For most of the participants, they were motivated by the opportunity to learn and collaborate with other people in giving back to their community. They believed having detailed and accurate places on Google maps will allow tourists, investors, visitors and even themselves navigate their way easily within the city. “Because we have local knowledge, and notwithstanding the little resources, we can help add hospitals, schools, roads, and pubs on Google maps, so people can easily find their way around town” said one of the participants. Awareness and co-ordination was done through emails, twitter, facebook and short messaging services (SMS), while official letter of invitation were sent to concerned government organizations.

As licensing and owning data still remains a big challenge in using Google maps, as highlighted by a participant from a government organization, it is still a “good worth doing” as Google as started developing technologies such as crisis response to help address global challenges and support innovative partners through grants, investments and in-kind resources. Consequently, if you will like to organize a mapup in your community and you need support, you can sign up at http://goo.gl/ikz8F

Information Management in Humanitarian Aid – by Louisa Schneider

What influences us every day in life, while making our decisions? What helps to asses, to evaluate, to define? The answer is – as simple as abstract – “information”. Who of us did never regret one decision, because he was wiser afterwards than before? Each person has his/her own wealth of information mixed with experiences, knowledge, prejudices, etc.




Today, the rapid developments in technology and software provide access to information and knowledge in immense abundance, faster than ever before (and mostly for free). In recent years countless information and knowledge databases have developed on the internet, used by millions or even billions of people. We call it the information and knowledge society (cf. Meier, 2006). One known quote from the German journalist and publicist Rudolf Augenstein (*1923, †2002; publ. Der Spiegel) is: “The number of those who are no more informed by too many information increases.” However, can there be an oversupply of information or is it just a question of adequate management?




In large companies and organizations information management was established to deal with this issue. Information is considered to be an important production factor. The one who is informed best can make the most rational decision. The same applies for humanitarian organizations (cf. Meier, 2006).




In the case of emergency and disaster, serious decisions, which have a tremendous reach and effects, have to be made within minutes. Therefore, information must be optimal accessible and communicable. A complete flow of information for all parties involved, especially decision-makers, is probably the most difficult task. Effective information management is the answer to this problem – or rather should be, since exactly at this point many weak points can be found nowadays.




The overwhelming humanitarian impact of the 2010 Earthquake in Haiti, or the Tsunami in the Indian Ocean 2004, generated tremendous coordination challenges, which are just two examples that still a lot needs to be done. Indeed, the challenges are enormous. Hundreds of organizations have to handle same or contradictory information, on this basis coordinate thousands of assistants, specialists and goods – until aid get where it is required. Having learned something from previous mistakes, new approaches are discussed and devised in the scientific discourse recently. Information and communication tools to support the work of humanitarian organizations are to be developed (Van de Walle & Dugdale, 2012). The activity of VGI opens up great potential to get real time information from disaster areas. Nevertheless, good management of the information is indispensable. We will see to what extend mankind will be able to manage and deal with the new invented forms of getting and spreading information.




List of literature


Meier, A. (2006). Informationsmanagement für NPO's, NGO's et al. Fribourg: Springer.


Van de Walle, B., & Dugdale, J. (2012). Information management and humanitarian relief coordination: findings from the Haiti earthquake response. Int. J. Business Continuity and Risk Management, 4, S. 278-305.

VGI in Humanitarian Help - by Lena Reitschuster

On the 12th of January 2012 the earth was shaking in Haiti with a magnitude of 7.0. Haiti’s capital lied in ruins. Thousands of people were homeless in seconds and about 300.000 people died.

The world was shocked and a lot of people wanted to support and to help the Haitians with dealing with this terrible catastrophe. Many who could not actually go there and help, donated money. But the worldwide OpenStreetMap community found a different way to contribute. With satellite images provided for free they started tracing roads and buildings from far away to create an online map of Port au Prince. This way they supported rescue strategies and still support the cleaning-up operations in creating a free map that is free for everyone and every organization to use.

A major role in this remote mapping played the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT). They tried to coordinate the remote mapping and held trainings shortly after the earthquake so that people could use the pre disaster map in various ways.

But what is HOT? The Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team was founded in 2009 and consists today of 44 members with elected broad members who form the core HOT team. They started off with post disaster mapping using OpenStreetMap as a tool for creating an online map of the disaster affected region to support “especially in places where base map data is often scarce, out of date, or rapidly changing” (HOT Homepage - http://hot.openstreetmap.org/). They see themselves as a link between the traditional Humanitarian Responders and the OpenStreetMap Community.

And what is OpenStreetMap? 

“…the project that creates and distributes free geographic data for the world" (OSM Wiki).

        OpenStreetMap was founded by Steve Coast in 2007. He was frustrated by the restrictions the officials have for maps in the UK. And so he started off creating OpenStreetMap as a free and open map for everyone.

        Since then the software, various editing tools, apps and the collection of the geographic data was completely done by volunteers. With gatherings called “Mapping Parties” people were trained to map their neighbourhoods and cities. From there people started mapping all around the world and contributed not only data but plenty of ideas of how to use this free map.

        For further interest please look at some of these websites:

         -          HOT: http://hot.openstreetmap.org/

         -          OSM Wiki: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Main_Page

         -          HOT maintained page about how to map on OpenStreetMap: http://learnosm.org/en/

Who are volunteers? About the motivation of "VGI-contributor" and "Volunteer and Technical Communities" - by Robin Peters

The impact of volunteered geographic information (VGI) is increasing. They offer a huge potential for private companies as well as government agencies or other organizations. At the latest after the earthquake in Haiti 2010 the work of volunteers has even shown the high benefit of VGI in humanitarian emergencies. Providing up-to-date mapped information was a great assistance for the relief organizations on-site [1]. But examining only the generated geographic information does not meet the whole phenomenon of VGI. To get a whole view of VGI and its potential, we have to consider two sides: In addition to the geographic information especially the volunteers play a central role, who generate the information resp. data in the first place [2]. For this reason it is of great interest, how people become such volunteers, why they contribute without consideration. What is their motivation

Particularly, the Web 2.0 has provided a necessary framework to enable the rapid rise of VGI-contributor's activity ‒ besides other technologies, such as the spread of GPS-capable devices [3]. All this makes it possible that today users can be producers at the same time, becoming so-called produser [2]. But new technologies and the access to them are not sufficient factors to explain VGI-contribution, the individual motivation plays a key role. To understand VGI-contributors, it is important to consider their specific characteristics in more detail. VGI-contributors have different backgrounds, experience and knowledge - in short: they are a heterogeneous group. In addition, each VGI project or platform may have different structures and goals. Summarized all this affects the motivation of every individual to contribute [4].

In recent years, more often volunteers got together ‒ often technically-skilled people, who are adept among others in social media and geographic information system ‒ forming Volunteer & Technical Communities (V&TC), such as The Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team or Ushahidi. Their work and proceeding provide advantages and resources of which common relief organizations can benefit [5].

Regarding the mentioned potential of VGI-contributors and V&TCs, an intended aim should be to increase the motivation to participate in VGI-projects, to inspire more people to voluntarily contribute and to keep already active VGI-contributors. Despite the advantages there exist different possibilities to make the work of V&TCs more effective [1].

To handle these issues and exploit the full potential of VGI-contributors, the whole process of volunteerism has to be considered. Volunteers have different expectations and requests in their voluntarily activities [6]. In this respect it is important to consider the heterogeneity of VGI-contributors. The motivations can range from altruism over fun to the expectation to gain personal or even monetary benefit [3]. It seems to be crucial that VGI-projects must try to consider and adapt their structures to VGI-contributors' motivations to attract them. How can people be convinced to contribute in a VGI-context?

References

1. Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (2010) Disaster Relief 2.0: The Future of Information Sharing in Humanitarian Emergencies. Washington, D.C. and Berkshire, UK: UN Foundation & Vodafone Foundation Technology Partnership, 2011. 72 p.

2. Coleman, D. J., Georgiadou, Y. & Labonte, J. (2009) Volunteered Geographic Information: The Nature and Motivation of Produsers. In: International Journal of Spatial Data Infrastructures Research, 2009, Vol. 4: 332-358 p.

3. Goodchild, M. F. (2007) Citizens as sensors: the world of volunteered geography. In: GeoJournal, 2007 69(4): 211-221 p.

4. Budhathoki, N. R. (2010) Participants' motivations to contribute geographic information in an online community. PhD Dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 115 p.

5. Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery Labs (2010) Volunteer Technology Communities: Open Development. Available on web: https://www.gfdrr.org/volunteer-technology-communities-open-development last access April 26, 2013.

6. Clary, E. G. & Snyder M. (1999) The Motivations to Volunteer: Theoretical and Practical Considerations. In: Current Directions in Psychological Science, 1999 8(5): 156-159 p.

Citizen Science: Participative Methods and VGI - by Ronja Redlich

-->Growing Participation in Citizen Science- More and more amateurs are collecting data and also analysing it.

Citizen Science is a category of activities within volunteered geographic information (VGI). Elements of collection, analysis and distribution of information and participation by volunteers, for the benefit of science and knowledge of humanity characterizes the projects of Citizen Science.

Citizen Science does not necessarily focus on geospatial information only. In Ornithology but also in Meteorology, Citizen Science has existed for a long time. For example the project “Christmas Bird Watch” has been going on since 1900. Many volunteers also participated in meteorological observations. These projects need volunteers that spend their leisure time observing and collecting data.

Due to the emergence of a new infrastructure, the Web and the Internet, it was possible to join in other projects of Citizen Science. Without being a specialist, everyone who has access to the Internet, GPS receivers or a mobile phone can help.100,000 volunteers are part of the project “GalaxyZoo” and class galaxies is one of the most developed activities in Citizen Science (Haklay 2012). Another example is SETI@home where volunteers’ computers were used to find extra-terrestrial life. Some of these projects such as Rosetta@home are constructed as a game. The aim of Rosetta@home is to find new protein structures. The volunteers are motivated by playing, competing or working together with other participants. The result can be a new solution how to fold the proteins (Hand 2010).

However, you can also find activities where collecting location information is an important part. Haklay calls them Geographical Citizen Science and it has the same definition as VGI (Haklay 2012).

Through the new technologies, it is a great way to get normal, non-professional people involved in academic research. Nevertheless questions regarding the quality and the accuracy of the data are serious issues and must be taken into account.

All in all, Citizen Science has been going on for years and is still growing. Considering the process and development of the projects, it is pretty impressive what the results can be.


Haklay, M. (2012): Citizen Science and Volunteered Geographic Information – overview and typology of participation. In: Sui, D.Z., Elwood, S. and Goodchild, M.F. (eds.), (2013): Crowdsourcing Geographic Knowledge. Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) in Theory and Practice. Dordrecht; Heidelberg: Springer. 396 S.

Hand, E. (2010): Citizen science: People power. Nature 466, 685-687 S.

Neogeography and Volunteered Geographic Information: Theories and Concepts - By Sarah Labusga

A typical geographer: Map, compass and notebook. How long will he still exist in a world full of computers, cellphones and internet.
By now ordinary persons take tasks, that were done by agencies and civil service specialized for geodata. Why? How can it be, that unlearned people deal with geodata? When, where and why do they do it? Neogeography and Volunteered Geographic Information are terms that relate to this topic. They describe concepts of this new phenomena and define unclear questions.

First of all there should be a look on the server-client-model and how it changes. Until now it said, that a client sends a request to a server. This server edits it and, if possible, sends an answer back to the client. What changes now, is the role of the client. He is no longer the inactive part but becomes active by dealing with the contents of the internet by himself and shaping them. A central term is “Web 2.0”. Web 2.0, also called Social Web or Social Media, is understood as the age of the internet in which the consumer (user) becomes a so called prosumer. The user does not only download stuff but he also feeds in own website content. He can further edit, correct, comment and value many things that are already online. The new user is not only consumer but more a producer in the world of this unbelievable network. Wikipedia and Wikimapia, Flickrr, Twitter and Facebook, as well as OpenStreetMap or GoogleMaps are just a few examples.

 



In addition to the social web there is another conception which is very meaningful and interesting in reference to integrate users in designing the internet and its content. Especially now, in the age of smart phones, a huge part of population has access to the internet (almost) always and everywhere. Influenced by this fact the idea of VGI (Volunteered Geographic Information) gets more importance. It is used for example in crisis management. Behind the idea of VGI there are many technologies, that make fast and simple handling with spatial data possible. First of all, there is geocoding to get a reference. Without geocoding we could not be able to make precise localization, even if we have the place names. To help for example to reconstruct an accident situation, we need to have coordinates in order to make clear statements about the position. A simple tool for first steps is GPS (Global Positioning System). Also Geotags, Graphics and broadband communication become highly significant so as to get localized in a simple, fast and very accurate way.

All those aspects stand under the topic of Neogeography. The term describes the return of geography in the area of information systems, mainly by becoming a strong part of Web 2.0. Neogeographers are equipped with new tools like GoogleMap Creator or MapTube, all services, that are called mash-ups. Mash-up is the name for websites that are able to integrate data from all kinds of sources and connect them to a Single-User-Service. Of course there is many more concepts coming up with the social web like the Spatial Data Infrastructure, that is nowadays seen as a patchwork-system. The capture, edition and initialization of geodata is not anymore only the challenge of agencies but now the duty of many participants – companies, community facilities and private persons. The agencies should have the new task of arranging a standard for this spread work, in order to help combining all results.

Yet another topic, which I think is very impressing, is the idea of “Humans as sensors”. The model characterizes three different sensors. Those, that are static and inactive (thermometer), and those, that are carried by animals, humans and vehicles. The third and new sensor is seen in the human himself. A human can five senses and his intelligence to experience and interpret what is going on around him. If he notes what he sees, feels, hears and so on, he can help to collect spatial information. Sounds like a great thing, coming back to trust people and their capability to value. Are we leaving the image of a unreliable and failing human behind us?

It seems to be a great chance, everybody can join. Everyone? I do not own a smart phone...


References:

Schindler, M. & Liller, T. (2012): PR im Social Web. Das Handbuch für Kommunikationsprofis ; Medienwandel und Web 2.0 verstehen, von Praktikern und Experten lernen, nachhaltige Strategien entwickeln. Köln: O'Reilly.

Goodchild, M. (2007): Citizens as sensors: the world of volunteered geography. Online:Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

Hudson-Smith, A.; Crooks, A.; Gibin, M.; Milton, R. & Batty, M. (2009): NeoGeography and Web 2.0: concepts, tools and applications. In: Journal of Location Based Services Vol. 3, No. 2, S.118–145.

Welcome!

This blog is a companion to the course Volunteered Geographic Information: Fundamentals and Applications in Humanitarian Affairs and Crisis Management offered in the GI Sicence Research Group of the Institute of Geography of the University of Heidelberg by Prof. Dr. João Porto de Albuquerque (Visiting Scholar, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil), Prof. Dr. Alexander Zipf (Chair of the GI Science Research Group), and Svend Schellhorn (Master Student in Geography).
We will discuss in this course Volunteered Geographic Information, that is information which is collected, gathered and disseminated by citizens and volunteers. The most prominent example of VGI today is probably the open mapping innitative OpenStreetMap. The emphasis of our course lies in the emerging use of VGI for managing humanitarian crisis events, including the role of Digital Humanitarian Volunteers and Volunteer and Technical Communities (V&TCs).

This blog will bring contributions from the students for each of themes that we will cover in the course:

1. Neogeography und "Volunteered Geographic Information" - Theory and Basic Concepts
2. Citizen Science: Participative Methods and VGI
3. Who are the Volunteers? The motivation of VGI contributors and V&TCs
4. OpenStreetMap: Mapping in the crowdsourcing principle (HOT OSM as an example)
5. Basic Concepts in Disaster Management: Risk, Vulnerability and Resilience
6. Disaster Management Cycle: Preparedness, Response, Recovery, Mitigation
7. Actors in the Humanitarian Aid
8. Information Management in Humanitarian Affairs
9. GIS and Remote Sensing in Disaster Management: Potential and Application Cases
10. The role of social media in Disaster Management
11. Crisis Mapping: Background and Potential
12. Software Tools for Crisis Mapping and Social Media Monitoring
13. Case Study: Social media and Corwdsourcing in Haiti
14. Challenges for VGI in Disaster Management: Credibility and Quality

We warmly welcome you to check out our next posts and join the discussion!