A qualitative enquiry into OpenStreetMap making

Based on a case study on the OpenStreetMap community, this paper provides a contextual and embodied understanding of the user-led, user-participatory and user-generated produsage phenomenon. It employs Grounded Theory, Social Worlds Theory, and qualitative methods to illuminate and explores the produsage processes of OpenStreetMap making, and how knowledge artefacts such as maps can be collectively and collaboratively produced by a community of people, who are situated in different places around the world but engaged with the same repertoire of mapping practices. The empirical data illustrate that OpenStreetMap itself acts as a boundary object that enables actors from different social worlds to co-produce the Map through interacting with each other and negotiating the meanings of mapping, the mapping data and the Map itself. The discourses also show that unlike traditional maps that black-box cartographic knowledge and offer a single dominant perspective of cities or places, OpenStreetMap is an embodied epistemic object that embraces different world views. The paper also explores how contributors build their identities as an OpenStreetMaper alongside some other identities they have. Understanding the identity-building process helps to understand mapping as an embodied activity with emotional, cognitive and social repertoires

Open source and consumption

This article illuminates the common concepts and widely-observed practices concerning open source. Positioning 'open-source' as a common practice and a viable methodology for collaborative participatory co-production in today's knowledge society, the article explains how open-source co-production participatory methods, now also seen in mundane cultural, food and beverage production and consumption, evolve from the Free/Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) movement, what motivate people to participate, and how such practices implicate in different sectors in contemporary societies. This article argues that the open-source practices resemble the amateur DIY cultures and can be considered as a lifestyle, elected and subscribed by some. Open source suggests that consumption is no longer simply a passive activity; it could be a personal statement, a liberating, creative and varied experience

Une infrastructure élusive. Aménagements cyclables et troubles de la description dans OpenStreetMap

National audienceThis article investigates the practice of participative mapping by examining the creation of a geographic database on infrastructure for bicycles. Based on the exploration of OpenStreetMap discussions, the authors draw up an inventory of problems that amateur cartographers encounter with regard to description. Prior to the stabilization of categories, the contributors' doubts reveal an elusive urban infrastructure that contrasts with the system which is ordered and structured by policies. These doubts crystallize around three levels of resistance to the creation of a database: first, in discussions, infrastructure for bicycles seems to be heterogeneous and changing; second, it is already organized in versions that are difficult to link up to one another; and, third, it is actualized in users' practices that are difficult to break away from. By limiting the analysis to problems of description, this article highlights a particular aspect of the contributors' experience: collective inquiry at its most open. In parallel with a perspective that favours agreement, the role of procedures in debates, or the contributors' motivation, this approach serves to document the phase of doubt and trial characterizing exploration as such, before order is established.Cet article examine la pratique de la cartographie participative en étudiant la fabrique d'une base de données géographiques qui recense les aménagements cyclables. À travers l'exploration de liste de discussions d'OpenStreetMap, il propose un inventaire des troubles de la description que rencontrent les cartographes amateurs. En amont de la stabilisation des catégories, les doutes des contributeurs donnent à voir une infrastructure urbaine élusive, en contraste avec son caractère ordonné et structuré par des politiques publiques. Ces doutes se cristallisent autour de trois niveaux de résistance à la mise en base de données. Dans les discussions, les aménagements cyclables apparaissent hétérogènes et changeants ; déjà ordonnés dans des versions difficiles à articuler ; actualisés dans des pratiques d'usagers dont il est difficile de se détacher. En arrêtant le mouvement de l'analyse aux troubles de la description, cet article met en lumière un aspect particulier de l'expérience des contributeurs : l'enquête collective dans ses moments les plus ouverts. En paralèlle d'une perspective qui privilégierait la dynamique de l'accord, le rôle des procédures dans les débats, ou encore la motivation des contributeurs, cette posture permet de documenter le temps du doute et l'épreuve que constitue, avant la mise en ordre, l'exploration en tant que telle

Quantitative analysis of anthropogenic morphologies based on multi-temporal high-resolution topography

Human activities have reshaped the geomorphology of landscapes and created vast anthropogenic geomorphic features, which have distinct characteristics compared with landforms produced by natural processes. High-resolution topography from LiDAR has opened avenues for the analysis of anthropogenic geomorphic signatures, providing new opportunities for a better understanding of Earth surface processes and landforms. However, quantitative identification and monitoring of such anthropogenic signature still represent a challenge for the Earth science community. The purpose of this contribution is to explore a method for monitoring geomorphic changes and identifying the driving forces of such changes. The study was carried out on the Eibar watershed in Spain. The proposed method is able to quantitatively detect anthropogenic geomorphic changes based on multi-temporal LiDAR topography, and it is based on a combination of two techniques: the DEM of Difference (DoD) and the Slope Local Length of Auto-correlation (SLLAC). First, we tested the capability of the SLLAC and derived parameters to distinguish different types of anthropogenic geomorphologies in 5 study case at a small scale. Second, we calculated the DoD to quantify the geomorphic changes between 2008 and 2016. Based on the proposed approach, we classified the whole basin into three categories of geomorphic changes (natural, urban or mosaic areas). The urban area had the most clustered and largest geomorphic changes, followed by the mosaic area and the natural area. This research might help to identify and monitoring anthropogenic geomorphic changes over large areas, to schedule sustainable environmental planning, and to mitigate the consequences of anthropogenic alteration

Analysis of interaction and co-editing patterns amongst OpenStreetMap contributors

OpenStreetMap (OSM) is a very well known and popular Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) project on the Internet. In January 2013 OSM gained its one millionth registered member. Several studies have shown that only a small percentage of these registered members carry out the large majority of the mapping and map editing work. In this article we discuss results from a social-network based analysis of seven major cities in OSM in an effort to understand if there is quantitative evidence of interaction and collaboration between OSM members in these areas. Are OSM contributors working on their own to build OSM databases in these cities or is there evidence of collaboration between OSM contributors? We find that in many cases high frequent contributors (“senior mappers”) perform very large amounts of mapping work on their own but do interact (edit/update) contributions from lower frequency contributors

Bridges and Barriers: An Exploration of Engagements of the Research Community with the OpenStreetMap Community

The academic community frequently engages with OpenStreetMap (OSM) as a data source and research subject, acknowledging its complex and contextual nature. However, existing literature rarely considers the position of academic research in relation to the OSM community. In this paper we explore the extent and nature of engagement between the academic research community and the larger communities in OSM. An analysis of OSM-related publications from 2016 to 2019 and seven interviews conducted with members of one research group engaged in OSM-related research are described. The literature analysis seeks to uncover general engagement patterns while the interviews are used to identify possible causal structures explaining how these patterns may emerge within the context of a specific research group. Results indicate that academic papers generally show few signs of engagement and adopt data-oriented perspectives on the OSM project and product. The interviews expose that more complex perspectives and deeper engagement exist within the research group to which the interviewees belong, e.g., engaging in OSM mapping and direct interactions based on specific points-of-contact in the OSM community. Several conclusions and recommendations emerge, most notably: that every engagement with OSM includes an interpretive act which must be acknowledged and that the academic community should act to triangulate its interpretation of the data and OSM community by diversifying their engagement. This could be achieved through channels such as more direct interactions and inviting members of the OSM community to participate in the design and evaluation of research projects and programmes

Gobierno digital y gestión administrativa en una municipalidad provincial de la región Amazonas

En el presente trabajo de investigación el objetivo general es determinar la relación entre GD y GA en una municipalidad provincial de la región Amazonas. para la presente investigación se utiliza un diseño básico no experimental de nivel correlacional con enfoque cuantitativo, la población y muestra son de 85 colaboradores los mismos que son los trabajadores de la municipalidad provincial. Como técnica para la recolección de datos se utiliza la encuesta y como instrumento el cuestionario que consta de dos variables con 4 dimensiones cada uno, para la valoración de las respuestas se utiliza la escala de Likert. Como resultado de la investigación se determina mediante el estadístico de Rho de Spearman que existe una correlación positiva moderada de 0.490 entre las variables de GD y GA, con valor de significancia de 0.000, siendo este menor a 0.005, por lo que se rechaza la H0 y se acepta la H1, concluyendo de esta manera que existe una correlación entre GD y GA en una municipalidad provincial de la región Amazonas

Bridges and barriers : an exploration of engagements of the research community with the OpenStreetMap community

The academic community frequently engages with OpenStreetMap (OSM) as a data source and research subject, acknowledging its complex and contextual nature. However, existing literature rarely considers the position of academic research in relation to the OSM community. In this paper we explore the extent and nature of engagement between the academic research community and the larger communities in OSM. An analysis of OSM-related publications from 2016 to 2019 and seven interviews conducted with members of one research group engaged in OSM-related research are described. The literature analysis seeks to uncover general engagement patterns while the interviews are used to identify possible causal structures explaining how these patterns may emerge within the context of a specific research group. Results indicate that academic papers generally show few signs of engagement and adopt data-oriented perspectives on the OSM project and product. The interviews expose that more complex perspectives and deeper engagement exist within the research group to which the interviewees belong, e.g., engaging in OSM mapping and direct interactions based on specific points-of-contact in the OSM community. Several conclusions and recommendations emerge, most notably: that every engagement with OSM includes an interpretive act which must be acknowledged and that the academic community should act to triangulate its interpretation of the data and OSM community by diversifying their engagement. This could be achieved through channels such as more direct interactions and inviting members of the OSM community to participate in the design and evaluation of research projects and programmes

BLURRING BOUNDARIES, RESHAPING TECHNOLOGIES, MERGING KNOW-HOWS: A REFLEXIVE APPROACH TO ICT4D IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Since the Millennium Development Goals first met digital media, initiatives harnessing ICTs to improve health services, empower civil society, enhance emergency response and increase the competitiveness of small producers have proliferated across the Global South. In particular, the widespread adoption of mobile telephony has been increasingly shaping aid policies and coalescing strategies of actors driven by diverse aims: Ngo’s cultivating innovation for social change, businesspeople reaping profits at the bottom of the pyramid, activists seeking greater political accountability and governments (sometime) willing to concede it, but in their own terms. The emphasis on the transformational potential of the ICTs often conceals tensions arising from the encounter of different ways of knowing and of acting and from the emergence of new socio-technical arrangements in which deep-seated dichotomies are challenged: profit/no-profit; surveillance/sousveillance; civil society/uncivil society; formal economy/informal economy. Processes of appropriation and reshaping of technological innovations problematize linear views of technology transfer based on the North-South axis and call upon academics to elaborate new frameworks and methodologies to grasp the ongoing transformations