An exploration of Volunteered Geographic Information stakeholders

Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) has huge potential for influencing the use of geographic information systems. However, there is a wide range of individuals involved in this process, each with their own motivations for contributing and using volunteered data. This paper investigates the range of stakeholders involved with VGI, their relationships and the main tensions and issues involved. The research was based on a series of detailed interviews and theory-driven coding of data. From this, a Rich Picture (Monk, Howard 1998) was developed to graphically present and relate stakeholder relationship information. The findings have implications for how stakeholder groups may be described, and how VGI can lead to enhanced products and services

Inclusive service design: in search of better services

Service Design focuses on designing services which are usable and desirable from the users’ perspective, and efficient and different from the organizations’ perspective. However, users are diverse and possess a variety of capabilities, needs, and desires, which presents specific challenges for Service Designers. Inclusive Design is an approach to designing products and services that addresses the needs of the widest possible audience, irrespective of age or ability. Draw upon these two approaches, this paper aims to present the concept of inclusive service design as an essential element in designing better services. The potential benefits of such an approach were explored through a series of qualitative studies of the bus service in Guadalajara, Mexico. Based upon the research, several advantages for service improvement were identified, drawn from the richness of data generated by younger and older customers, and the uniqueness of the information gained from them. Likewise, the value of the big picture data obtained from stakeholders. This information highlights areas where service designers can help reduce the gap between what service providers do and what a broad range of users expect or need

Drivers' information requirements when navigating in an urban environment

Navigating in unfamiliar road environments is a common and demanding cognitive activity. If this cannot be accomplished successfully, there are implications for increased driver workload, delays due to navigation errors, potentially unsafe road behaviour such as late lane changes, and inappropriate traffic management. To enable successful navigation through such environments, it is necessary to understand what the navigation task entails, and what a driver’s corresponding information requirements are. This paper reports the results of a study that sought to identify what information is used by drivers when navigating within a range of urban driving environments, how this information is used, and what the implications are for the design of navigation aids

Incorporating landmarks in driver navigation system design: an overview of results from the REGIONAL project

This paper presents an overview of results from the 2 year REGIONAL project. The aims of REGIONAL were to undertake research to enable landmarks to be an integral feature of future vehicle navigation systems. Results from the project, including 5 empirical road-based trials, are summarised. The main findings were: landmarks were widely used by drivers as key navigation cues; the incorporation of good landmarks within navigation instructions has the potential to considerably enhance vehicle navigation systems; although a wide range of landmarks are potentially useful to a driver, only a limited set, which displayed key characteristics, were consistently effective as navigation cues

Relevance of volunteered geographic information in a real world context

Volunteered Geographic Information has the potential to offer value and usability benefits to end-users over and above that of Professional Geographic Information. For this to be accomplished, the user centred factors of both information types must be understood in detail. Through a series of focus groups, the differences between volunteer and professional information sources are investigated relative to the characteristics which are the most, or least relevant to the end-user. These findings have implications for how different forms of information may be most effectively utilised within different usage situations

Beyond navigation: driver requirements for location-enabled journey support

Beyond navigation: driver requirements for location-enabled journey suppor

Business cases, potential new functions and technology implementation plan

D5.3.1: Business cases, and potential new functions has been renamed within D5.3.1 as follows: ‘Business cases, and potential new functions and Technology Implementation Plan’ - to include also the Technology Implementation Plan, planned in the DoW as the main outcome from T5.3.1 Exploitable Result Cases. This Deliverable includes references to the main activities to be performed in WP 5.3 Facilitation of Exploitation and has strong links to other Work packages and Sub Projects activities

Designing for video: Investigating the contextual cues within viewing situations

The viewing of video increasingly occurs in a wide range of public and private environments via a range of static and mobile devices. The proliferation of content on demand and the diversity of the viewing situations means that delivery systems can play a key role in introducing audiences to contextually relevant content of interest whilst maximising the viewing experience for individual viewers. However, for video delivery systems to do this, they need to take into account the diversity of the situations where video is consumed, and the differing viewing experiences that users desire to create within them. This requires an ability to identify different contextual viewing situations as perceived by users. This paper presents the results from a detailed, multi-method, user-centred field study with 11 UK-based users of video-based content. Following a review of the literature (to identify viewing situations of interest on which to focus), data collection was conducted comprising observation, diaries, interviews and self-captured video. Insights were gained into whether and how users choose to engage with content in different public and private spaces. The results identified and validated a set of contextual cues that characterise distinctive viewing situations. Four archetypical viewing situations were identified: ‘quality time’, ‘opportunistic planning’, ‘sharing space but not content’ and ‘opportunistic self-indulgence’. These can be differentiated in terms of key contextual factors: solitary/shared experiences, public/private spaces and temporal characteristics. The presence of clear contextual cues provides the opportunity for video delivery systems to better tailor content and format to the viewing situation or additionally augment video services through social media in order to provide specific experiences sensitive to both temporal and physical contexts

Field Operational Test plans: TeleFOT deliverable D3.4.1

The aim of Deliverable 3.4.1 is to present the plans for the Field Operational Tests (FOT) to be conducted within the framework of the TeleFOT project. The Deliverable is structured into 9 main chapters, each dealing with a consecutive step of the procedure in order to define and present the overall approach developed within TeleFOT for testing nomadic devices in FOTs that are taking place in 8 different countries throughout Europe. The first chapter is dealing with the definition of functions to be tested and their distribution throughout the test sites, either large scale (LFOT) or detailed (DFOT), as well as a reference to the impact areas that these functions cover. In Chapter 2, the Use Cases that have been formulated, following the selection and definition of functions are being presented. Detailed tables of each use case are included in Annex I of the present. In order to avoid possible shortcomings in the duration of the tests, a contingency plan has been defined, taking into account different risks and proposing possible mitigation measures. The methodology and analysis of the contingency plan are included in Chapter 3. Following, in Chapter 4, an overview of the different sites is elaborated, through a short description of each site and its main evaluation aims. The detailed description of the test sites is elaborated in D3.3.1 of TeleFOT. The different assessment categories, according to which the analysis and assessment of the results of the FOTs will be performed, are presented in Chapter 5. More specifically, the main assessment categories, or impact areas, that are of focus within TeleFOT are: Safety, Mobility, Efficiency, Environment and User Uptake. Then, in Chapter 6, the evaluation methods to be used are presented. These include questionnaires, travel diaries, individual interviews, etc. The complete set of questionnaire templates to be used before, during and after the tests is listed in Annex II. Chapter 7 deals with the pre-assessment of the expected impact by first identifying the third-party stakeholders that are going to be involved in the process and their roles and then describing the expected impact per function. This is also linked with the contents of Chapter 8, in which the experimental assessment objectives are being discussed, of course at preliminary basis, as this will be further clarified during the elaboration of the tests. Finally, in Chapter 9, the detailed plans per site are illustrated, including the description of the study design, the baseline condition, the research questions, hypotheses (full list per impact area in Annex III) and indicators to be tested, the actual testing procedure, etc