A geovisual analysis of social influence in OpenStreetMap construction
Open Access
- Author:
- Quinn, Sterling Daniel
- Graduate Program:
- Geography
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- February 23, 2016
- Committee Members:
- Alan Maceachren, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Anthony C Robinson, Committee Member
Clio Maria Andris, Committee Member
Guoray Cai, Special Member - Keywords:
- volunteered geographic information
OpenStreetMap
critical cartography
geovisual analytics - Abstract:
- With the Web 2.0-induced rise of online user-generated content, digital databases of "volunteered geographic information" (VGI) are beginning to emerge, ranging from locational coordinates attached to social media posts, to full-fledged cartographic databases. One of the most well-known examples of VGI is OpenStreetMap (OSM), wherein anyone with an Internet connection is invited to contribute to an open source digital map of the world. Although OSM allows a new bottom-up approach to geographic data collection and a possible way out of "cartographies of silence" identified by critical human geographers, the project suffers from participation divides observed in other media sources wherein the Global North produces the majority of the content. In this dissertation, I explore spatial questions about how OSM participation divides play themselves out at different scales, how they affect map contents, and how individual influences in OSM construction can be better understood using geovisualization and visual analytics. In Chapter 1 I lay out the context for the overall work and describe the research goals and objectives. In Chapter 2 I employ automated language identification software to map the geolinguistic footprints of OSM contributors, revealing which areas are mapped by local-language speakers and which are likely mapped from afar. I further investigate varying priorities that users of each language exhibit toward mapping different items. In Chapter 3 I undertake a qualitative and quantitative analysis of the OSM history in small cities, constructing a picture of each contributor's work on the map and developing a typology of contributor motivations. I show how OSM contributors approach the map at different scales with widely varying motives, including strong love of place, business incentive, and an affinity for particular feature types. Chapter 4 describes the design, implementation, and application of an interactive visual analytics tool to help users compare and make sense of the history of OSM construction in small cities across the world. The concluding Chapter 5 highlights salient results, challenges, and avenues for future work. Such investigations are helpful for institutions examining OSM's fitness-of-use for their projects, as well as researchers studying crowdsourced online databases in general.