This article sets forth the early phases of a methodological proposal for designing and developing Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) initiatives based on a system perspective analysis in which the components depend and interact dynamically among each other. First, it focuses on those characteristics of VGI projects that present different goals and modes of organization, while using a crowdsourcing strategy to manage participants and contributions. Next, a tool is developed in order to design the central crowdsourced processing unit that is best suited for a specific project definition, associating it with a trend towards crowd-based or community-driven approaches. The design is structured around the characterization of different ways of participating, and the task cognitive demand of working on geo-information management, spatial problem solving and ideation, or knowledge acquisition. Then, the crowdsourcing process design helps to identify what kind of participants are needed and outline subsequent engagement strategies. This is based on an analysis of differences among volunteers’ participatory behaviors and the associated set of factors motivating them to contribute, whether on a crowd or community-sourced basis. From a VGI system perspective, this paper presents a set of guidelines and methodological steps in order to align project goals, processes and volunteers and thus successfully attract participation. This methodology helps establish the initial requirements for a VGI system, and, in its current state, it mainly focuses on two components of the system: project and participants.

Geospatial mobile applications interact with local and remote hardware to connect various data sources. These applications are currently evolving to include crowd sourcing functionalities, for citizen participation. In this paper we propose the identification, collection and information exchange of smart objects their geographic information, facilitating connectivity and communication between citizens and local organizations, and building interoperable services with data from sensors, smart physical objects and social media. We propose to identify spatial patterns, report object locations to identify problems and improve maintenance strategies of a city. As a validation of this approach, we develop a mobile mapping and data hub platform to visualize, monitor, and assist urban maintenance planning that enables better interaction between citizens of Smart Cities.

The objective of this work is to build a Volunteered Geographic Information System (VGIS) using a methodological design process. The VGIS design focuses on coordinating its three main components—project (organization), participants (community), and technological infrastructure—by aligning the project goal, crowdsourcing strategy and participation environment, the drivers and mechanisms that motivates volunteers, and the technological and data management tools that facilitate engaged participation. Following this process helped to design a solution based on the project’s information requirements to handle a road data tagging task, while offering an experience that meets the interests and needs of potential participants.

This work addresses voluntary geographic information (VGI) as an information system that facilitates organizations to achieve specific goals by outsourcing processes and activities to an online community. A definition of a voluntary geographic information system (VGIS) is proposed, identifying its core components (Project, Participants, Technology), then, crowdsourcing, the most relevant process for managing information within these type of systems, is analysed. We analyse several types of crowdsourcing models in the context of VGIS, and it is proposed a classification built around the different ways of organizing a community, which include different levels of participation according to the use of three processes: contributory, collaborative and participatory. Based on the study of the different typologies intrinsically linked to the existing levels of involvement and engagement, and the use of participants' cognitive skills, a continuum of participation is identified, presenting two opposite tendencies when designing VGI projects: crowd-based and community-driven, the latter with higher levels of collaboration or even co-creation. Based on the above, it is proposed a set of criteria for the design of the crowdsourcing strategy of a VGIS, as a roadmap that directs the project. This design and planning tool helps to characterize and define in a simple way the general requirements of the processes and activities of a VGIS that will be implemented through a crowdsourcing task, being the first step in the interdependent design of the project, participation and technological components. The design of subsequent strategies related to the other components of the system must be aligned and linked to the crowdsourcing strategy, and altogether will guide the development of tasks, functionalities and the specific technological tools of the system.http://dx.doi.org/10.4995/CIGeo2017.2017.6629