What is VGI?
Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) is the harnessing of tools to create, assemble, and disseminate geographic data provided voluntarily by individuals. Instead of relying solely on professional surveyors, we now have millions of "citizens as sensors."
🎨 GIS as an Art: The Participatory Canvas
In VGI, the map is not a finished painting controlled by a single artist; it is a collaborative mural. Like street art, it is dynamic, sometimes messy, and deeply personal. The "art" is in the coordination—how thousands of individual strokes (edits) come together to form a coherent picture of the world.
OpenStreetMap (OSM)
OpenStreetMap is the greatest example of VGI. It is a free, editable map of the whole world being built by volunteers. In humanitarian crises, OSM often provides more up-to-date information than any official government source.
Geographic Inquiry: Asking Questions of Where
Before ever opening software, a GIS analyst starts with a question. "Where" is not just a coordinate; it is a relationship.
- Concentration: Where is the phenomenon clustered?
- Boundary: Where does it change sharply vs. gradually?
- Uncertainty: Where is the data missing or biased?
- Verification: Where would you stand on the ground to prove it?
🤝 Interdisciplinary GIS: Political Science
VGI disrupts the traditional power structures of mapping (a core theme in Political Science). By allowing citizens to map their own neighborhoods (counter-mapping), we challenge state-sponsored views of territory. This has huge implications for democracy, as "who controls the map controls the narrative."
Interactive: Crowdsourced Mapping
Click anywhere on the panel below to "volunteer" a location point. Notice how individual points start to reveal a pattern (the "Wisdom of the Crowd").
Regional Decision: Crisis Mapping Harvey
During Hurricane Harvey in Houston, official flood maps couldn't keep up with the rising water. Volunteers created the Harvey Relief Hub map to track requests for rescue.
The Dilemma: You are a dispatcher. You see a "VGI" point on the map from a resident claiming their street is underwater, but the official satellite pass from 2 hours ago showed the street was dry. Do you:
- A) Ignore the point because it's "unverified" citizen data?
- B) Wait for the next official satellite pass to confirm?
- C) Dispatch a drone or neighborhood scout to verify immediately?
Summary of Big Ideas
- Citizens as Sensors: Every person with a smartphone is a potential geographic data generator.
- Open Data fuels innovation and provides critical safety info in regions lacking official mapping resources.
- NeoGeography: The use of digital maps by non-experts for personal, social, or humanitarian goals.
- Quality Control in VGI is maintained through "Linus's Law"—the idea that with enough eyes, all data errors are shallow.
VGI is often touted as "democratizing" mapping, but who actually has the time and technology to volunteer? Studies show the vast majority of OpenStreetMap contributors are young, male, wealthier, and from the Global North. This results in highly detailed maps of European cities but empty spaces in developing nations. "Crowdsourcing" is only as diverse as the crowd.
Chapter 23 Checkpoint
1. Which platform is widely known as the "Wikipedia of Maps"?
2. What is a primary criticism of Volunteered Geographic Information?