Reconceptualizing the role of the user of spatial data infrastructure

Budhathoki, Nama R.; Bruce, Bertram C.; Nedovic-Budic, Zorica

Permalink

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/59114 Copy

Description

Title

Reconceptualizing the role of the user of spatial data infrastructure

Author(s)

• Budhathoki, Nama R.
• Bruce, Bertram C.
• Nedovic-Budic, Zorica

Issue Date

2008

Keyword(s)

• spatial data infrastructure
• volunteered geographic information
• participatory design

Abstract

Spatial data infrastructures, which are Internet-based mechanisms for the coordinated production, discovery, and use of geospatial information in the digital environment, have diffused worldwide in the last two decades. Currently, there are about one hundred spatial data infrastructures at the national level and many others at supra- and sub-national levels. These contemporary spatial data infrastructures operate with two main assumptions: formal organizations are the producers and suppliers of geospatial information; users are the passive recipients of information. The recent phenomenon of volunteered geographic information departs from these assumptions. In this paper, we argue that reconceptualizing the user of a spatial data infrastructure can accommodate this new phenomenon. Such a reconceptualization creates a middle ground between spatial data infrastructure and volunteered geographic information, which has important implications for future research.

Publisher

Springer

Series/Report Name or Number

GeoJournal: An International Journal on Geography

Type of Resource

text

Language

en

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/59114

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1007/S10708-008-9189

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