Special Issue "Collaborative Mapping"

Guest Editor
Dr. Linda See
International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Ecosystems Services and Management, Schlossplatz 1, A-2361 Laxenburg, Austria
Website: http://www.iiasa.ac.at/web/home/research/researchPrograms/EcosystemsServicesandManagement/See--Linda.en.html
E-Mail: see@iiasa.ac.at
Phone: +43 2236 807 423
Fax: +43 2236 807 599
Interests: land cover validation (www.geo-wiki.org); crowd-sourcing and volunteered geographic information (data collection, quality assessment, creating added value products with VGI); serious gaming; early warning and food security

Guest Editor
Dr. Steffen Fritz
International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Ecosystems Services and Management, Schlossplatz 1, A-2361 Laxenburg, Austria
Website: http://www.iiasa.ac.at/web/home/research/researchPrograms/EcosystemsServicesandManagement/-Fritz--Steffen-.en.html
E-Mail: fritz@iiasa.ac.at
Phone: +43 2236 807 353
Fax: +43 2236 807 599
Interests: land cover validation (www.geo-wiki.org); crowd-sourcing and volunteered geographic information (data collection, quality assessment, creating added value products with VGI); development of mobile apps for land cover and agricultural support; serious gaming; economic land-use modelling; global land cover; cropland and habitat mapping; early warning and food security

Guest Editor
Dr. Jan De Leeuw
ICRAF World Agroforestry Centre, United Nations Avenue, Gigiri, PO Box 30677, Nairobi, 00100, Kenya
Website: http://www.icraf.org
E-Mail: j.leeuw@cgiar.org
Phone: +254 737223157
Interests: mapping of environment and agriculture; drought early warning systems; remote sensing for index-based insurance; participatory mapping; remote sensing and impact assessment

Dear Colleagues,

More accurate, detailed and up-to-date maps are needed for a large number of scientific applications including monitoring and assessment of biodiversity, climate change, risk and vulnerability, energy supply and demand, and food security, especially in the current environment of rapid change. Remote sensing (RS) can provide comprehensive spatial and temporal coverage of the earth’s surface but there is a lack of reference data, which is needed to calibrate and validate these maps. Moreover, there are situations where RS data are too expensive and the temporal coverage is insufficient (e.g. for applications of emergency response). The increasing number of citizen sensors (i.e. volunteers contributing information from the internet, mobile devices and newly developed sensors) has already begun to radically change mapping through citizen collaboration, e.g. OpenStreetMap and Google MapMaker. The aim of this special issue is to publish the latest research on collaborative mapping including but not limited to the following:

• Thematic and geometric accuracy of collaborative mapping (i.e. quality of the information)
• Development of indicators of robustness of / confidence in the VGI
• Authoritativeness of collaborative map products, i.e. ideas on how to bring collaborative map products to a level of authority that is not disputed
• Data harmonization
• Collaborative mapping and the role of mapping institutions
• Spatial cognition in collaborative mapping
• Cost effectiveness and cost benefits of collaborative mapping
• The use of collaborative mapping in the areas of biodiversity, land use science, climate change, emergency response, and other relevant applied fields

Dr. Linda See
Dr. Steffen Fritz
Dr. Jan de Leeuw
Guest Editors

Submission

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• big data
• citizen science
• collaborative mapping
• crowdsourcing
• data harmonization
• digital Earth
• neogeography
• gaming
• GeoComputation
• Geovisualization
• Geoweb
• participatory GIS
• social networking
• Volunteered Geographic Information
• Web mapping
• Web 2.0/3.0

Title: Mapping Across Borders: Exploring Emergent Tensions When GIS Users in the Global South and Experts in the Global North Collaborate Using Social Networking Technologies
Authors: Michael E. Martin¹ and Jon Corbett²
Affiliation: ¹ Simon Fraser University, University Crescent, Burnaby, British Columbia; E-Mail: michael.martin@ubc.ca
²University of British Columbia, 3333 University Way, Kelowna, British Columbia, E-Mail: jon.corbett@ubc.ca
Abstract: Many Geoweb applications have the ability to both inform and influence the international development agenda. However, the usefulness of these tools is contingent on two discrete, though inter-related pre-requisites. Firstly,, they must perform the function of being able to capture and integrate information from ground-level situations and; secondly, they must utilize and communicate this information to produce meaningful results. A Canadian non-profit organization, Mapping Across Borders, has set out to address these issues by developing and making available an online social network that connects knowledgeable experts of GIS with primary GIS users in development contexts.
This paper sets out to explore the tensions that surround the interactions between Mapping Across Borders actors – students and professors of GIS and development institution staff – in a collaborative Web 2.0 experience. Using a survey of over 90 participants from Canada and the Global South, the findings of this paper indicate that there are seven key tensions that need be addressed when creating online social networks to support geographic volunteerism. Each tension is discussed in this paper and then reflected upon to suggest possible directions forward.