U.S. Department of the Interior

U.S. Geological Survey

U.S. Department of the Interior

U.S. Geological Survey

Crowdsourcing The National Map

The National Map Corps Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) at the USGS

Project Team:

Rolla, Missouri

Elizabeth McCartney, Joe Pantoga,

Morgan Bearden, J.P. Maxwell

Denver, Colorado

Erin Korris, Somayeh Nasrollahi

tari

http://nationalmap.gov/TheNationalMapCorps

nationalmapcorps@usgs.gov

*FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY. This content has not undergone an editorial review and

should not be published without permission.

Outline Overview

What is The National Map Corps?

Why crowd sourcing?

History 2010-2012 - Pilot Projects

2013 - National Expansion

Current Status

Process

Volunteers

Contributions

Marketing and Outreach Volunteer Recognition

Social Media

Data Processing

Workflow

Quality

Future

Demos?

The National Map Corps

Mapping crowd-

sourcing project

to collect data

for The National

Map

Online editor

Structures

Base data from

GAZ and NSD

Why crowd sourcing?

Increase citizen involvement

Power of “the crowd” and local

knowledge

Increase transparency in

government

Better data, faster

Do more with less (downsizing)

The future of mapping?

History of VGI At The USGS

Revival of VGI at the USGS- Pilot

Projects

2010:

USGS VGI Workshop

OSMCP Phase 1- Roads in Kansas

with GIS professionals

2011:

OSMCP Phase 2- Structures with

Students; 4 quads over Denver

2012:

Phase 3, The National Map Corps –

Structures in Colorado; open to all

volunteers

2013: National Expansion

Phased release of all 50 states for

Structures editing

Tiered system of editors

Volunteer Recognition

10 Structures Schools

College / University

Fire Station / EMS

Station

Law Enforcement

Prison / Correctional

Facility

State Capitol

Hospital / Medical

Center

Ambulance Services

Cemetery

Post Office

http://navigator.er.usgs.gov/help/vgistructures_userguide.html

Project Home Page

https://my.usgs.gov/confluence/display/nationalmapcorps/Home

Online Editor

https://navigator.er.usgs.gov/

How does it work?

1. Pick an area to edit (city,

county, etc..) AND/OR Pick

a feature type to edit

(cemeteries, schools, etc..)

2. Check existing points (red

border), remove obsolete

points, add missing points. a) Check Location

b) Check attributes (Name required)

c) Click “Finished Editing” and “Save”

Volunteers

Volunteer Statistics

Users

Po

ints

Power Law (long tail) Distribution

Typical of Crowd Sourcing

Total Edits[1]

89,719

Total Unique Points[2]

58,710

Total Deletions[3]4,113

Total Unique Points incl. Deletions 62,823

Total Contributions (all stages)[7]

73,614

Total Points- Standard Editor[4]52,191

Total Points- Peer Review[5]12,439

Total Points- Advanced Editor[6]

4,871

SUMMARY OF CONTRIBUTIONSMarch 29, 2012 through September 9, 2014

[1] TOTAL EDITS = Every "edit" made to every point, including multiple edits per point. An "edit" is defined as

each time the "save" button is clicked in the editor and includes a "save" after a deletion. Changes may or may

not have been made to the point.

[2] TOTAL UNIQUE POINTS = Number of unique points that have been edited (added, modified or verified), not

including deletions.

[3] TOTAL DELETIONS = Total number of structures in the "Original" database that were deleted during editing.

[6] TOTAL POINTS- ADVANCED EDITOR = Total number of points edited (added, modified, or verified)

through Advanced Editing.

[7] TOTAL CONTRIBUTIONS = Volunteer Contributions (added, modified, verified, and deleted) from all stages

(Standard Editing, Peer Review and Advanced Editing) combined.

[4] TOTAL POINTS- STANDARD EDITOR = Total number of points edited (added, modified or verified) through

Standard Editing.

[5] TOTAL POINTS- PEER REVIEW = Total number of points edited (added, modified or verified) through Peer

Review.

Volunteer Contributions

Marketing

Liaison Network, Office of

Communications,

Communications team

News Releases

Circulars, Open File

Reports

Social Media

Gamification Techniques

Volunteer Recognition

Badges

Mapping Challenges

Gold Medal

Best Marketing or

Promotional Program

https://twitter.com/USGSTNM

Volunteer Recognition Badges

Order of the

Surveyor’s

Chain

(25-49) Society of the

Steel Tape

(50-99)

Stadia Board

Society

(500-999)

Alidade Alliance

(1000-1999)

Pedometer

Posse

(100-199)

Theodolite

Assemblage

(2000 +)

http://navigator.er.usgs.gov/help/vgistructures_rewards.html

Circle of the Surveyor’s

Compass (200-399)

Social Media

Automatic Daily Data Download

File Geodatabase

Changes (for that day)

Deletions (all)

Planet (current cut of data)

Data edited through “stages” (standard editing,

peer review, advanced, QA)

Vandalism

Users

Daily manual check for download issues

Daily Quality Monitoring

FME tool, manually run, outputs

created if criteria met

Manually reviewed internally

Email volunteers if issues found

No vandalism to-date

U.S. Department of the Interior

U.S. Geological Survey

U.S. Department of the Interior

U.S. Geological Survey

The National Map Corps Structures Program Structures Program

Edit

Peer Review V

OLU

NT

EE

RS

VGI Processing

- Take data and make it better

- Find missing data

- Fix spatial location

- Fix attributes

-Verify existing structures

Existing Structures

-Come from GAZ database

- Come from Structures DB

Structures Processing

- Integrate data back to GAZ

- Reconcile with Structures DB

- Make available for

-The National Map

- US Topo

Structures Data Program

GazVector

Structures Processing

- GAZ ID’s

- Metadata

- Abbreviations

- Etc

Structures Data Program

GazVector

The National

Map

USGS QA

Workflow

Advanced

Quality Analysis (QA)

January 2013 Quality Study- Colorado

Quality Assurance

Peer Review

Advanced Editors

NSD team data processing

Daily Quality Monitoring

Process:

Check sample of points through web

research/aerial imagery

Moving Forward

Follow us on Twitter: #tnmcorps @USGSTNM

http://nationalmap.gov/TheNationalMapCorps

nationalmapcorps@usgs.gov

Trails

Mobile App

Next Generation Editor

More Structures types?