Coproducing spatial information: Exploring government approaches and motivations at the local level

Abstract

Recent government initiatives like e-government and open government have led to broader adoption of geospatial tools including mapping platforms to access, use, and analyze open data. These advancements open channels for coproduction in the form of sharing information, change notifications, opinions, or requests to government, based on citizen observation and local knowledge. Though current government initiatives have substantial potentials for coproduction, the practical adoption and implementation of such practices vary reflecting the purposes, contexts, and motivations of those involved. This paper aims to understand how local governments are following different approaches to coproduce information with citizens and what motivates local governments in this process. We report findings based on interviews with 11 cities from the USA and Canada, which reveal four main approaches: the collection of new data, observation of changes, collection of opinions, and observation of preferences involving both explicit and implicit processes. Although these four approaches result from interactions between citizens and government, our findings also indicate a key role to be played by technology and partner organizations.

Analysis of Factors Affecting Adoption of Volunteered Geographic Information in the Context of National Spatial Data Infrastructure

“…First, based on our best knowledge, this is the first study carried out about the factors influencing organizational adoption of VGI within NSDI which employed a statistical model to determine the factors but also statistically gauged the level and extent of those factors, although there are studies that discussed the adoption of VGI in NSDI concerning technical aspects. However, previous studies descriptively identified the factors impeding VGI from being part of SDI [97,98,111,113]. They did not use any statistical model to find and validate the factors.…”

“…Moreover, culture, geography, and education level may also be different for different VGI contributions [110]. Thus, a careful understanding of the existing database schema and interpretability of the VGI with another GIS format within the organization is needed before deciding the addition of VGI in the official working environment, as the quality of VGI data improves with the perfection in practical understanding and incremental enhancement to the VGI data collection [111]. This study found that the complexity of VGI influences the organization's conclusion to adopt VGI, although, considerable success has been noticed in the use of VGI in governments [112].…”

“…Retention of well-trained manpower capable of handling the VGI issues involved in the adoption in the public sector is a challenge [113]. The shortage of skills and resources can hamper the initiation of VGI adoption [111]. It is recommended that due resources should be arranged before the adoption of VGI so that the initiation and implementation process may run smoothly, as unavailability of due resources significantly affects the readiness of VGI to be part of SDI.…”