user-management

[matthew-spotzi]

The BAG (Dutch Base Registry Addresses and Buildings) is a large database with all buildings and addresses of the Netherlands. One of the attributes of this database is the year of construction of the building. If for example one notices the building age of a building is not correct, the community should be able to edit or propose changes of this specific building. In contrast to live editing the data, the value in the database changes directly, there should be send e.g. notice to the owner of this dataset. The owner of the layer will then have the opportunity to check and validate the proposed changes. This way concerns about data quality, and specifically credibility and the possibility of vandalism can be taken away. This way we want to tackle one of its criticism to volunteered geographic information (VGI) in relation to OSM; because it is gathered by individuals with no formal training, the quality and reliability of VGI is a topic of much debate.

Furthermore, we want to stimulate the community proposes changes if they notice errors in the dataset. In our opinion a golden rule to achieve success in user-generated content/edits, is as follows: keep the community updated about the proposed changes. So stop doing everything yourself and start letting people help you. VGI may provide benefits to the end user above and beyond that of traditional data sources, in part due to its ability to collect and present data not collected or curated by traditional and/or professional sources.

With reference to the above mentioned topic, we must not forget the user interfaces and usability. The platform is as good (or bad) as its user. Some requirements like “clear and concise”, “complete” and “consistent” are critical for the system. To achieve this Spotzi wants to test the system on this requirements with a small group of people or local government.