Defacing the Map: Cartographic Vandalism in the Digital Commons (original) (raw)
ADS
Abstract
This article addresses the emergent phenomenon of carto-vandalism, the intentional defacement of collaborative cartographic digital artefacts in the context of volunteered geographic information. Through a qualitative analysis of reported incidents in WikiMapia and OpenStreetMap, a typology of this kind of vandalism is outlined, including play, ideological, fantasy, artistic and industrial carto-vandalism, as well as carto-spam. Two families of counter-strategies deployed in amateur mapping communities are discussed. First, the contributors organize forms of policing, based on volunteered community involvement, patrolling the maps and reporting incidents. Second, the detection of carto-vandalism can be supported by automated tools, based either on explicit rules or on machine learning.
Publication:
The Cartographic Journal
Pub Date:
August 2014
DOI:
10.1179/1743277414Y.0000000085
arXiv:
Bibcode:
Keywords:
- carto-vandalism;
- online vandalism;
- crowdsourced cartography;
- volunteered geographic information;
- OpenStreetMap;
- WikiMapia;
- commons-based peer production;
- digital commons;
- Computer Science - Computers and Society
E-Print:
24 pages, 4 figures, 1 table.The Cartographic Journal, 2014