DISTant Talks #8

Welcome: Allegra Eusebio

Guests: Selene Yang (PhD candidate at Universidad Nacional de la Plata and Co-founder of Geochicas) & Marco Minghini (Scientific Project Officer at the European Commission - Joint Research Centre e member of the OpenStreetMap Foundation)

The phenomenon of Volunteered Geographic Information has spread significantly in the last years, contributing to creating and integrating a huge amount of spatial data constantly increasing and evolving. Among the most famous and used projects of such type, the first position is occupied by OpenStreetMap, which since 2004 provides information and data about city and territory, mapped directly by the people who live those cities and territories, a worldwide community where everybody is welcome. We will try to understand who are the people joining the community and how the composition of such community can influence the information mapped. Furthermore, we will discuss the growing importance of the OSM project, questioning pros and cons of such popularity.