Citizens as Sensors

Below is a tasty teaser for a paper written by

Michael F. Goodchild
National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis
Department of
Geography
University of California, Santa Barbara, CA

The Earth’s surface is currently occupied by more than six billion humans. Each human being begins acquiring geographic knowledge at an early age, and by adulthood has constructed elaborate mental understanding of the areas where he or she lives and works, as well as of areas that may have been visited or learned about. Such knowledge includes placenames, topographic features, and transport networks – indeed many of the themes that are so difficult to acquire by automated means. The knowledge will have been acquired through up to five functioning senses, augmented by books, magazines, television, and the Internet. Indeed, one might think of humanity as a large collection of intelligent, mobile sensors, equipped with abilities to interpret and integrate that range from the rudimentary in the case of young children to the highly developed skills of field scientists. These abilities can be augmented with devices that collect other geographic information, from cellphones enabled with GPS, vehicles that track position, digital cameras, or sensors that monitor atmospheric pollution and are carried on the body. Specialists may be trained to observe particular types of geographic information, as for example when surveyors collect information on position, maintenance workers for a utility company collect information on the condition of distributed assets, or soldiers in the field collect information on artillery damage or the enemy’s current positions. In summary, the six billion humans constantly moving about the planet collectively possess an incredibly rich store of knowledge about the surface of the Earth and its properties.

read the full paper here: (pdf)