GIS

Only a few decades ago, professional surveyors were the only collectors of geospatially explicit data corpora, making use of standardized protocols, sampling schemes and related equipment. The thorough preparation of their data collection processes led to generally well-understood data outcomes, fit for the (often single) purpose of collection. In our day and age, the mobile revolution has equipped many to act as amateur surveyors, and the excitement of this obtained capability has awoken some of our deepest hunter/gatherer aptitudes. The resulting crowdsourced and volunteered geographic information brings data sources that were previously almost impossible to obtain: in volume, in coverage, or in space/time density. But such data also commonly suffers from high levels of bias and error, which are hard to tackle with well-known, classical techniques. In part, this is because of lack of standards and protocols, and in part because of a lack of accompanying analytical machinery.

The aim of the series of GeoCrowd workshops is to regularly bring together the research community that addresses this lack of standards, protocols, and analysis techniques around these novel geographic information sources. The workshops should allow the exchange of new results, as well as the discussion of remaining and emerging research and development challenges.