OpenStreetMap: an opportunity for Citizen Science

OpenStreetMap (OSM, https://www.openstreetmap.org) is currently the largest, richest, most complete and most up-to-date open geospatial database as well as the most participated crowdsourced geographic information project in the world. While it was initially started (in 2004) with an exclusive focus on road network, it now covers any real-world feature that is verifiable on the ground. The project currently counts more than 5.5 million registered users, with an average of about 5,000 users contributing to the map on a daily basis [1].
Currently, the relation between OSM and science is mostly focused on studying various aspects of OSM such as data quality, collaboration patterns, integration between OSM and authoritative data, use of OSM data in specific domains and applications, reuse of tools created around the project (e.g. for the collaborative mapping) etc. [2], more than directly shaping Citizen Science (CS) projects around OSM. However, despite OSM and (geographical) CS projects have many points of intersection [3] and examples of direct contribution of OSM mappers to CS initiatives exist, the link between them is still largely unexplored. Such link might be relevant in a number of different directions, e.g. the exploration of how OSM data may assist in the development of CS initiatives and complement/enrich data collected by citizens; how CS data may, in turn, be included and improve the OSM database; how OSM best practices and lessons learned throughout the project’s 10+ years of development (about issues such as quality, governance, licensing, sustainability, etc.) may assist in organizing and running CS initiatives.
This session wants to stimulate the attention and interest from the CS community to the OSM database, its ecosystem of tools and services [4] as well as the OSM community as a fertile ground where CS can build and grow projects from local to international scales.
The session will be organised as an interactive session where a few panellists will first introduce OSM and its main characteristics and then will present a few use cases where data in OSM can be used in support of CS projects. After that, participants will be encouraged to bring data relevant to their own use cases and work in groups, together with panellists, to evaluate the potential to use OSM with their specific data and projects as well as to contribute data gathered in their CS projects back to the OSM database.