ASSESSING AN OPEN SPATIAL DATA INFRASTRUCTURE FROM A USER PARTICIPATION PERSPECTIVE: A QUALITATIVE EXPLORATORY RESEARCH WITH OPENSTREETMAP

Governments have invested in establishing Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDIs) to facilitate sharing spatial data between government organisations. An SDI is a framework of policies, access networks, data, standards and individuals that promote, coordinate and facilitate the dissemination and use of open spatial data for users in the spatial data community (Rajabifard and Williamson 2002). Initially, production and distribution of spatial data was limited to national mapping authorities, with access to SDIs limited to public sector bodies. Soon after, the way in which spatial information was used, produced and shared changed dramatically. The recent evolution and advances in Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), mobile devices and Global Positioning System (GPS) enabled devices allowed for common citizens to participate in the GI experience (Gómez Barrón Sierra, 2020; Costa Fonte et al., 2017; Budhathoki, 2010), which also became known as Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) (Goodchild, 2007), such as is the case with the OpenStreetMap (OSM) project.