Crowdsourcing and Geotagging
GLM recently put together a proposal for the Historic Scotland “Buildings at Risk Register” based on the principle of crowdsourcing. In putting together a team of surveyors, marketing and software specialists for it and working out how to put such a project into action it became clear that there is huge potential in this approach to data collection. Historic Scotland, perhaps predictably, have awarded the commission to a closely connected government body, the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland who will use their team of highly qualified experts to undertake all the survey work.
How does Crowdsourcing work? Crowdsourcing is about getting large numbers of people, the general public or people with a special interest, to contribute data and to make use of the power of web-based databases. With the increasing uptake of smartphones equipped with cameras, GPS and bespoke “apps” it has become possible to accomplish data collection tasks that were previously the preserve of expensive experts and professionals.
For a task that has a public benefit it is possible to enlist the support of volunteers. In the field of “public benefit” there obviously needs to be a sponsor of some sort. FamilySearch.org is an amazing example. Sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints it enlists the support of countless volunteers who scan and digitise historic records and have created, free of charge, a vast database of hundreds of millions of individual genealogical records.
However this approach can also be applied in more commercial situations. Instead of employing a team of surveyors to tour around the country, a well designed survey app can be distributed to, say, local property managers and the results uploaded to a web-based database. The data collectors would need to be guided, of course, and this would be done by incorporating into the app context sensitive help sheets. It may be useful to further process the data back at base e.g. to provide budget cost information. This also means less wasteful travel.
The inverse of crowdsourcing is “geotagging” which enables the provision of in-depth GPS linked information about locations and buildings. This can either be done on a public benefit basis or it could be a secure in-house app linked to a private database.
Does this do the professional surveyor out of a job? Well yes and no. If, say, you are responsible for a property portfolio and would like to create, say, a database of its condition and maintenance requirements we'd really like to talk to you about how we could help you to accomplish the task more economically and effectively than has ever been possible before. GLM would:
How does Crowdsourcing work? Crowdsourcing is about getting large numbers of people, the general public or people with a special interest, to contribute data and to make use of the power of web-based databases. With the increasing uptake of smartphones equipped with cameras, GPS and bespoke “apps” it has become possible to accomplish data collection tasks that were previously the preserve of expensive experts and professionals.
For a task that has a public benefit it is possible to enlist the support of volunteers. In the field of “public benefit” there obviously needs to be a sponsor of some sort. FamilySearch.org is an amazing example. Sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints it enlists the support of countless volunteers who scan and digitise historic records and have created, free of charge, a vast database of hundreds of millions of individual genealogical records.
However this approach can also be applied in more commercial situations. Instead of employing a team of surveyors to tour around the country, a well designed survey app can be distributed to, say, local property managers and the results uploaded to a web-based database. The data collectors would need to be guided, of course, and this would be done by incorporating into the app context sensitive help sheets. It may be useful to further process the data back at base e.g. to provide budget cost information. This also means less wasteful travel.
The inverse of crowdsourcing is “geotagging” which enables the provision of in-depth GPS linked information about locations and buildings. This can either be done on a public benefit basis or it could be a secure in-house app linked to a private database.
Does this do the professional surveyor out of a job? Well yes and no. If, say, you are responsible for a property portfolio and would like to create, say, a database of its condition and maintenance requirements we'd really like to talk to you about how we could help you to accomplish the task more economically and effectively than has ever been possible before. GLM would:
- Work with you on the design of a survey
- Provide guidance and training for data collectors
- Work with our partners on the design of smart phone apps and databases
- Project manage a survey
- Moderate, sift and validate the uploaded data and
- Produce reports and digests of the information obtained