THE OPINION OF CROWD PARTICIPATORY FOR OPENSTREETMAP: A SURVEY IN CHINA

Abstract. At the present, OpenStreetMap (OSM) is considered as one of the most successful and popular VGI (Volunteered Geographic Information) projects. It provides a platform that all the registered members coming from different areas in the world can cooperate with each other to mapping our world. Besides, OSM attracts more and more people, companies and even the governmental agencies because of its free and open source. Studies have proofed that both the quantity and quality of OSM data in several western countries, i.e. Germany, France and the Netherland are even better than the authority data. In recent years, the quantity of the OSM data and the number of contributors in China increased rapidly, but the overall distribution of OSM data is very fit with the distribution of population and the economic development and it displays an uneven development in different provinces and cities in China. Besides, the state of the OSM in China is just similar to that in Germany in 2010 in terms of data quantity and quality, although China is about 25 times to Germany regarding land area and the smartphone penetration in China and Germany does not have a large distance (51.7 % to 68.8 %). Why is the development of OSM in China so poor and backward when comparing that with western countries, although the environment in hardware and software in China are similar to the western countries? Attempting to answer this question, this paper presents a user survey in China. Mainly, knowledges and experiences about OSM and OSM contribution were asked in the user survey. The user survey was conducted both by paper and pen and by using online platform. Totally, over 1200 participants with the age range from 15 to 80 and a huge diverse of background took part in the user survey. In this paper, we would like to describe the design of the questions for the user survey at first. Then we will demonstrate the results of the user survey, as well as the analysis and conclusions, which can be drawn from the user survey.