U.S. Department of the Interior
U.S. Geological Survey
Crowdsourcing The National Map The National Map Corps Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) at the USGS
Project Team:
Rolla, Missouri
Elizabeth McCartney, Joe Pantoga, Morgan Bearden, J.P. Maxwell
Denver, Colorado
Erin Korris, Somayeh Nasrollahi tari
http://nationalmap.gov/TheNationalMapCorps nationalmapcorps@usgs.gov
*FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY. This content has not undergone an editorial review and should not be published without permission.

Outline
Overview
What is The National Map Corps?
Why crowd sourcing?
History
2010-2012 - Pilot Projects
2013 - National Expansion
Current Status
Process
Volunteers
Contributions
Marketing and Outreach
Volunteer Recognition
Social Media
Data Processing
Workflow
Quality
Future
Demos?

The National Map Corps
Mapping crowd- sourcing project to collect data for The National Map
Online editor
Structures
Base data from GAZ and NSD

Why crowd sourcing?
Increase citizen involvement
Power of “the crowd” and local knowledge
Increase transparency in government
Better data, faster
Do more with less (downsizing)
The future of mapping?

History of VGI At The USGS

Revival of VGI at the USGS- Pilot Projects
2010:
USGS VGI Workshop
OSMCP Phase 1- Roads in Kansas with GIS professionals
2011:
OSMCP Phase 2- Structures with Students; 4 quads over Denver
2012:
Phase 3, The National Map Corps – Structures in Colorado; open to all volunteers

2013: National Expansion
Phased release of all 50 states for Structures editing
Tiered system of editors
Volunteer Recognition
10 Structures
Schools
College / University
Fire Station / EMS Station
Law Enforcement
Prison / Correctional Facility
State Capitol
Hospital / Medical Center
Ambulance Services
Cemetery
Post Office
http://navigator.er.usgs.gov/help/vgistructures_userguide.html

Project Home Page
https://my.usgs.gov/confluence/display/nationalmapcorps/Home

Online Editor
https://navigator.er.usgs.gov/

How does it work?
1.Pick an area to edit (city, county, etc..) AND/OR Pick a feature type to edit (cemeteries, schools, etc..)
2.Check existing points (red border), remove obsolete points, add missing points.
a)Check Location
b)Check attributes (Name required)
c)Click “Finished Editing” and “Save”

Volunteers

Volunteer Statistics

Users
Points
Power Law (long tail) Distribution Typical of Crowd Sourcing

Total Edits[1] 89,719
Total Unique Points[2] 58,710
Total Deletions[3] 4,113
Total Unique Points incl. Deletions 62,823
Total Contributions (all stages)[7] 73,614
Total Points- Standard Editor[4] 52,191
Total Points- Peer Review[5] 12,439
Total Points- Advanced Editor[6] 4,871
SUMMARY OF CONTRIBUTIONS
March 29, 2012 through September 9, 2014
[1] TOTAL EDITS = Every "edit" made to every point, including multiple edits per point. An "edit" is defined as
each time the "save" button is clicked in the editor and includes a "save" after a deletion. Changes may or may
not have been made to the point.
[2] TOTAL UNIQUE POINTS = Number of unique points that have been edited (added, modified or verified), not
including deletions.
[3] TOTAL DELETIONS = Total number of structures in the "Original" database that were deleted during editing.
[6] TOTAL POINTS- ADVANCED EDITOR = Total number of points edited (added, modified, or verified)
through Advanced Editing.
[7] TOTAL CONTRIBUTIONS = Volunteer Contributions (added, modified, verified, and deleted) from all stages
(Standard Editing, Peer Review and Advanced Editing) combined.
[4] TOTAL POINTS- STANDARD EDITOR = Total number of points edited (added, modified or verified) through
Standard Editing.
[5] TOTAL POINTS- PEER REVIEW = Total number of points edited (added, modified or verified) through Peer
Review.
Volunteer Contributions

Marketing
Liaison Network, Office of Communications, Communications team
News Releases
Circulars, Open File Reports
Social Media
Gamification Techniques
Volunteer Recognition Badges
Mapping Challenges
Gold Medal
Best Marketing or
Promotional Program
https://twitter.com/USGSTNM

Volunteer Recognition Badges
Order of the Surveyor’s Chain (25-49)
Society of the Steel Tape (50-99)
Stadia Board Society (500-999)
Alidade Alliance (1000-1999)
Pedometer Posse (100-199)
Theodolite Assemblage (2000 +)
http://navigator.er.usgs.gov/help/vgistructures_rewards.html
Circle of the Surveyor’s Compass (200-399)

Social Media

Automatic Daily Data Download
File Geodatabase
Changes (for that day)
Deletions (all)
Planet (current cut of data)
Data edited through “stages” (standard editing, peer review, advanced, QA)
Vandalism
Users
Daily manual check for download issues

Daily Quality Monitoring
FME tool, manually run, outputs created if criteria met
Manually reviewed internally
Email volunteers if issues found
No vandalism to-date

U.S. Department of the Interior
U.S. Geological Survey
The National Map Corps
Structures Program
Structures Program
Edit
Peer Review
VOLUNTEERS
VGI Processing
- Take data and make it better
- Find missing data
- Fix spatial location
- Fix attributes
-Verify existing structures
Existing Structures
-Come from GAZ database
- Come from Structures DB
Structures Processing
- Integrate data back to GAZ
- Reconcile with Structures DB
- Make available for
-The National Map
- US Topo
Structures Data Program
GazVector
Structures Processing
- GAZ ID’s
- Metadata
- Abbreviations
- Etc
Structures Data Program
GazVector
The National Map
USGS QA
Workflow
Advanced

Quality Analysis (QA)
January 2013 Quality Study- Colorado

Quality Assurance
Peer Review
Advanced Editors
NSD team data processing
Daily Quality Monitoring
Process:
Check sample of points through web research/aerial imagery

Moving Forward
Follow us on Twitter: #tnmcorps @USGSTNM http://nationalmap.gov/TheNationalMapCorps nationalmapcorps@usgs.gov
Trails
Mobile App
Next Generation Editor
More Structures types?