Wikimapia: An overlooked source of Volunteered Geographic Information

New paper: A. Ballatore & J. Jokar Arsanjani (2018) Placing Wikimapia: An exploratory analysis, in the International Journal of Geographical Information Science. [PDF] Abstract: Wikimapia is a major privately owned volunteered geographic information (VGI) project to collect information about places. Over the past 10 years, Wikimapia has attracted hundreds of thousands of contributors and collected millions … Continue reading Wikimapia: An overlooked source of Volunteered Geographic Information →

Representing uncertainty through sound

New paper with David Gordon and Alexander Boone: "Sonifying data uncertainty with sound dimensions" in Cartography and Geographic Information Science. [PDF] Abstract: The communication of data uncertainty is a crucial problem in data science, information visualization, and geographic information science (GIScience). Effective ways to communicate the uncertainty of data enables data consumers to interpret the data … Continue reading Representing uncertainty through sound →

Studying online trends in GIS

New paper: Patterns of Consumption and Connectedness in GIS Web Sources Ballatore A., Scheider S., Lemmens R. (2018) Patterns of Consumption and Connectedness in GIS Web Sources. In: Mansourian A., Pilesjö P., Harrie L., van Lammeren R. (eds) Geospatial Technologies for All. AGILE 2018. Lecture Notes in Geoinformation and Cartography. Springer, Cham [PDF] Abstract: Every day, … Continue reading Studying online trends in GIS →

Spatial information search: A research agenda

Our special issue on Spatial Approaches to Information Search appeared in Spatial Cognition & Computation. This special issue is the result of the Specialist Meeting on Spatial Search in Santa Barbara, and provides ideas for a research agenda for GIScience / spatial data science. Abstract: Searching for information is a ubiquitous activity, performed in a variety of contexts and … Continue reading Spatial information search: A research agenda →

How search engines represent conspiracy theories

My paper on the representation of conspiracy theories on search engines opens the 2015 July issue of First Monday. The paper answers the following questions: (i) what type of content is returned by search engines when searching for conspiracy theories? (ii) what is the bias of the search results towards the conspiratorial, neutral, or debunking Web … Continue reading How search engines represent conspiracy theories →

Vandalising maps

Defacing the map: cartographic vandalism in the digital commons. The Cartographic Journal 51 (3), pp. 214-224. ISSN 0008-7041. [PDF] Abstract: This article addresses the emergent phenomenon of carto-vandalism, the intentional defacement of collaborative cartographic digital artefacts in the context of volunteered geographic information. Through a qualitative analysis of reported incidents in WikiMapia and OpenStreetMap, a typology of this … Continue reading Vandalising maps →