User Generated Content and Map Updating—A Panacea or a Problem?

Michael W. Dobson, PhD

Most producers of commercial map databases are experiencing significant downward pricing pressure from their customers in the face of increasing data collection, processing and distribution costs.  At the same time, producers of navigable map databases are beginning to re-tool their databases for the increased horizontal accuracy, vertical accuracy and currentness issues related to requirements for Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS).  Further, wider exposure to maps by services such as those provided by Google, Microsoft, MapQuest and other publishers in fields such as Internet Yellow Pages and Local Search, are revealing that existing data bases have significant address-related errors that preclude delivering the customer to the exact location of a business listing or Point of Interest.

  The demand to increase map currency and accuracy in the face of declining product price has forced the mapping and information distribution industries to consider new and innovative methods to explore the solutions to this paradox.  The concept of User Generated Content is being combined with the tools and protocols of Social Networking to produce User Assisted Map Updating systems.   The presentation that follows is focused on: 1) who are the major players in this development, 2) who are the possible beneficiaries, 3) how will this segment the data supplier/data user market, and 4) how meaningful the contributions of UGC will be to map updating.