Mooney, Peter and Corcoran, Padraig
(2012)
Characteristics of Heavily Edited Objects in OpenStreetMap.
Future Internet, 4 (1).
pp. 285-305.
ISSN 1999-5903
Abstract
This paper describes the results of an analysis of the OpenStreetMap (OSM)
database for the United Kingdom (UK) and Ireland (correct to April 2011). 15; 640 OSM
ways (polygons and polylines), resulting in 316; 949 unique versions of these objects, were
extracted and analysed from the OSM database for the UK and Ireland. In our analysis we
only considered “heavily edited” objects in OSM: objects which have been edited 15 or more
times. Our results show that there is no strong relationship between increasing numbers of
contributors to a given object and the number of tags (metadata) assigned to it. 87% of
contributions/edits to these objects are performed by 11% of the total 4128 contributors. In
79% of edits additional spatial data (nodes) are added to objects. The results in this paper
do not attempt to evaluate the OSM data as good/poor quality but rather informs potential
consumers of OSM data that the data itself is changing over time. In developing a better
understanding of the characteristics of “heavily edited” objects there may be opportunities
to use historical analysis in working towards quality indicators for OSM in the future.
| Item Type: |
Article
|
| Additional Information: |
Published under a Creative Commons Attributionn Licence http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
| Keywords: |
OpenStreetMap; collaborative editing; volunteered geographic information;
spatial data; |
| Academic Unit: |
Faculty of Science and Engineering > Computer Science |
| Item ID: |
5829 |
| Identification Number: |
https://doi.org/10.3390/fi4010285 |
| Depositing User: |
Peter Mooney
|
| Date Deposited: |
16 Feb 2015 17:26 |
| Journal or Publication Title: |
Future Internet |
| Publisher: |
MDPI |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| URI: |
|
| Use Licence: |
This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available
here |
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