Modelling information quality and source reliability to improve the trust of volunteered geographic information

Crowdsourcing and volunteered geographic information (VGI) can improve the way we collect information about the world we live in, but they are not without limitations. Traditionally sourced geographic information (GI) is implicitly trusted due to the authority of its source, whereas VGI often lacks trust. The lack of trust in VGI stems from the very nature of crowdsourcing where many sources of information form a heterogeneous crowd that in turn produces information of heterogeneous quality. Improving the trust of VGI requires knowledge of its quality and the reliability of its sources and collection methods. To improve the trust of VGI, a model is proposed to assess the quality of its spatio-temporal and semantic components and the reliability of the individual producing the information and their collection methods. The proposed model is analysed through a case study with the collection of VGI representing walking and biking tracks. The case study employs the proposed model to generate trust ratings of the collected VGI. Comparisons of the modelled trust and established baseline trust outline improvements in the trust of the VGI through the model. Measurable improvements to the trust of VGI are expected with the introduction of the crowdsourcing model, with varying degrees of improvement across the model components.