International Journal of Geo-Information Article Volunteered Geographic Information System Design: Project and Participation Guidelines José-Pablo Gómez-Barrón *, Miguel-Ángel Manso-Callejo, Ramón Alcarria and Teresa Iturrioz MERCATOR Research Group: Geo-Information Technologies, Technical High School of Topography, Geodesy and Cartography Engineering, Technical University of Madrid (UPM), Campus Sur, 28031 Madrid, Spain;
[email protected] (M.-A.M.-C.);
[email protected] (R.A.);
[email protected] (T.I.) * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +34-913-366-487 Academic Editors: Linda See, Vyron Antoniou, David Jonietz and Wolfgang Kainz Received: 14 March 2016; Accepted: 20 June 2016; Published: 5 July 2016 Abstract: This article sets forth the early phases of a methodological proposal for designing and developing Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) initiatives based on a system perspective analysis in which the components depend and interact dynamically among each other. First, it focuses on those characteristics of VGI projects that present different goals and modes of organization, while using a crowdsourcing strategy to manage participants and contributions. Next, a tool is developed in order to design the central crowdsourced processing unit that is best suited for a specific project definition, associating it with a trend towards crowd-based or community-driven approaches. The design is structured around the characterization of different ways of participating, and the task cognitive demand of working on geo-information management, spatial problem solving and ideation, or knowledge acquisition. Then, the crowdsourcing process design helps to identify what kind of participants are needed and outline subsequent engagement strategies. This is based on an analysis of differences among volunteers’ participatory behaviors and the associated set of factors motivating them to contribute, whether on a crowd or community-sourced basis.