A qualitative enquiry into OpenStreetMap making

Lin, Y.W 2011, 'A qualitative enquiry into OpenStreetMap making' , New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia, 17 (1) , pp. 53-71.

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Abstract

Based on a case study on the OpenStreetMap community, this paper provides a contextual and embodied understanding of the user-led, user-participatory and user-generated produsage phenomenon. It employs Grounded Theory, Social Worlds Theory, and qualitative methods to illuminate and explores the produsage processes of OpenStreetMap making, and how knowledge artefacts such as maps can be collectively and collaboratively produced by a community of people, who are situated in different places around the world but engaged with the same repertoire of mapping practices. The empirical data illustrate that OpenStreetMap itself acts as a boundary object that enables actors from different social worlds to co-produce the Map through interacting with each other and negotiating the meanings of mapping, the mapping data and the Map itself. The discourses also show that unlike traditional maps that black-box cartographic knowledge and offer a single dominant perspective of cities or places, OpenStreetMap is an embodied epistemic object that embraces different world views. The paper also explores how contributors build their identities as an OpenStreetMaper alongside some other identities they have. Understanding the identity-building process helps to understand mapping as an embodied activity with emotional, cognitive and social repertoires.

Item Type:	Article
Themes:	Subjects / Themes > G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation Subjects / Themes > H Social Sciences > HM Sociology Subjects / Themes > M Music and Books on Music Subjects outside of the University Themes
Schools:	Schools > School of Arts & Media Schools > School of Arts & Media > Arts, Media and Communication Research Centre
Journal or Publication Title:	New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Refereed:	Yes
ISSN:	1361-4568
Related URLs:	Publication
Depositing User:	Dr. Yu-Wei Lin
Date Deposited:	07 Apr 2011 14:53
Last Modified:	16 Feb 2022 11:05
URI:	https://usir.salford.ac.uk/id/eprint/13082

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