Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
2.1 Web 2.0
Web 2.0, also called the New Web or Social Web (Tapscott and Williams
2008), refers to current Web applications that encourage user participation
and collaboration resulting in user contributed information (UCI) (Hardey
2007; O'Reilly 2005). Users are central to Web 2.0 because they interact
with each other, sharing and generating information. It has been recog-
nised that this UCI, some of it georeferenced, can potentially be useful and
enhance existing information (O'Reilly 2005; Vickery and Wunsch-
Vincent 2007). It is in part the collectiveness of the action that plays a role
(Tapscott and Williams 2008): pooling individual bits of information to
form a collective intelligence, a key component of Web 2.0 (Chatti and
Jarke 2009).
Drawing on the notions of collaboration and collective intelligence,
crowdsourcing (Howe 2009) refers to a large group of individuals collec-
tively completing a project rather than a small group of experts. Web 2.0
can provide the participatory tools. Special projects have applied crowd-
sourcing principles, and examples range from asking the public's assis-
tance with identifying galaxies (see zoo1.galaxyzoo.org), mapping the
world (see openstreetmap.org) and mapping bird observations (see
ebird.org).
Elements of Web 2.0 are increasingly being employed by organisations
and disciplines, at different levels and for various purposes to suit their
needs (Dawson 2009; McAfee 2006).
An example of UCI is tagging - adding descriptive keywords to digital
data and a feature found in many Web 2.0 applications (Anderson 2007).
Geotagging attaches a geographic description and thus creates a geo-
graphic link. The information hidden inside tags and geotags, if aggregated
and analysed, can provide insight into user behaviour. Putting this into the
context of this research project, if park visitors were to upload photos from
their visit onto a website and tag them, this may show where in a park
visitors go or where the most popular destinations within a park are. This
knowledge in turn can assist with park planning or improving visitor
services at those locations.
