Geoscience Reference
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technologies. They also include geographic masking for static data (Armstrong and Rushton, 1999).
Duckham and Kulik (2006) extend the obfuscation approach to mobile objects. They also consider
ways to counter potential threats from third parties who can refine their knowledge of a mobile
object and compromise the obfuscation.
Concomitant with the growth of this ever-expanding digital universe filled with big data, the
world (people, manufactured objects and/or other things and environment) is increasingly being
recorded, referenced and connected by vast digital networks. Almost paradoxically, as some parts
of the world are flooded by big data and people are increasingly connected in a shrinking world,
we must also be keenly aware that this world remains a deeply divided one - both physically and
digitally. While a large majority of people in North America and Europe have access to the Internet
(with Internet penetration rates at 78.3% and 58.3%, respectively, by the end of 2011), two-thirds of
humanity does not have access to the rapidly expanding digital world; the world average Internet
penetration rate is 30.2% with Asia (23.8%) and Africa (11.4%) trailing at the bottom. The geo-
graphical distribution of new digital data stored in 2010 reflects both the digital divide and uneven
development levels across the globe, with the developed world or Global North (North America and
Europe) having 10-70 times more data than the developing world or Global South (Africa, Latin
America and Asia) (Manyika et al., 2011). Nearly a third of humanity (about two billion people) still
lives on under $2 a day. We should also be mindful that sometimes simply having access to gadgets
themselves is not enough. Many iPhone users in the developed world have enjoyed using one of
multiple versions of restroom locators (e.g. have2p), but for a country like India, where there are
more cell phones than toilets, simply having have2p installed on one's iPhone would not help much
in rural areas due to the severe lack of sanitary infrastructure.
In the context of geographic information (and to some extent other types of data as well), the
biggest irony remains that Murphy's law is still at work - information is usually the least available
where it is most needed. We have witnessed this paradox unfolding painfully in front of our eyes
in the Darfur crisis in northern Sudan, the aftermath of the 2010 Haiti earthquake and the 2011 BP
explosion in the Gulf of Mexico. Undoubtedly, how to deal with big data in a shrinking and strati-
fied world remains a major challenge during the age of ubicomp and spatial big data. The strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities and threats of VGI for improving the spatial data infrastructure are quite
different in the two global contexts of North and South (Genovese and Roche, 2010). Furthermore,
as Gilbert and Masucci (2011) show so clearly in their recent work on uneven information and com-
munication geographies, we must move away from the traditional, linear conceptualisation of a digi-
tal divide, concerned primarily with physical access to computers and the Internet. Instead, we must
consider the multiple divides within cyberspace (or digital apartheid) by taking into account the
hybrid, scattered, ordered and individualised nature of cyberspaces (Graham, 2011). Indeed, mul-
tiple hidden social and political factors are at play in determining what is or is not available online
(Engler and Hall, 2007). Internet censorship (Warf, 2011; MacKinnon, 2012), power laws (or the so-
called 80/20 rule) (Shirky, 2006), homophile tendencies in human interactions (de Laat, 2010) and
fears of colonial and imperial dominance (Bryan, 2010) are also important factors to consider for the
complex patterns of digital divide and uneven practices of VGI at multiple scales on the global scene.
Last, but not least, there are also concerns over the long-term environmental impacts of ubi-
comp. Will these smart devices individuals use and smart cities at the local and regional level
automatically contribute to the formation of a smart planet at the global level? In other words,
will ubicomp lead to more ubiquitous consumption, thus more material and energy consumption
that will accelerate resource depletion and environmental devastation? Or will ubicomp further
promote citizen science, better monitor environmental conditions and track products through their
entire life cycle, thus helping in the effort to save our planet? Are we closer or further away from
the goals of sustainability in the age of ubicomp? How can ubicomp be deployed to advance the
cause for the environment? Will ubicomp sensors for animals, plants and physical elements result
in new types of environmental rights? Furthermore, scientists and artists alike have been concerned
about E-wastes generated by ubicomp each year and their long-term effects on the environment.
