The Geospatial Data Quality subject in the Volunteered Geographic Information era

Throughout the last few decades, the geoinformation production has changed due to the widespread of computer and internet technologies. These technologies allowed the dissemination of geospatial information as well as brought many individuals closer to the usage and production of maps. For this reason, we have designed this paper in order to provide knowledge support for those researchers, which are concerned about understanding the new trends in geoinformation production and spatial data quality issues as well. At first, we discussed few concepts that explain the emergence of the VGI systems, as they currently appear on the internet, through a small historiographical revision. Then, we connected the VGI theme with Spatial Data Quality issues due to the interest of official agencies in the use of the volunteered information for updating their datasets. Actually, we pointed that official agencies are not using VGI because the way we use to assess the Geospatial Data Quality is not fulfilling the needs of a scenario drawn by these systems. Additionally, we have highlighted the importance of the scientific community engagement, by solving troubles concerning VGI quality assessment. That will allow the growth of individuals' amount accessing a qualified and updated geospatial information.

: VGI; Geospatial Data Quality; Historiography and Concepts