OpenStreetMap
There is a new service launched in (and around) Belgium: https://vikingspots.com
The service is launched by the mobile operator “Mobile Vikings” which focusses on smartphones and mobile internet. To the first 4000 people who enter 15 locations, they give €15 credit (that equals 2000 free SMS and 2GB free mobile data for a month).
If you look at the map, you see that a lot of POI have been entered in the first day it was online. So one might think such a model would be profitable for Openstreetmap too (off course, we can’t afford to pay €60.000, so with smaller gifts). But when you look closely, you see that a big part of the data is highly inaccurate. So people just loaded 15 POI as fast as they could to get the €15.
So I guess, if OSM wants to give quality, that kind of games are not beneficial, and we should continue to do what we do.
Discussion
Comment from Jarl Arntzen on 9 August 2012 at 18:39
Hmm… what would be a good, game-like incentive-based mechanism to ensure quality data?
Some kind of competition where your POI description, such as its name, has to match at least 1 of the other submitters POI name to be considered good quality.
Maybe the same mechanism for POI position where you would get the most points if your POI was recorded at closest to the mean position of all POIs with the same name.
Y’know: “Best POI pin-point accuracy Achievement” or “Spell-streak! 5 correctly spelled POIs in a row”.
Cheers!