Open data and the 'power of the crowd'
Sjoukema, Jaap-Willem
Open data is becoming more and more available, but is mostly designed as a one-way street. Data will flow from the governments to the data users, but the information flow from users to the government is either overlooked or ill-constructed. In the case of the Dutch geographical key registries (BGT/BRT/BAG) the ambition is to get both data flows right, by embracing concepts as volunteered geographic information (VGI) and user-centred scrum development. This talk will show the 'improve the map'-application which is developed by the Dutch Cadastre, including its concepts and theories behind it, its current looks and experiences and its bright future. The application is created entirely from opensource components. Moreover, more Dutch open geodatasets are currently interested in using the application which will bring data providers and data users closer together. Our ambition is that every open dataset deserves its easy-to-use feedback application which is open to everyone. And with everyone we really mean everyone: even primary school kids will help us to keep our maps of good quality.
 Good afternoon. Guten Tag. How's everyone today? Good? Good. Good. We're going to start today off with the session for crowdsourcing. And our first speaker today is Jop. Jop joins us from the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment. He is currently the product owner of the Map Feedback System. And also, he is in tandem working on his PhD. So I'll go over to you, Jop. Thank you. Yes, that's correct. I'm from the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment. And well, you also can see our three B things behind it because that are Dutch datasets. I will explain a little about that context because it's a bit boring. So don't mind at all. But well, to make the public government more efficient, there are several key registrations. And there are registrations like, are you dead? Where are you living? Stuff like that, to know that. And also some key registrations which have a geo component, which are for the cadastries of an obvious one, where is your house, where is your land rights, but also the addresses and two topographical key registrations. Well, the ministry is one of the, well, chiefs of those registrations because they have to be in good quality. But also the fun part is that they all are open data, except from a small part of the cadastral data, but cadastral map and how big are your parcels and stuff like that. It's all open data. Another interesting thing is that there are centrally organized key registrations with one data provider, but also several with kind of decentralized system, which many local governments, professors and stuff like that, we're all, well, getting the data right. Open data, I think it's a really, really good thing that there is, but also some flaws in it. And one flaw is, well, this straight line. As you can see, this is how it's invented. So the government puts data on the web. Companies will use it. They'll make products and services of it. And civilians will use those products and services. And that works. And with the money generated, it flows back to the Texas and that will give the government more money to spend on map products. It works from an economic perspective, but not really good from a quality perspective. Because what you can see is that, well, several government organizations putting all their data on the web, companies will use it, mix it, measure it and give it to the users. So that works. And users will give feedback to the companies on those products, but they won't give feedback to the governments. And that's not their fault, but it's the fault of the government itself because they don't facilitate it. They only put it on the web. So my goal is not only to make more interaction with data, to improve the quality also of the governmental data, but to make more interaction with it. And not only between civilians and governments, companies and governments, but also between governments itself. Because when you compare open data sets, you can also see that they aren't really consistent. So these are the current open data challenges in the Netherlands that I see. So make it more user and developer friendly, make it more consistent. And but also make it more open for interaction and feedback. And that's why my talk is about feedback. Another funny thing in the Netherlands is that it's legally, there's a law which says for every key registration, there should be an open feedback system. There are even by law users identified, all governments have to use the data of a key registration. And when they doubt the quality, they have to report. Another funny thing is there isn't any punishment or control. So there is a law, but there is not really anyone who is seeing that they are really doing it. And the amount of feedback reports also really disappointing. Well, you can ask why? Well, I show you one of the feedback systems of the addresses. You have to fill in this, this and this. You have to fill in a lot of stuff. So it's like this is very bureaucratic. And also we have to know the object that these, the data provider. So you have to know which municipality is creating the data. And that's what we do as well. There wasn't a thing that really works, especially when you have lots of feedback. So what did the BRT, that's one of the top graphical key registrations, did a pilot. And in the pilot, they opened it up for everyone. So not only governments had to give the feedback, but everyone could give the feedback. There were no formalities, so no bureaucratic shit. And also used to use it very accessible. And well, normally they get 10 to 20 reports every year, sometimes 10, sometimes 20 when they're lucky. And with this system, they got in two months of piloting, well, more than three hundred. So it was a huge success. So there was the lessons learned from that, so it's maybe a bit silly, but it wasn't really in the mind of the government. So when you want to have feedback, you have to also make it very easy for everyone, especially when you have open data. It should be easy for everyone because you don't know who will use your data. So you also don't know where your feedback will come from. So you have to make it accessible and use friendly. So for another key registration, we took this lesson and we created a new system. And the project goal was to make you use friendly and use those lessons learned, I told you. One question could be why don't you use the system of the BRC, which was already a success? Well, one thing it was proprietary and we would use it for the decentralized key registration. So four hundred data providers should work with this. So you can't say use ArcGIS online and then you can get all the feedback reports. So we made our own open source system. It was created by the Dutch cadester. And well, what also I think a key component was is the project approach. So we use scrum development. I'm not sure if it says, I think it says a lot for some, some don't really understand it. But one of the key concepts of it's also agile is to make the software work, do it in small packages, go for a minimal viable products. So that we did. We made the simplest and easiest thing to use. And without any buttons and stuff like that. And we also try to improve it every sprint it's called and make it better. Our first release was on the sixteenth of June, as you can see. And well, it's so it's now around two months live. So important design principles. I will show it so I will not talk too long about this. But it's the openness was really a key thing. So, so when you sent in the form I showed you earlier, you don't know what will happen with it. You don't know if they will improve the map or they don't approve the map. So there's no, no response. You can't see what's happening. And you also can't see what what what municipalities are doing for others. So you can't really trust the system. So with this system, one very important thing was that you can track and trace your feedback. And it's also not very revolutionary, but it's revolutionary for the government. I also will go through this quickly. But how does it work? Very simple also. You have a user who puts his feedback in the system. We're pointing on a map, its system will record it, put it in the database and push it through to another key registry holder system. In that system, the key registry holders can can give an update, give feedback to the report. And they send it back to the system automatically so the users can read it. And they also get email notifications about the status of their system. You also see four four letters on that side. PDOK. That's the Dutch natural STI. And we are planning to to connect to that. So you can also use the reports as a web service. This is how it now looks like. And I will jump to it in a demo. So now we are here. As you can see, there are lots of points. Well, this is what happened in two months time. So there are over 900 reports in there. So we are even broke the record, which was 300. And so that's that's pretty cool. And I didn't expect that at all because I thought, well, if you get 100 of those in one month, I'm very lucky. But it's a huge success and that's very cool to see. I will go to a point in the Netherlands where I know there is a mistake. It's at the university thing. And what you what you now notice there is now the map is gray. And there is also here a gray button is because this is only for the for the large scale data set. And you can see it's very visible when you're at the scale of one at 5000. So that's that's that's the thing. We are also building it for the other topographical that set, which will use this exactly the same interface and website. And should is already then visible on the zoom level, but for the large scale, we have to zoom in. And well, I know in the Netherlands is of course very famous for cycling paths. But this cycling path is closed now. So I will tell the municipality there that the cycling path is gone. I will do it in Dutch, of course, because otherwise he doesn't understand. So this is three words. That's all people have to type in the minimum amount is five characters, but all three words will do the job mostly. You can put in your email, there's even that isn't obligatory to do. But I always want to do that. So well, well, well, maybe I don't listen. It doesn't take time. So I just have to push the same button. And I see a little marker here. You can open the marker and well, it says what I talk about that the cycle path is gone. Well, that's that's all. Simple as that. Well, what you this one. Well, what the municipality will, well, if I put my email address, I could automatically an email. And what the government will get in their own system is a list of reports and they can update it. And when they update it, they also the update will be in the message. So I also get an email from what that was. Well, what I said earlier, it was a huge success from the early days. You can see that the numbers are scrambled, but that's really funny. But the well, what the Oathons are about, so around 1000 is this graph and then the others will get five to 10 a day on daily base still get feedback. So that's really surprised us. And you can it's well, it is anonymous, but we can see from from from some email addresses that you that's are really individuals, governments and companies, but also open treatment users are really using it to improve the map. It's too soon to say something about the quality of the feedback reports because the governments have six months to react on one. So that's a bit silly, but it's also in the law. But what we can see from from the governments who are doing the job goods is that the large part can be approved also a bit higher of the clients than in the pilot we did with the other key registration. But that is because what I saw people are it's so easy that easy that when you do test and he sent it that you also will accidentally make report. So that's that's maybe something to do. Well, some some learning effects have to come up. What we do will do in the future with this is that the application will be further developed for also the older key registrations. And also we will improve the user's friendliness because what you saw it, I had to zoom in, I couldn't type in a search box and I also couldn't upload the picture or stuff like that. That's also the current development to make it first make it work easy. And then we improve things step by step. And also interesting and there's also a lot of a lot of demand for is an API so that the developers can connect to it and also use it to put directly reports on the map because that's real use friendliness that you don't have to go to a website but go directly making a report. And overall long term goal is to make it more generic more flexible so that in time every open data user provider can put stuff in it and we'll get a feedback system. Another spin off is also quite cool is the school crowd project. It's from the Dutch disaster has started. Unfortunately, I don't know the details about it, but the customer was another speaker who actually also show up but unfortunately couldn't come anymore. And the fun thing is that they go to primary schools and give them an objective to locate all police stations stuff like that, look at your own school. And the kids will put those on the map and well, the goals are of course to make them use the geo information, make them more aware of the local environment, but also the cadastres really interested to see what will pop up and how they can use the data to improve their top graphical products. Because one flaw of crowdsourcing is mostly that this, for example, also if you may see a street map, see that the cities are very good quality, but when you go in to go to less densely populated areas, the quality can be much less. And because there are less people will pass by and report things and make it better. But also one of the things is when we activate the school kids to improve the map, we also have a better national coverage and also a renewable source which will go on for years for improvements, which is also quite funny. And also a good thing is that I like the legend, but the kids really liked the module. It's of course better than doing homework, making maps better. Well, if you want to test the application yourself, you can go to URL. I also put the URL for acceptance environment beneath this. So there you can put in your test messages and stuff like that. So you aren't bullying local governments in the Netherlands. And for the rest of all, thank you for your attention. And I'm curious if there are any questions and discussion. Have you received any negative feedback or criticism that it's dangerous to let the crowd provide perspective? Okay, I have to give you a microphone. Have you received any criticism that it's dangerous to let the crowd provide data or the crowd provide perspective on the government's data? Yeah, well, thank you for your question. That's a fun thing. I didn't start it with it, but why we achieved all of this is actually because I did my master's thesis and I had the hypothesis that the governments are against crowdsourcing, that they are conservative, they don't want to use it, and they think it's dangerous. But actually, the researchers did prove that they are not very, let's say, they say, well, yes, we should use it directly. But they were, well, it showed that it was very feasible. And I also also questioned, did civilians put directly objects on the map that they didn't want? And if it's a feedback system like this, they really wanted to have and they were really, well, waiting for it for a government organization to develop it for them. So I think there are still, perhaps there is a group of foreign government organizations who don't really like the concept, but I think there was a lot of acceptance of it. Yes. Thank you. All right, thanks. Hello. Two questions, actually. Did you make use of some open or not open standards on the implementation? Yeah. Yeah, I'm not a developer, so I skipped the open components part. But no, it's mainly open components. The communication works via REST APIs. The backend is developed with Java, the frontend with open layers, Angular and stuff like that. But I mean, standards on how the feedback is being handled. Okay. No, we didn't use any standards of it. No, no, no. So that's our own standards, which is, of course, new mod rest, textbooks and XI coordinates. Okay. So then the other one, will the feedback provider or the citizen get visibility on how his feedback is being handled in the system? Yeah, yeah. If you saw the application, there are several colors. So if you can see here, there are several status of reports. So it's between it's approved and with yellow, it's new, like this one. So if you can see, there are some are more declined, like this one, and some are green, like this one. So you can all read it and also read it of other people. And also, it's also a learning effect that when you see this one is wrong, what's wrong about it, oh, then I shouldn't put it there. So that's, yeah, that's all open and transparent. Hi. I was wondering how long will you keep up the markers? If there's about 20,000 feedback moments at what time will you stop showing them? Yeah, that's a good question. Actually we thought, well, maybe when we are lucky, 100 reports every month. So then after six months, we can clean up the mess and then. But now we are, yeah, well, there are so many markers. So now we are thinking, well, maybe a month or like putting a maximum amount. We always show the open ones, but then the closed ones or the declined ones, we can put them away. And I think a month or so is now, yeah. More questions? No? No. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
 Good afternoon.  Guten Tag.  How's everyone today?  Good?  Good.  Good.  We're going to start today off with the session for crowdsourcing.  And our first speaker today is Jop.  Jop joins us from the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment.  He is currently the product owner of the Map Feedback System.  And also, he is in tandem working on his PhD.  So I'll go over to you, Jop.  Thank you.  Yes, that's correct.  I'm from the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment.  And well, you also can see our three B things behind it because that are Dutch datasets.  I will explain a little about that context because it's a bit boring.  So don't mind at all.  But well, to make the public government more efficient, there are several key registrations.  And there are registrations like, are you dead?  Where are you living?  Stuff like that, to know that.  And also some key registrations which have a geo component, which are for the cadastries  of an obvious one, where is your house, where is your land rights, but also the addresses  and two topographical key registrations.  Well, the ministry is one of the, well, chiefs of those registrations because they have to  be in good quality.  But also the fun part is that they all are open data, except from a small part of the  cadastral data, but cadastral map and how big are your parcels and stuff like that.  It's all open data.  Another interesting thing is that there are centrally organized key registrations with  one data provider, but also several with kind of decentralized system, which many local  governments, professors and stuff like that, we're all, well, getting the data right.  Open data, I think it's a really, really good thing that there is, but also some flaws  in it.  And one flaw is, well, this straight line.  As you can see, this is how it's invented.  So the government puts data on the web.  Companies will use it.  They'll make products and services of it.  And civilians will use those products and services.  And that works.  And with the money generated, it flows back to the Texas and that will give the government  more money to spend on map products.  It works from an economic perspective, but not really good from a quality perspective.  Because what you can see is that, well, several government organizations putting all their  data on the web, companies will use it, mix it, measure it and give it to the users.  So that works.  And users will give feedback to the companies on those products, but they won't give feedback  to the governments.  And that's not their fault, but it's the fault of the government itself because they  don't facilitate it.  They only put it on the web.  So my goal is not only to make more interaction with data, to improve the quality also of  the governmental data, but to make more interaction with it.  And not only between civilians and governments, companies and governments, but also between  governments itself.  Because when you compare open data sets, you can also see that they aren't really consistent.  So these are the current open data challenges in the Netherlands that I see.  So make it more user and developer friendly, make it more consistent.  And but also make it more open for interaction and feedback.  And that's why my talk is about feedback.  Another funny thing in the Netherlands is that it's legally, there's a law which says  for every key registration, there should be an open feedback system.  There are even by law users identified, all governments have to use the data of a key  registration.  And when they doubt the quality, they have to report.  Another funny thing is there isn't any punishment or control.  So there is a law, but there is not really anyone who is seeing that they are really  doing it.  And the amount of feedback reports also really disappointing.  Well, you can ask why?  Well, I show you one of the feedback systems of the addresses.  You have to fill in this, this and this.  You have to fill in a lot of stuff.  So it's like this is very bureaucratic.  And also we have to know the object that these, the data provider.  So you have to know which municipality is creating the data.  And that's what we do as well.  There wasn't a thing that really works, especially when you have lots of feedback.  So what did the BRT, that's one of the top graphical key registrations, did a pilot.  And in the pilot, they opened it up for everyone.  So not only governments had to give the feedback, but everyone could give the feedback.  There were no formalities, so no bureaucratic shit.  And also used to use it very accessible.  And well, normally they get 10 to 20 reports every year, sometimes 10, sometimes 20 when  they're lucky.  And with this system, they got in two months of piloting, well, more than three hundred.  So it was a huge success.  So there was the lessons learned from that, so it's maybe a bit silly, but it wasn't really  in the mind of the government.  So when you want to have feedback, you have to also make it very easy for everyone, especially  when you have open data.  It should be easy for everyone because you don't know who will use your data.  So you also don't know where your feedback will come from.  So you have to make it accessible and use friendly.  So for another key registration, we took this lesson and we created a new system.  And the project goal was to make you use friendly and use those lessons learned, I told you.  One question could be why don't you use the system of the BRC, which was already a success?  Well, one thing it was proprietary and we would use it for the decentralized key registration.  So four hundred data providers should work with this.  So you can't say use ArcGIS online and then you can get all the feedback reports.  So we made our own open source system.  It was created by the Dutch cadester.  And well, what also I think a key component was is the project approach.  So we use scrum development.  I'm not sure if it says, I think it says a lot for some, some don't really understand  it.  But one of the key concepts of it's also agile is to make the software work, do it in small  packages, go for a minimal viable products.  So that we did.  We made the simplest and easiest thing to use.  And without any buttons and stuff like that.  And we also try to improve it every sprint it's called and make it better.  Our first release was on the sixteenth of June, as you can see.  And well, it's so it's now around two months live.  So important design principles.  I will show it so I will not talk too long about this.  But it's the openness was really a key thing.  So, so when you sent in the form I showed you earlier, you don't know what will happen  with it.  You don't know if they will improve the map or they don't approve the map.  So there's no, no response.  You can't see what's happening.  And you also can't see what what what municipalities are doing for others.  So you can't really trust the system.  So with this system, one very important thing was that you can track and trace your feedback.  And it's also not very revolutionary, but it's revolutionary for the government.  I also will go through this quickly.  But how does it work?  Very simple also.  You have a user who puts his feedback in the system.  We're pointing on a map, its system will record it, put it in the database and push it through  to another key registry holder system.  In that system, the key registry holders can can give an update, give feedback to the report.  And they send it back to the system automatically so the users can read it.  And they also get email notifications about the status of their system.  You also see four four letters on that side.  PDOK.  That's the Dutch natural STI.  And we are planning to to connect to that.  So you can also use the reports as a web service.  This is how it now looks like.  And I will jump to it in a demo.  So now we are here.  As you can see, there are lots of points.  Well, this is what happened in two months time.  So there are over 900 reports in there.  So we are even broke the record, which was 300.  And so that's that's pretty cool.  And I didn't expect that at all because I thought, well, if you get 100 of those in  one month, I'm very lucky.  But it's a huge success and that's very cool to see.  I will go to a point in the Netherlands where I know there is a mistake.  It's at the university thing.  And what you what you now notice there is now the map is gray.  And there is also here a gray button is because this is only for the for the large scale data  set.  And you can see it's very visible when you're at the scale of one at 5000.  So that's that's that's the thing.  We are also building it for the other topographical that set, which will use this exactly the  same interface and website.  And should is already then visible on the zoom level, but for the large scale, we have  to zoom in.  And well, I know in the Netherlands is of course very famous for cycling paths.  But this cycling path is closed now.  So I will tell the municipality there that the cycling path is gone.  I will do it in Dutch, of course, because otherwise he doesn't understand.  So this is three words.  That's all people have to type in the minimum amount is five characters, but all three words  will do the job mostly.  You can put in your email, there's even that isn't obligatory to do.  But I always want to do that.  So well, well, well, maybe I don't listen.  It doesn't take time.  So I just have to push the same button.  And I see a little marker here.  You can open the marker and well, it says what I talk about that the cycle path is gone.  Well, that's that's all.  Simple as that.  Well, what you this one.  Well, what the municipality will, well, if I put my email address, I could automatically  an email.  And what the government will get in their own system is a list of reports and they can  update it.  And when they update it, they also the update will be in the message.  So I also get an email from what that was.  Well, what I said earlier, it was a huge success from the early days.  You can see that the numbers are scrambled, but that's really funny.  But the well, what the Oathons are about, so around 1000 is this graph and then the  others will get five to 10 a day on daily base still get feedback.  So that's really surprised us.  And you can it's well, it is anonymous, but we can see from from from some email addresses  that you that's are really individuals, governments and companies, but also open treatment users  are really using it to improve the map.  It's too soon to say something about the quality of the feedback reports because the governments  have six months to react on one.  So that's a bit silly, but it's also in the law.  But what we can see from from the governments who are doing the job goods is that the large  part can be approved also a bit higher of the clients than in the pilot we did with  the other key registration.  But that is because what I saw people are it's so easy that easy that when you do test  and he sent it that you also will accidentally make report.  So that's that's maybe something to do.  Well, some some learning effects have to come up.  What we do will do in the future with this is that the application will be further developed  for also the older key registrations.  And also we will improve the user's friendliness because what you saw it, I had to zoom in,  I couldn't type in a search box and I also couldn't upload the picture or stuff like  that.  That's also the current development to make it first make it work easy.  And then we improve things step by step.  And also interesting and there's also a lot of a lot of demand for is an API so that the  developers can connect to it and also use it to put directly reports on the map because  that's real use friendliness that you don't have to go to a website but go directly making  a report.  And overall long term goal is to make it more generic more flexible so that in time every  open data user provider can put stuff in it and we'll get a feedback system.  Another spin off is also quite cool is the school crowd project.  It's from the Dutch disaster has started.  Unfortunately, I don't know the details about it, but the customer was another speaker who  actually also show up but unfortunately couldn't come anymore.  And the fun thing is that they go to primary schools and give them an objective to locate  all police stations stuff like that, look at your own school.  And the kids will put those on the map and well, the goals are of course to make them  use the geo information, make them more aware of the local environment, but also the cadastres  really interested to see what will pop up and how they can use the data to improve their  top graphical products.  Because one flaw of crowdsourcing is mostly that this, for example, also if you may see  a street map, see that the cities are very good quality, but when you go in to go to  less densely populated areas, the quality can be much less.  And because there are less people will pass by and report things and make it better.  But also one of the things is when we activate the school kids to improve the map, we also  have a better national coverage and also a renewable source which will go on for years  for improvements, which is also quite funny.  And also a good thing is that I like the legend, but the kids really liked the module.  It's of course better than doing homework, making maps better.  Well, if you want to test the application yourself, you can go to URL.  I also put the URL for acceptance environment beneath this.  So there you can put in your test messages and stuff like that.  So you aren't bullying local governments in the Netherlands.  And for the rest of all, thank you for your attention.  And I'm curious if there are any questions and discussion.  Have you received any negative feedback or criticism that it's dangerous to let the  crowd provide perspective?  Okay, I have to give you a microphone.  Have you received any criticism that it's dangerous to let the crowd provide data or  the crowd provide perspective on the government's data?  Yeah, well, thank you for your question.  That's a fun thing.  I didn't start it with it, but why we achieved all of this is actually because I did my master's  thesis and I had the hypothesis that the governments are against crowdsourcing, that they are conservative,  they don't want to use it, and they think it's dangerous.  But actually, the researchers did prove that they are not very, let's say, they say, well,  yes, we should use it directly.  But they were, well, it showed that it was very feasible.  And I also also questioned, did civilians put directly objects on the map that they  didn't want?  And if it's a feedback system like this, they really wanted to have and they were really,  well, waiting for it for a government organization to develop it for them.  So I think there are still, perhaps there is a group of foreign government organizations  who don't really like the concept, but I think there was a lot of acceptance of it.  Yes.  Thank you.  All right, thanks.  Hello.  Two questions, actually.  Did you make use of some open or not open standards on the implementation?  Yeah.  Yeah, I'm not a developer, so I skipped the open components part.  But no, it's mainly open components.  The communication works via REST APIs.  The backend is developed with Java, the frontend with open layers, Angular and stuff like that.  But I mean, standards on how the feedback is being handled.  Okay.  No, we didn't use any standards of it.  No, no, no.  So that's our own standards, which is, of course, new mod rest, textbooks and XI coordinates.  Okay.  So then the other one, will the feedback provider or the citizen get visibility on how his feedback  is being handled in the system?  Yeah, yeah.  If you saw the application, there are several colors.  So if you can see here, there are several status of reports.  So it's between it's approved and with yellow, it's new, like this one.  So if you can see, there are some are more declined, like this one, and some are green,  like this one.  So you can all read it and also read it of other people.  And also, it's also a learning effect that when you see this one is wrong, what's wrong  about it, oh, then I shouldn't put it there.  So that's, yeah, that's all open and transparent.  Hi.  I was wondering how long will you keep up the markers?  If there's about 20,000 feedback moments at what time will you stop showing them?  Yeah, that's a good question.  Actually we thought, well, maybe when we are lucky, 100 reports every month.  So then after six months, we can clean up the mess and then.  But now we are, yeah, well, there are so many markers.  So now we are thinking, well, maybe a month or like putting a maximum amount.  We always show the open ones, but then the closed ones or the declined ones, we can put  them away.  And I think a month or so is now, yeah.  More questions?  No?  No.  Yeah.  Yeah.  Yeah.  Yeah.  Yeah.  Yeah.  Yeah.  Yeah.  Yeah.  Yeah.  Yeah.  Yeah.  Yeah.  Yeah.  Yeah.  Yeah.  Yeah.  Yeah.  Yeah.
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Good afternoon. Guten Tag. How's everyone today? Good? Good. Good. We're going to start today off with the session for crowdsourcing. And our first speaker today is Jop. Jop joins us from the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment. He is currently the product owner of the Map Feedback System. And also, he is in tandem working on his PhD. So I'll go over to you, Jop. Thank you. Yes, that's correct. I'm from the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment. And well, you also can see our three B things behind it because that are Dutch datasets. I will explain a little about that context because it's a bit boring. So don't mind at all. But well, to make the public government more efficient, there are several key registrations. And there are registrations like, are you dead? Where are you living? Stuff like that, to know that. And also some key registrations which have a geo component, which are for the cadastries of an obvious one, where is your house, where is your land rights, but also the addresses and two topographical key registrations. Well, the ministry is one of the, well, chiefs of those registrations because they have to be in good quality. But also the fun part is that they all are open data, except from a small part of the cadastral data, but cadastral map and how big are your parcels and stuff like that. It's all open data. Another interesting thing is that there are centrally organized key registrations with one data provider, but also several with kind of decentralized system, which many local governments, professors and stuff like that, we're all, well, getting the data right. Open data, I think it's a really, really good thing that there is, but also some flaws in it. And one flaw is, well, this straight line. As you can see, this is how it's invented. So the government puts data on the web. Companies will use it. They'll make products and services of it. And civilians will use those products and services. And that works. And with the money generated, it flows back to the Texas and that will give the government more money to spend on map products. It works from an economic perspective, but not really good from a quality perspective. Because what you can see is that, well, several government organizations putting all their data on the web, companies will use it, mix it, measure it and give it to the users. So that works. And users will give feedback to the companies on those products, but they won't give feedback to the governments. And that's not their fault, but it's the fault of the government itself because they don't facilitate it. They only put it on the web. So my goal is not only to make more interaction with data, to improve the quality also of the governmental data, but to make more interaction with it. And not only between civilians and governments, companies and governments, but also between governments itself. Because when you compare open data sets, you can also see that they aren't really consistent. So these are the current open data challenges in the Netherlands that I see. So make it more user and developer friendly, make it more consistent. And but also make it more open for interaction and feedback. And that's why my talk is about feedback. Another funny thing in the Netherlands is that it's legally, there's a law which says for every key registration, there should be an open feedback system. There are even by law users identified, all governments have to use the data of a key registration. And when they doubt the quality, they have to report. Another funny thing is there isn't any punishment or control. So there is a law, but there is not really anyone who is seeing that they are really doing it. And the amount of feedback reports also really disappointing. Well, you can ask why? Well, I show you one of the feedback systems of the addresses. You have to fill in this, this and this. You have to fill in a lot of stuff. So it's like this is very bureaucratic. And also we have to know the object that these, the data provider. So you have to know which municipality is creating the data. And that's what we do as well. There wasn't a thing that really works, especially when you have lots of feedback. So what did the BRT, that's one of the top graphical key registrations, did a pilot. And in the pilot, they opened it up for everyone. So not only governments had to give the feedback, but everyone could give the feedback. There were no formalities, so no bureaucratic shit. And also used to use it very accessible. And well, normally they get 10 to 20 reports every year, sometimes 10, sometimes 20 when they're lucky. And with this system, they got in two months of piloting, well, more than three hundred. So it was a huge success. So there was the lessons learned from that, so it's maybe a bit silly, but it wasn't really in the mind of the government. So when you want to have feedback, you have to also make it very easy for everyone, especially when you have open data. It should be easy for everyone because you don't know who will use your data. So you also don't know where your feedback will come from. So you have to make it accessible and use friendly. So for another key registration, we took this lesson and we created a new system. And the project goal was to make you use friendly and use those lessons learned, I told you. One question could be why don't you use the system of the BRC, which was already a success? Well, one thing it was proprietary and we would use it for the decentralized key registration. So four hundred data providers should work with this. So you can't say use ArcGIS online and then you can get all the feedback reports. So we made our own open source system. It was created by the Dutch cadester. And well, what also I think a key component was is the project approach. So we use scrum development. I'm not sure if it says, I think it says a lot for some, some don't really understand it. But one of the key concepts of it's also agile is to make the software work, do it in small packages, go for a minimal viable products. So that we did. We made the simplest and easiest thing to use. And without any buttons and stuff like that. And we also try to improve it every sprint it's called and make it better. Our first release was on the sixteenth of June, as you can see. And well, it's so it's now around two months live. So important design principles. I will show it so I will not talk too long about this. But it's the openness was really a key thing. So, so when you sent in the form I showed you earlier, you don't know what will happen with it. You don't know if they will improve the map or they don't approve the map. So there's no, no response. You can't see what's happening. And you also can't see what what what municipalities are doing for others. So you can't really trust the system. So with this system, one very important thing was that you can track and trace your feedback. And it's also not very revolutionary, but it's revolutionary for the government. I also will go through this quickly. But how does it work? Very simple also. You have a user who puts his feedback in the system. We're pointing on a map, its system will record it, put it in the database and push it through to another key registry holder system. In that system, the key registry holders can can give an update, give feedback to the report. And they send it back to the system automatically so the users can read it. And they also get email notifications about the status of their system. You also see four four letters on that side. PDOK. That's the Dutch natural STI. And we are planning to to connect to that. So you can also use the reports as a web service. This is how it now looks like. And I will jump to it in a demo. So now we are here. As you can see, there are lots of points. Well, this is what happened in two months time. So there are over 900 reports in there. So we are even broke the record, which was 300. And so that's that's pretty cool. And I didn't expect that at all because I thought, well, if you get 100 of those in one month, I'm very lucky. But it's a huge success and that's very cool to see. I will go to a point in the Netherlands where I know there is a mistake. It's at the university thing. And what you what you now notice there is now the map is gray. And there is also here a gray button is because this is only for the for the large scale data set. And you can see it's very visible when you're at the scale of one at 5000. So that's that's that's the thing. We are also building it for the other topographical that set, which will use this exactly the same interface and website. And should is already then visible on the zoom level, but for the large scale, we have to zoom in. And well, I know in the Netherlands is of course very famous for cycling paths. But this cycling path is closed now. So I will tell the municipality there that the cycling path is gone. I will do it in Dutch, of course, because otherwise he doesn't understand. So this is three words. That's all people have to type in the minimum amount is five characters, but all three words will do the job mostly. You can put in your email, there's even that isn't obligatory to do. But I always want to do that. So well, well, well, maybe I don't listen. It doesn't take time. So I just have to push the same button. And I see a little marker here. You can open the marker and well, it says what I talk about that the cycle path is gone. Well, that's that's all. Simple as that. Well, what you this one. Well, what the municipality will, well, if I put my email address, I could automatically an email. And what the government will get in their own system is a list of reports and they can update it. And when they update it, they also the update will be in the message. So I also get an email from what that was. Well, what I said earlier, it was a huge success from the early days. You can see that the numbers are scrambled, but that's really funny. But the well, what the Oathons are about, so around 1000 is this graph and then the others will get five to 10 a day on daily base still get feedback. So that's really surprised us. And you can it's well, it is anonymous, but we can see from from from some email addresses that you that's are really individuals, governments and companies, but also open treatment users are really using it to improve the map. It's too soon to say something about the quality of the feedback reports because the governments have six months to react on one. So that's a bit silly, but it's also in the law. But what we can see from from the governments who are doing the job goods is that the large part can be approved also a bit higher of the clients than in the pilot we did with the other key registration. But that is because what I saw people are it's so easy that easy that when you do test and he sent it that you also will accidentally make report. So that's that's maybe something to do. Well, some some learning effects have to come up. What we do will do in the future with this is that the application will be further developed for also the older key registrations. And also we will improve the user's friendliness because what you saw it, I had to zoom in, I couldn't type in a search box and I also couldn't upload the picture or stuff like that. That's also the current development to make it first make it work easy. And then we improve things step by step. And also interesting and there's also a lot of a lot of demand for is an API so that the developers can connect to it and also use it to put directly reports on the map because that's real use friendliness that you don't have to go to a website but go directly making a report. And overall long term goal is to make it more generic more flexible so that in time every open data user provider can put stuff in it and we'll get a feedback system. Another spin off is also quite cool is the school crowd project. It's from the Dutch disaster has started. Unfortunately, I don't know the details about it, but the customer was another speaker who actually also show up but unfortunately couldn't come anymore. And the fun thing is that they go to primary schools and give them an objective to locate all police stations stuff like that, look at your own school. And the kids will put those on the map and well, the goals are of course to make them use the geo information, make them more aware of the local environment, but also the cadastres really interested to see what will pop up and how they can use the data to improve their top graphical products. Because one flaw of crowdsourcing is mostly that this, for example, also if you may see a street map, see that the cities are very good quality, but when you go in to go to less densely populated areas, the quality can be much less. And because there are less people will pass by and report things and make it better. But also one of the things is when we activate the school kids to improve the map, we also have a better national coverage and also a renewable source which will go on for years for improvements, which is also quite funny. And also a good thing is that I like the legend, but the kids really liked the module. It's of course better than doing homework, making maps better. Well, if you want to test the application yourself, you can go to URL. I also put the URL for acceptance environment beneath this. So there you can put in your test messages and stuff like that. So you aren't bullying local governments in the Netherlands. And for the rest of all, thank you for your attention. And I'm curious if there are any questions and discussion. Have you received any negative feedback or criticism that it's dangerous to let the crowd provide perspective? Okay, I have to give you a microphone. Have you received any criticism that it's dangerous to let the crowd provide data or the crowd provide perspective on the government's data? Yeah, well, thank you for your question. That's a fun thing. I didn't start it with it, but why we achieved all of this is actually because I did my master's thesis and I had the hypothesis that the governments are against crowdsourcing, that they are conservative, they don't want to use it, and they think it's dangerous. But actually, the researchers did prove that they are not very, let's say, they say, well, yes, we should use it directly. But they were, well, it showed that it was very feasible. And I also also questioned, did civilians put directly objects on the map that they didn't want? And if it's a feedback system like this, they really wanted to have and they were really, well, waiting for it for a government organization to develop it for them. So I think there are still, perhaps there is a group of foreign government organizations who don't really like the concept, but I think there was a lot of acceptance of it. Yes. Thank you. All right, thanks. Hello. Two questions, actually. Did you make use of some open or not open standards on the implementation? Yeah. Yeah, I'm not a developer, so I skipped the open components part. But no, it's mainly open components. The communication works via REST APIs. The backend is developed with Java, the frontend with open layers, Angular and stuff like that. But I mean, standards on how the feedback is being handled. Okay. No, we didn't use any standards of it. No, no, no. So that's our own standards, which is, of course, new mod rest, textbooks and XI coordinates. Okay. So then the other one, will the feedback provider or the citizen get visibility on how his feedback is being handled in the system? Yeah, yeah. If you saw the application, there are several colors. So if you can see here, there are several status of reports. So it's between it's approved and with yellow, it's new, like this one. So if you can see, there are some are more declined, like this one, and some are green, like this one. So you can all read it and also read it of other people. And also, it's also a learning effect that when you see this one is wrong, what's wrong about it, oh, then I shouldn't put it there. So that's, yeah, that's all open and transparent. Hi. I was wondering how long will you keep up the markers? If there's about 20,000 feedback moments at what time will you stop showing them? Yeah, that's a good question. Actually we thought, well, maybe when we are lucky, 100 reports every month. So then after six months, we can clean up the mess and then. But now we are, yeah, well, there are so many markers. So now we are thinking, well, maybe a month or like putting a maximum amount. We always show the open ones, but then the closed ones or the declined ones, we can put them away. And I think a month or so is now, yeah. More questions? No? No. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
also can see our three B things behind it because that, we're all, well, getting the data right. Open data, I think it's a really, really good generated, it flows back to the Texas and that make more interaction with data, to improve the open feedback system. There are even by law users show you one of the feedback systems of the registration. So four hundred data providers system. It was created by the Dutch cadester. And the project approach. So we use scrum it. But one of the key concepts of it's also like that. And we also try to improve it every that. So you can also use the reports as a web service. This is how it now looks like. And I the government will get in their own system is a from from the governments who are doing the job or stuff like that. That's also the current good quality, but when you go in to go to less one of the things is when we activate the school which will go on for years for improvements, is that I like the legend, but the kids really want to test the application yourself, you can go APIs. The backend is developed with Java, the that. But I mean, standards on how the feedback