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International Encyclopedia of Geography – Quality Assurance of VGI
19 September, 2014
The Association of American Geographers is coordinating an effort to create an International Encyclopedia of Geography. Plans started in 2010, with an aim to see the 15 volumes project published in 2015 or 2016. Interestingly, this shows that publishers and scholars are still seeing the value in creating subject-specific encyclopedias. On the other hand, the weird decision by Wikipedians that Geographic Information Science doesn't exist outside GIS, show that geographers need a place to define their practice by themselves. You can find more information about the AAG International Encyclopedia project in an interview with Doug Richardson from 2012.
As part of this effort, I was asked to write an entry on 'Volunteered Geographic Information, Quality Assurance' as a short piece of about 3000 words. To do this, I have looked around for mechanisms that are used in VGI and in Citizen Science. This are covered in OpenStreetMap studies and similar work in GIScience, and in the area of citizen science, there are reviews such as the one by Andrea Wiggins and colleagues of mechanisms to ensure data quality in citizen science projects, which clearly demonstrated that projects are using multiple methods to ensure data quality.
Below you'll find an abridged version of the entry (but still long). The citation for this entry will be:
Haklay, M., Forthcoming. Volunteered geographic information, quality assurance. in D. Richardson, N. Castree, M. Goodchild, W. Liu, A. Kobayashi, & R. Marston (Eds.) The International Encyclopedia of Geography: People, the Earth, Environment, and Technology. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley/AAG
In the entry, I have identified 6 types of mechanisms that are used to ensure quality assurance when the data has a geographical component, either VGI or citizen science. If I have missed a type of quality assurance mechanism, please let me know!
Here is the entry:
Volunteered geographic information, quality assurance
Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) originate outside the realm of professional data collection by scientists, surveyors and geographers. Quality assurance of such information is important for people who want to use it, as they need to identify if it is fit-for-purpose. Goodchild and Li (2012) identified three approaches for VGI quality assurance , 'crowdsourcing' and that rely on the number of people that edited the information, 'social' approach that is based on gatekeepers and moderators, and 'geographic' approach which uses broader geographic knowledge to verify that the information fit into existing understanding of the natural world. In addition to the approaches that Goodchild and li identified, there are also 'domain' approach that relate to the understanding of the knowledge domain of the information, 'instrumental observation' that rely on technology, and 'process oriented' approach that brings VGI closer to industrialised procedures. First we need to understand the nature of VGI and the source of concern with quality assurance.
While the term volunteered geographic information (VGI) is relatively new (Goodchild 2007), the activities that this term described are not. Another relatively recent term, citizen science (Bonney 1996), which describes the participation of volunteers in collecting, analysing and sharing scientific information, provide the historical context. While the term is relatively new, the collection of accurate information by non-professional participants turn out to be an integral part of scientific activity since the 17th century and likely before (Bonney et al 2013). Therefore, when approaching the question of quality assurance of VGI, it is critical to see it within the wider context of scientific data collection and not to fall to the trap of novelty, and to consider that it is without precedent.
Yet, this integration need to take into account the insights that emerged within geographic information science (GIScience) research over the past decades. Within GIScience, it is the body of research on spatial data quality that provide the framing for VGI quality assurance. Van Oort's (2006) comprehensive synthesis of various quality standards identifies the following elements of spatial data quality discussions:
- Lineage – description of the history of the dataset,
- Positional accuracy – how well the coordinate value of an object in the database relates to the reality on the ground.
- Attribute accuracy – as objects in a geographical database are represented not only by their geometrical shape but also by additional attributes.
- Logical consistency – the internal consistency of the dataset,
- Completeness – how many objects are expected to be found in the database but are missing as well as an assessment of excess data that should not be included.
- Usage, purpose and constraints – this is a fitness-for-purpose declaration that should help potential users in deciding how the data should be used.
- Temporal quality – this is a measure of the validity of changes in the database in relation to real-world changes and also the rate of updates.
While some of these quality elements might seem independent of a specific application, in reality they can be only be evaluated within a specific context of use. For example, when carrying out analysis of street-lighting in a specific part of town, the question of completeness become specific about the recording of all street-light objects within the bounds of the area of interest and if the data set includes does not include these features or if it is complete for another part of the settlement is irrelevant for the task at hand. The scrutiny of information quality within a specific application to ensure that it is good enough for the needs is termed 'fitness for purpose'. As we shall see, fit-for-purpose is a central issue with respect to VGI.
To understand the reason that geographers are concerned with quality assurance of VGI, we need to recall the historical development of geographic information, and especially the historical context of geographic information systems (GIS) and GIScience development since the 1960s. For most of the 20th century, geographic information production became professionalised and institutionalised. The creation, organisation and distribution of geographic information was done by official bodies such as national mapping agencies or national geological bodies who were funded by the state. As a results, the production of geographic information became and industrial scientific process in which the aim is to produce a standardised product – commonly a map. Due to financial, skills and process limitations, products were engineered carefully so they can be used for multiple purposes. Thus, a topographic map can be used for navigation but also for urban planning and for many other purposes. Because the products were standardised, detailed specifications could be drawn, against which the quality elements can be tested and quality assurance procedures could be developed. This was the backdrop to the development of GIS, and to the conceptualisation of spatial data quality.
The practices of centralised, scientific and industrialised geographic information production lend themselves to quality assurance procedures that are deployed through organisational or professional structures, and explains the perceived challenges with VGI. Centralised practices also supported employing people with focus on quality assurance, such as going to the field with a map and testing that it complies with the specification that were used to create it. In contrast, most of the collection of VGI is done outside organisational frameworks. The people who contribute the data are not employees and seemingly cannot be put into training programmes, asked to follow quality assurance procedures, or expected to use standardised equipment that can be calibrated. The lack of coordination and top-down forms of production raise questions about ensuring the quality of the information that emerges from VGI.
To consider quality assurance within VGI require to understand some underlying principles that are common to VGI practices and differentiate it from organised and industrialised geographic information creation. For example, some VGI is collected under conditions of scarcity or abundance in terms of data sources, number of observations or the amount of data that is being used. As noted, the conceptualisation of geographic data collection before the emergence of VGI was one of scarcity where data is expensive and complex to collect. In contrast, many applications of VGI the situation is one of abundance. For example, in applications that are based on micro-volunteering, where the participant invest very little time in a fairly simple task, it is possible to give the same mapping task to several participants and statistically compare their independent outcomes as a way to ensure the quality of the data. Another form of considering abundance as a framework is in the development of software for data collection. While in previous eras, there will be inherently one application that was used for data capture and editing, in VGI there is a need to consider of multiple applications as different designs and workflows can appeal and be suitable for different groups of participants.
Another underlying principle of VGI is that since the people who collect the information are not remunerated or in contractual relationships with the organisation that coordinates data collection, a more complex relationships between the two sides are required, with consideration of incentives, motivations to contribute and the tools that will be used for data collection. Overall, VGI systems need to be understood as socio-technical systems in which the social aspect is as important as the technical part.
In addition, VGI is inherently heterogeneous. In large scale data collection activities such as the census of population, there is a clear attempt to capture all the information about the population over relatively short time and in every part of the country. In contrast, because of its distributed nature, VGI will vary across space and time, with some areas and times receiving more attention than others. An interesting example has been shown in temporal scales, where some citizen science activities exhibit 'weekend bias' as these are the days when volunteers are free to collect more information.
Because of the difference in the organisational settings of VGI, a different approaches to quality assurance is required, although as noted, in general such approaches have been used in many citizen science projects. Over the years, several approaches emerged and these include 'crowdsourcing ', 'social', 'geographic', 'domain', 'instrumental observation' and 'process oriented'. We now turn to describe each of these approaches.
The 'crowdsourcing' approach is building on the principle of abundance. Since there are is a large number of contributors, quality assurance can emerge from repeated verification by multiple participants. Even in projects where the participants actively collect data in uncoordinated way, such as the OpenStreetMap project, it has been shown that with enough participants actively collecting data in a given area, the quality of the data can be as good as authoritative sources. The limitation of this approach is when local knowledge or verification on the ground ('ground truth') is required. In such situations, the 'crowdsourcing' approach will work well in central, highly populated or popular sites where there are many visitors and therefore the probability that several of them will be involved in data collection rise. Even so, it is possible to encourage participants to record less popular places through a range of suitable incentives.
The 'social' approach is also building on the principle of abundance in terms of the number of participants, but with a more detailed understanding of their knowledge, skills and experience. In this approach, some participants are asked to monitor and verify the information that was collected by less experienced participants. The social method is well established in citizen science programmes such as bird watching, where some participants who are more experienced in identifying bird species help to verify observations by other participants. To deploy the social approach, there is a need for a structured organisations in which some members are recognised as more experienced, and are given the appropriate tools to check and approve information.
The 'geographic' approach uses known geographical knowledge to evaluate the validity of the information that is received by volunteers. For example, by using existing knowledge about the distribution of streams from a river, it is possible to assess if mapping that was contributed by volunteers of a new river is comprehensive or not. A variation of this approach is the use of recorded information, even if it is out-of-date, to verify the information by comparing how much of the information that is already known also appear in a VGI source. Geographic knowledge can be potentially encoded in software algorithms.
The 'domain' approach is an extension of the geographic one, and in addition to geographical knowledge uses a specific knowledge that is relevant to the domain in which information is collected. For example, in many citizen science projects that involved collecting biological observations, there will be some body of information about species distribution both spatially and temporally. Therefore, a new observation can be tested against this knowledge, again algorithmically, and help in ensuring that new observations are accurate.
The 'instrumental observation' approach remove some of the subjective aspects of data collection by a human that might made an error, and rely instead on the availability of equipment that the person is using. Because of the increased in availability of accurate-enough equipment, such as the various sensors that are integrated in smartphones, many people keep in their pockets mobile computers with ability to collect location, direction, imagery and sound. For example, images files that are captured in smartphones include in the file the GPS coordinates and time-stamp, which for a vast majority of people are beyond their ability to manipulate. Thus, the automatic instrumental recording of information provide evidence for the quality and accuracy of the information.
Finally, the 'process oriented' approach bring VGI closer to traditional industrial processes. Under this approach, the participants go through some training before collecting information, and the process of data collection or analysis is highly structured to ensure that the resulting information is of suitable quality. This can include provision of standardised equipment, online training or instruction sheets and a structured data recording process. For example, volunteers who participate in the US Community Collaborative Rain, Hail & Snow network (CoCoRaHS) receive standardised rain gauge, instructions on how to install it and an online resources to learn about data collection and reporting.
Importantly, these approach are not used in isolation and in any given project it is likely to see a combination of them in operation. Thus, an element of training and guidance to users can appear in a downloadable application that is distributed widely, and therefore the method that will be used in such a project will be a combination of the process oriented with the crowdsourcing approach. Another example is the OpenStreetMap project, which in the general do not follow limited guidance to volunteers in terms of information that they collect or the location in which they collect it. Yet, a subset of the information that is collected in OpenStreetMap database about wheelchair access is done through the highly structured process of the WheelMap application in which the participant is require to select one of four possible settings that indicate accessibility. Another subset of the information that is recorded for humanitarian efforts is following the social model in which the tasks are divided between volunteers using the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (H.O.T) task manager, and the data that is collected is verified by more experienced participants.
The final, and critical point for quality assurance of VGI that was noted above is fitness-for-purpose. In some VGI activities the information has a direct and clear application, in which case it is possible to define specifications for the quality assurance element that were listed above. However, one of the core aspects that was noted above is the heterogeneity of the information that is collected by volunteers. Therefore, before using VGI for a specific application there is a need to check for its fitness for this specific use. While this is true for all geographic information, and even so called 'authoritative' data sources can suffer from hidden biases (e.g. luck of update of information in rural areas), the situation with VGI is that variability can change dramatically over short distances – so while the centre of a city will be mapped by many people, a deprived suburb near the centre will not be mapped and updated. There are also limitations that are caused by the instruments in use – for example, the GPS positional accuracy of the smartphones in use. Such aspects should also be taken into account, ensuring that the quality assurance is also fit-for-purpose.
References and Further Readings
Bonney, Rick. 1996. Citizen Science – a lab tradition, Living Bird, Autumn 1996.
Bonney, Rick, Shirk, Jennifer, Phillips, Tina B. 2013. Citizen Science, Encyclopaedia of science education. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.
Goodchild, Michael F. 2007. Citizens as sensors: the world of volunteered geography. GeoJournal, 69(4), 211–221.
Goodchild, Michael F., and Li, Linna. 2012, Assuring the quality of volunteered geographic information. Spatial Statistics, 1 110-120
Haklay, Mordechai. 2010. How Good is volunteered geographical information? a comparative study of OpenStreetMap and ordnance survey datasets. Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design, 37(4), 682–703.
Sui, Daniel, Elwood, Sarah and Goodchild, Michael F. (eds), 2013. Crowdsourcing Geographic Knowledge, Berlin:Springer-Verlag.
Van Oort, Pepjin .A.J. 2006. Spatial data quality: from description to application, PhD Thesis, Wageningen: Wageningen Universiteit, p. 125.
At the last day of INSPIRE conference, I've attended a session about apps and applications and the final plenary which focused on knowledge based economy and the role of inspire within it. Some notes from the talks including my interpretations and comments.
Dabbie Wilson from the Ordnance Survey highlighted the issues that the OS is facing in designing next generation products from an information architect point of view. She noted that the core large scale product, MasterMap has been around for 14 years and been provided in GML all the way through. She noted that now the client base in the UK is used to it and happy with (and when it was introduced, there was a short period of adjustment that I recall, but I assume that by now everything is routine). Lots of small scale products are becoming open and also provided as linked data. The user community is more savvy – they want the Ordnance Survey to push data to them, and access the data through existing or new services and not just given the datasets without further interaction. They want to see ease of access and use across multiple platforms. The OS is considering moving away from provision of data to online services as the main way for people to get access to the data. The OS is investing heavily in Mobile apps for leisure but also helping the commercial sector in developing apps that are based on OS data and tools. For example, OS locate app provide mechanisms to work worldwide so it's not only UK. They also put effort to create APIs and SDKs – such as OS OnDemands – and also allowing local authorities to update their address data. There is also focus on cloud-based application – such as applications to support government activities during emergencies. The information architecture side moving from product to content. The OS will continue to maintain content that is product agnostic and running the internal systems for a long period of 10 to 20 years so they need to decouple outward facing services from the internal representation. The OS need to be flexible to respond to different needs – e.g. in file formats it will be GML, RDF and ontology but also CSV and GeoJSON. Managing the rules between the various formats is a challenging task. Different representations of the same thing is another challenge – for example 3D representation and 2D representation.
Didier Leibovici presented a work that is based on Cobweb project and discussing quality assurance to crowdsourcing data. In crowdsourcing there are issues with quality of both the authoritative and the crowdsourcing data. The COBWEB project is part of a set of 5 citizen observatories, exploring air quality, noise, water quality, water management, flooding and land cover, odour perception and nuisance and they can be seen at http://www.citizen-obs.eu. COBWEB is focusing on the infrastructure and management of the data. The pilot studies in COBWEB look at landuse/land cover, species and habitat observations and flooding. They are mixing sensors in the environment, then they get the data in different formats and the way to managed it is to validate the data, approve its quality and make sure that it's compliant with needs. The project involve designing an app, then encouraging people to collect the data and there can be lack of connection to other sources of data. The issues that they are highlighting are quality/uncertainty, accuracy, trust and relevance. One of the core questions is 'is crowd-sourcing data need to different to any other QA/QC?' (my view: yes, but depending on the trade offs in terms of engagement and process) they see a role of crowdsourcing in NSDI, with real time data capture QA and post dataset collection QA (they do both) and there are also re-using and conflating data sources. QA is aimed to know what is collected – there are multiple ways to define the participants which mean different ways of involving people and this have implications to QA. They are suggesting a stakeholder quality model with principles such as vaueness, ambiguity, judgement, reliability, validity, and trust. There is a paper in AGILE 2014 about their framework. The framework suggests that the people who build the application need to develop the QA/QC process and do that with workflow authoring tool, which is supported with ontology and then running it as web processing service. Temporality of data need to be consider in the metadata, and how to update the metadata on data quality.
Patrick Bell considered the use of smartphone apps – in a project of the BGS and the EU JRC they review existing applications. The purpose of the survey to explore what national geological organisations can learn from the shared experience with development of smartphone apps – especially in the geological sector. Who is doing the development work and which partnerships are created? What barriers are perceived and what the role of INSPIRE directive within the development of these apps? They also try to understand who are the users? There are 33 geological survey organisations in the EU and they received responses from 16 of them. They found 23 different apps – from BGS – iGeology http://www.bgs.ac.uk/igeology/home.html and provide access to geological amps and give access to subsidence and radon risk with in-app payment. They have soil information in the MySoil app which allow people to get some data for free and there is also ability to add information and do citizen science. iGeology 3D is adding AR to display a view of the geological map locally. aFieldWork is a way to capture information in harsh environment of Greenland. GeoTreat is providing information of sites with special value that is relevant to tourists or geology enthusiasts. BRGM – i-infoTerre provide geological information to a range of users with emphasis on professional one, while i-infoNappe tell you about ground water level. The Italian organisation developed Maps4You with hiking route and combining geology with this information in Emilia-Romagna region. The Czech Geologcial survey provide data in ArcGIS online.
The apps deal with a wide range of topics, among them geohazards, coastline, fossils, shipwrecks … The apps mostly provide map data and 3D, data collection and tourism. Many organisation that are not developing anything stated no interest or a priority to do so, and also lack of skills. They see Android as the most important – all apps are free but then do in app purchase. The apps are updated on a yearly basis. about 50% develop the app in house and mostly work in partnerships in developing apps. Some focus on webapps that work on mobile platform, to cross platform frameworks but they are not as good as native apps, though the later are more difficult to develop and maintain. Many people use ESRI SDK and they use open licenses. Mostly there is lack of promotion of reusing the tools – most people serve data. Barriers – supporting multiple platform, software development skills, lack of reusable software and limited support to reuse across communities – heavy focus on data delivery, OGC and REST services are used to deliver data to an app. Most suggesting no direct link to INSPIRE by respondents but principles of INSPIRE are at the basis of these applications.
Timo Aarmio – presented the OSKARI platform to release open data to end users (http://www.oskari.org/). They offer role-based security layers with authenticates users and four levels of permissions – viewing, viewing on embedded maps, publishing and downloading. The development of Oskari started in 2011 and is used by 16 member organisations and the core team is running from National Land Survey of Finland. It is used in Arctic SDI, ELF and Finish Geoportal – and lots of embedded maps. The end-users features allow search of metadata, searching map layers by data providers or INSPIRE themes. they have drag and drop layers and customisation of features in WFS. Sharing is also possible with uploading shapefiles by users. They also have printing functionality which allow PNG or PDF and provide also embedded maps so you can create a map and then embed it in your web page. The data sources that they support are OGC web services – WMS, WMTS, WFS, CSW and also ArcGIS REST, data import for Shapefiles and KML, and JSON for thematic maps . Spatial analysis is provided with OGC Web Processing Service – providing basic analysis of 6 methods – buffer, aggregate, union, intersect, union of analysed layres and area and sector. They are planning to add thematic maps, more advanced spatial analysis methods, and improve mobile device support. 20-30 people work on Oskari with 6 people at the core of it.
The final session focused on knowledge based economy and the link to INSPIRE.
Andrew Trigg provide the perspective of HMLR on fueling the knowledge based economy with open data. The Land registry dealing with 24 million titles with 5 million property transaction a year. They provided open access to individual titles since 1990 and INSPIRE and the open data agenda are important to the transition that they went through in the last 10 years. Their mission is now include an explicit reference to the management and reuse of land and property data and this is important in terms of how the organisation defines itself. From the UK context there is shift to open data through initiatives such as INSPIRE, Open Government Partnership, the G8 Open Data Charter (open by default) and national implementation plans. For HMLR, there is the need to be INSPIRE Compliance, but in addition, they have to deal with public data group, the outcomes of the Shakespeare review and commitment to a national information infrastructure. As a result, HMLR now list 150 datasets but some are not open due to need to protect against fraud and other factors. INSPIRE was the first catalyst to indicate that HMLR need to change practices and allowed the people in the organisation to drive changes in the organisation, secure resources and invest in infrastructure for it. It was also important to highlight to the board of the organisation that data will become important. Also a driver to improving quality before releasing data. The parcel data is available for use without registration. They have 30,000 downloads of the index polygon of people that can potentially use it. They aim to release everything that they can by 2018.
The challenges that HMLR experienced include data identification, infrastructure, governance, data formats and others. But the most important to knowledge based economy are awareness, customer insight, benefit measurement and sustainable finance. HMLR invested effort in promoting the reuse of their data however, because there is no registration, their is not customer insight but no relationships are being developed with end users – voluntary registration process might be an opportunity to develop such relations. Evidence is growing that few people are using the data because they have low confidence in commitment of providing the data and guarantee stability in format and build applications on top of it, and that will require building trust. knowing who got the data is critical here, too. Finally, sustainable finance is a major thing – HMLR is not allowed to cross finance from other areas of activities so they have to charge for some of their data.
Henning Sten Hansen from Aalborg University talked about the role of education. The talk was somewhat critical of the corporatisation of higher education, but also accepting some of it's aspects, so what follows might be misrepresenting his views though I think he tried to mostly raise questions. Henning started by noting that knowledge workers are defined by OECD as people who work autonomously and reflectively, use tools effectively and interactively, and work in heterogeneous groups well (so capable of communicating and sharing knowledge). The Danish government current paradigm is to move from 'welfare society' to the 'competitive society' so economic aspects of education are seen as important, as well as contribution to enterprise sector with expectations that students will learn to be creative and entrepreneurial. The government require more efficiency and performance from higher education and as a result reduce the autonomy of individual academics. There is also expectation of certain impacts from academic research and emphasis on STEM for economic growth, governance support from social science and the humanities need to contribute to creativity and social relationships. The comercialisation is highlighted and pushing patenting, research parks and commercial spin-offs. There is also a lot of corporate style behaviour in the university sector – sometime managed as firms and thought as consumer product. He see a problem that today that is strange focus and opinion that you can measure everything with numbers only. Also the 'Google dream' dream is invoked – assuming that anyone from any country can create global companies. However, researchers that need time to develop their ideas more deeply – such as Niels Bohr who didn't published and secure funding – wouldn't survive in the current system. But is there a link between education and success? LEGO founder didn't have any formal education [though with this example as with Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, strangely their business is employing lots of PhDs – so a confusion between a person that start a business and the realisation of it]. He then moved from this general context to INSPIRE, Geoinformation plays a strong role in e-Governance and in the private sector with the increase importance in location based services. In this context, projects such as GI-N2K (Geographic Information Need to Know) are important. This is a pan European project to develop the body of knowledge that was formed in the US and adapting it to current need. They already identified major gaps between the supply side (what people are being taught) and the demand side – there are 4 areas that are cover in the supply side but the demand side want wider areas to be covered. They aim to develop a new BoK for Europe and facilitating knowledge exchange between institutions. He concluded that Higher education is prerequisite for the knowledge economy – without doubt but the link to innovation is unclear . Challenges – highly educated people crowd out the job market and they do routine work which are not matching their skills, there are unclear the relationship to entrepreneurship and innovation and the needed knowledge to implement ideas. What is the impact on control universities reducing innovation and education – and how to respond quickly to market demands in skills when there are differences in time scale.
Giacomo Martirano provided a perspective of a micro-enterprise (http://www.epsilon-italia.it/IT/) in southern Italy. They are involved in INSPIRE across different projects – GeoSmartCities, Smart-Islands and SmeSpire – so lots of R&D funding from the EU. They are also involved in providing GIS services in their very local environment. From a perspective of SME, he see barriers that are orgnaisational, technical and financial. They have seen many cases of misalignment of technical competencies of different organisations that mean that they can't participate fully in projects. Also misalignment of technical ability of clients and suppliers, heterogeneity in client organisation culture that add challenges. Financial management of projects and payment to organisations create problems to SME to join in because of sensitivity to cash-flow. They experience cases were awarded contracts won offering a price which is sometime 40% below the reference one. There is a need to invest more and more time with less aware partners and clients. When moving to the next generation of INSPIRE – there is a need to engage with micro-SMEs in the discussion 'don't leave us alone' as the market is unfair. There is also a risk that member states, once the push for implementation reduced and without the EU driver will not continue to invest. His suggestion is to progress and think of INSPIRE as a Serivce – SDI as a Service can allow SMEs to join in. There is a need for cooperation between small and big players in the market.
Andrea Halmos (public services unit, DG CONNECT) – covering e-government, she noted her realisation that INSPIRE is more than 'just environmental information'. From DG CONNECT view, ICT enabled open government, and the aim of the digital agenda for Europe is to empowering citizen and businesses, strengthening the internal market, highlighting efficiency and effectiveness and recognised pre-conditions. One of the focus is the effort to put public services in digital format and providing them in cross border way. The principles are to try to be user centred, with transparency and cross border support – they have used life events for the design. There are specific activities in sharing identity details, procurement, patient prescriptions, business, and justice. They see these projects as the building blocks for new services that work in different areas. They are seeing challenges such financial crisis, but there is challenge of new technologies and social media as well as more opening data. So what is next to public administration? They need to deal with customer – open data, open process and open services – with importance to transparency, collaboration and participation (http://www.govloop.com/profiles/blogs/three-dimensions-of-open-government). The services are open to other to join in and allow third party to create different public services. We look at analogies of opening decision making processes and support collaboration with people – it might increase trust and accountability of government. The public service need to collaborative with third parties to create better or new services. ICT is only an enablers – you need to deal with human capital, organisational issue, cultural issues, processes and business models – it even question the role of government and what it need to do in the future. What is the governance issue – what is the public value that is created at the end? will government can be become a platform that others use to create value? They are focusing on Societal Challenge Comments on their framework proposals are welcomed – it's available at http://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/news/vision-public-services
After these presentations, and when Alessandro Annoni (who was charring the panel) completed the first round of questions, I was bothered that in all these talks about knowledge-based economy only the government and the private sector were mentioned as actors, and even when discussing development of new services on top of the open data and services, the expectation is only for the private sector to act in it. I therefore asked about the role of the third-sector and civil-society within INSPIRE and the visions that the different speakers presented. I even provided the example of mySociety – mainly to demonstrate that third-sector organisations have a role to play.
To my astonishment, Henning, Giacomo, Andrea and Alessandro answered this question by first not treating much of civil-society as organisations but mostly as individual citizens, so a framing that allow commercial bodies, large and small, to act but citizens do not have a clear role in coming together and acting. Secondly, the four of them seen the role of citizens only as providers of data and information – such as the reporting in FixMyStreet. Moreover, each one repeated that despite the fact that this is low quality data it is useful in some ways. For example, Alessandro highlighted that OSM mapping in Africa is an example for a case where you accept it, because there is nothing else (really?!?) but in other places it should be used only when it is needed because of the quality issue – for example, in emergency situation when it is timely.
Apart from yet another repetition of dismissing citizen generated environmental information on the false argument of data quality (see Caren Cooper post on this issue), the views that presented in the talks helped me in crystallising some of the thoughts about the conference.
As one would expect, because the participants are civil servants, on stage and in presentations they follow the main line of the decision makers for which they work, and therefore you could hear the official line that is about efficiency, managing to do more with reduced budgets and investment, emphasising economic growth and very narrow definition of the economy that matters. Different views were expressed during breaks.
The level in which the citizens are not included in the picture was unsurprising under the mode of thinking that was express in the conference about the aims of information as 'economic fuel'. While the tokenism of improving transparency, or even empowering citizens appeared on some slides and discussions, citizens are not explicitly included in a meaningful and significant way in the consideration of the services or in the visions of 'government as platform'. They are reprieved as customers or service users. The lesson that were learned in environmental policy areas in the 1980s and 1990s, which are to provide an explicit role for civil society, NGOs and social-enterprises within the process of governance and decision making are missing. Maybe this is because for a thriving civil society, there is a need for active government investment (community centres need to built, someone need to be employed to run them), so it doesn't match the goals of those who are using austerity as a political tool.
Connected to that is the fact that although, again at the tokenism level, INSPIRE is about environmental applications, the implementation now is all driven by narrow economic argument. As with citizenship issues, environmental aspects are marginalised at best, or ignored.
The comment about data quality and some responses to my talk remind me of Ed Parsons commentary from 2008 about the UK GIS community reaction to Web Mapping 2.0/Neogeography/GeoWeb. 6 years on from that , the people that are doing the most important geographic information infrastructure project that is currently going, and it is progressing well by the look of it, seem somewhat resistant to trends that are happening around them. Within the core area that INSPIRE is supposed to handle (environmental applications), citizen science has the longest history and it is already used extensively. VGI is no longer new, and crowdsourcing as a source of actionable information is now with a decade of history and more behind it. Yet, at least in the presentations and the talks, citizens and civil-society organisations have very little role unless they are controlled and marshaled.
Despite all this critique, I have to end with a positive note. It has been a while since I've been in a GIS conference that include the people that work in government and other large organisations, so I did found the conference very interesting to reconnect and learn about the nature of geographic information management at this scale. It was also good to see how individuals champion use of GeoWeb tools, or the degree in which people are doing user-centred design.
Following the last post, which focused on an assertion about crowdsourced geographic information and citizen science I continue with another observation. As was noted in the previous post, these can be treated as 'laws' as they seem to emerge as common patterns from multiple projects in different areas of activity – from citizen science to crowdsourced geographic information. The first assertion was about the relationship between the number of volunteers who can participate in an activity and the amount of time and effort that they are expect to contribute.
This time, I look at one aspect of data quality, which is about consistency and coverage. Here the following assertion applies:
'All information sources are heterogeneous, but some are more honest about it than others'
What I mean by that is the on-going argument about authoritative and crowdsourced information sources (Flanagin and Metzger 2008 frequently come up in this context), which was also at the root of the Wikipedia vs. Britannica debate, and the mistrust in citizen science observations and the constant questioning if they can do 'real research'.
There are many aspects for these concerns, so the assertion deals with the aspects of comprehensiveness and consistency which are used as a reason to dismiss crowdsourced information when comparing them to authoritative data. However, at a closer look we can see that all these information sources are fundamentally heterogeneous. Despite of all the effort to define precisely standards for data collection in authoritative data, heterogeneity creeps in because of budget and time limitations, decisions about what is worthy to collect and how, and the clash between reality and the specifications. Here are two examples:
Take one of the Ordnance Survey Open Data sources – the map present themselves as consistent and covering the whole country in an orderly way. However, dig in to the details for the mapping, and you discover that the Ordnance Survey uses different standards for mapping urban, rural and remote areas. Yet, the derived products that are generalised and manipulated in various ways, such as Meridian or Vector Map District, do not provide a clear indication which parts originated from which scale – so the heterogeneity of the source disappeared in the final product.
The census is also heterogeneous, and it is a good case of specifications vs. reality. Not everyone fill in the forms and even with the best effort of enumerators it is impossible to collect all the data, and therefore statistical analysis and manipulation of the results are required to produce a well reasoned assessment of the population. This is expected, even though it is not always understood.
Therefore, even the best information sources that we accept as authoritative are heterogeneous, but as I've stated, they just not completely honest about it. The ONS doesn't release the full original set of data before all the manipulations, nor completely disclose all the assumptions that went into reaching the final value. The Ordnance Survey doesn't tag every line with metadata about the date of collection and scale.
Somewhat counter-intuitively, exactly because crowdsourced information is expected to be inconsistent, we approach it as such and ask questions about its fitness for use. So in that way it is more honest about the inherent heterogeneity.
Importantly, the assertion should not be taken to be dismissive of authoritative sources, or ignoring that the heterogeneity within crowdsources information sources is likely to be much higher than in authoritative ones. Of course all the investment in making things consistent and the effort to get universal coverage is indeed worth it, and it will be foolish and counterproductive to consider that such sources of information can be replaced as is suggest for the census or that it's not worth investing in the Ordnance Survey to update the authoritative data sets.
Moreover, when commercial interests meet crowdsourced geographic information or citizen science, the 'honesty' disappear. For example, even though we know that Google Map Maker is now used in many part
s of the world (see the figure), even in cases when access to vector data is provided by Google, you cannot find out about who contribute, when and where. It is also presented as an authoritative source of information.
Despite the risk of misinterpretation, the assertion can be useful as a reminder that the differences between authoritative and crowdsourced information are not as big as it may seem.
Citizen or Civic Science, activism and NIMBY
5 December, 2012
Recently, I attended a meeting with people from a community that is concerned with vibration and noise caused by a railway near their homes. We have discussed the potential of using citizen science to measure the vibrations that pass the sensory threshold and that people classify as unpleasant, together with other perceptions and feeling about these incidents. This can form the evidence to a discussion with the responsible authorities to see what can be done.
As a citizen science activity, this is not dissimilar from the work carried out around Heathrow to measure the level of noise nuisance or air pollution monitoring that ExCiteS and Mapping for Change carried out in other communities.
In the meetings, the participants felt that they need to emphasise that they are not against the use of the railway or the development of new railway links. Like other groups that I have net in the past, they felt that it is important to emphasise that their concern is not only about their locality – in other words, this is not a case of 'Not In My Back Yard' (NIMBY) which is the most common dismissal of local concerns. The concern over NIMBY and citizen science is obvious one, and frequently come up in questions about the value and validity of data collected through this type of citizen science.
During my masters studies, I was introduced to Maarten Wolsink (1994) analysis of NIMBY as a compulsory reading in one of the courses. It is one of the papers that I keep referring to from time to time, especially when complaints about participatory work and NIMBY come up.
Inherently, what Wolsink is demonstrating is that the conceptualisation of the people who are involved in the process as selfish and focusing on only their own area is wrong. Through the engagement with environmental and community concerns, people will explore issues at wider scales and many time will argue for 'Not in Anyone's Back Yard' or for a balance between the needs of infrastructure development and their own quality of life. Studies on environmental justice also demonstrated that what the people who are involved in such activities ask for are not narrow, but many times mix aspects of need for recognition, expectations of respect, arguments of justice, and participation in decision-making (Schlosberg 2007).
In other words, the citizen science and systematic data collection are a way for the community to bring to the table evidence that can enhance arguments beyond NIMBY, and while it might be part of the story it is not the whole story.
For me, these interpretations are part of the reason that such 'activism'-based citizen science should receive the same attention and respect as any other data collection, most notably by the authorities.
Wolsink, M. (1994) Entanglement of Interests and Motives: Assumptions Behind the NIMBY-Theory on Facility Siting, Urban Studies, 31(6), pp. 851-866.
Scholsberg, D. (2007) Defining Environmental Justice: Theories, Movements, and Nature. Oxford University Press, 2007
In March 2008, I started comparing OpenStreetMap in England to the Ordnance Survey Meridian 2, as a way to evaluate the completeness of OpenStreetMap coverage. The rational behind the comparison is that Meridian 2 represents a generalised geographic dataset that is widely use in national scale spatial analysis. At the time that the study started, it was not clear that OpenStreetMap volunteers can create highly detailed maps as can be seen on the 'Best of OpenStreetMap' site. Yet even today, Meridian 2 provides a minimum threshold for OpenStreetMap when the question of completeness is asked.
So far, I have carried out 6 evaluations, comparing the two datasets in March 2008, March 2009, October 2009, March 2010, September 2010 and March 2011. While the work on the statistical analysis and verification of the results continues, Oliver O'Brien helped me in taking the results of the analysis for Britain and turn them into an interactive online map that can help in exploring the progression of the coverage over the various time period.
Notice that the visualisation shows the total length of all road objects in OpenStreetMap, so does not discriminate between roads, footpaths and other types of objects. This is the most basic level of completeness evaluation and it is fairly coarse.
The application will allow you to browse the results and to zoom to a specific location, and as Oliver integrated the Ordnance Survey Street View layer, it will allow you to see what information is missing from OpenStreetMap.
Finally, note that for the periods before September 2010, the coverage is for England only.
Some details on the development of the map are available on Oliver's blog.
How Many Volunteers Does It Take To Map An Area Well? The validity of Linus' law to Volunteered Geographic Information
10 January, 2011
The paper "How Many Volunteers Does It Take To Map An Area Well? The validity of Linus' law to Volunteered Geographic Information" has appeared in The Cartographic Journal. The proper citation for the paper is:
Haklay, M and Basiouka, S and Antoniou, V and Ather, A (2010) How Many Volunteers Does It Take To Map An Area Well? The validity of Linus' law to Volunteered Geographic Information. The Cartographic Journal , 47 (4) , 315 – 322.
The abstract of the paper is as follows:
In the area of volunteered geographical information (VGI), the issue of spatial data quality is a clear challenge. The data that are contributed to VGI projects do not comply with standard spatial data quality assurance procedures, and the contributors operate without central coordination and strict data collection frameworks. However, similar to the area of open source software development, it is suggested that the data hold an intrinsic quality assurance measure through the analysis of the number of contributors who have worked on a given spatial unit. The assumption that as the number of contributors increases so does the quality is known as `Linus' Law' within the open source community. This paper describes three studies that were carried out to evaluate this hypothesis for VGI using the OpenStreetMap dataset, showing that this rule indeed applies in the case of positional accuracy.
To access the paper on the journal's website, you can follow the link: 10.1179/000870410X12911304958827. However, if you don't hold a subscription to the journal, a postprint of the paper is available at the UCL Discovery repository. If you would like to get hold of the printed version, email me.
Interview in GPS Business News
29 November, 2010
The website GPS Business News published an interview with me in which I covered several aspects of OpenStreetMap and crowdsourced geographical information, including aspects of spatial data quality, patterns of data collection, inequality in coverage and the implications of these patterns to the wider area of Volunteered geographical Information.
The interview is available here .


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LEE COUNTY, Fla.- A school bus carrying seven people crashed into a power pole on Orange River Blvd. at River Grove Ln.
Florida Highway Patrol says the five children and two adults on board were not injured. A trooper says the driver of bus number 1020 told him the bus began suddenly veering to the left.
FPL is on site making repairs. Crews tell WINK News the crash did not affect power to anyone in the area. There was a cable line knocked down, but it remained intact.
The road has been reopened.
A trooper on scene said the driver could be cited.

subset: commoncrawl


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Sprint to Risk $20 Billion on Apple iPhone
Article Comments 50
Oct 3, 2011, 1:44 PM by Eric M. Zeman
According to sources cited by the Wall Street Journal, Sprint has committed itself to purchase 30.5 million Apple iPhones over the next four years. Based on the current full retail cost of the iPhone, the agreement amounts to about $20 billion. The Journal's sources call the deal a "bet-the-company kind of thing" that will likely lose Sprint money ($1.5 billion in profits) until 2014. Sprint's board signed off on the deal believing that without it the company has no other way to compete with AT&T and Verizon Wireless. Sprint CEO Dan Hesse has said in the past that the carrier's lack of growth in recent years can be attributed to its lack of the iPhone. The Journal's sources also indicated that they believe Sprint will offer the iPhone with unlimited data plans, contrary to what AT&T and Verizon do. Apple and Sprint did not confirm the Journal's story.
more info at Wall Street Journal »
FCC Says AWS-3 Bidding Reaches $12 Billion
Wireless Carriers Set Indoor 911 Location Framework
Opening Round of AWS-3 Auction Nets $1.77B in Bids
more Verizon Wireless news Verizon Wireless phones
This forum is closed.


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Reason 1: Better Services
Technical – SAP HANA
SAP HANA combines database, data processing, and application platform capabilities in-memory. The platform provides libraries for predictive, planning, text processing, spatial, and business analytics. Through the SAP Startup Focus Program, our startups can use the SAP HANA platform, particularly for logistics and other big data IT startups.
Featured Perks
- SAP Mentors for Start Co. Accelerator Teams
- Co- marketing opportunities to evangelize each other's offerings to participants
- Introduction to startups in each other's programs at events, or through emails
- Invitation to official events: SAP Startup Focus would invite Partners and startups from Start Co. to our official events. We would like to be invited to official Start Co. events.
Visit saphana.com for more
Technical – Twilio
Twilio empowers developers to build powerful communication. Twilio powers the future of business communications, enabling phones, VoIP, and messaging to be embedded into web, desktop, and mobile software. We take care of the messy telecom hardware and expose a globally available cloud API that developers can interact with to build intelligent & complex communications systems.
Featured Perks
- Use of Cloud API's for all accelerators
- Community evangelist presence to provide technical assistance
- $100 credit for all Start Co. founders
- Social Good Platform access to social enterprises
Visit twilio.com for more.
Technical – Mosaik Solutions
Once a local startup themselves, Mosaik's team of programmers, developers, researchers and mapping experts offer tactical guidance for accurate datasets, flexible software and responsive services. They also lend their expertise on attracting and retaining customers with tailored marketing.
Featured Perks
- Office hours with founder and VP of Business Development
- Technical assistance with product development
- Geographic systems support based on their own best-in-class solutions (one of the world's two providers in this sector)
Visit mosaik.com for more.
Marketing, Branding, PR – archer>malmo ventures:
The venturing arm of one of the largest marketing agencies in the southeast, a>m ventures serves all Techstars and Start Co. programs. Teams receive training, office hours and more from a firm that works with brands like FedEx, Pfizer, Kraft, Medtronic and AutoZone, as well as many startup brands. a>m also invests in qualifying startups.
Featured Perks
- Office hours with creative director, designers, PR leaders and more
- Weekly engagement with director of investment
- Hands-on media and PR training
- Workshops on UX/UI, metrics and more
Visit archermalmo.com for more.
Financial – The Marston Group
Experienced with angel investors and entrepreneurs, this CPA and consulting firm understands the unique needs of startups. Their experts will guide you through the fundamentals of starting and running a business, offering strategies to maximize every dollar.
Featured Perks
- Office hours with partners and associates
- Workshops on financials and accounting for startups
- One-on-one financial modeling support as needed
- Investor pitch development support
Visit themarstongroup.com for more.
Legal – Baker Donelson:
Among the area's oldest and most respected law firms, Baker Donelson offers the legal guidance and support you need to launch—from incorporating to patenting to exiting the market and more. Throughout the program, they provide one-on-one sessions, workshops, and legal services.
Featured Perks
- Regular office hours with attorneys, shareholders
- Trademark, copyright, intellectual property advice
- Workshops and training on term sheets, intellectual property, etc.
- C-Corp incorporation, initial investment documentation for filing fees
- Discounted future legal support
Visit bakerdonelson.com for more.
Financial – Orion Federal Credit Union
Featured Perks
- Free business checking accounts to all accelerator companies
- Orion's executive team will provide mentorship in the areas of finance, marketing, sales and business development, and the banking industry in general
Visit orionfcu.com for more.
Talent – New Memphis Institute
Featured Perks
- Personal & Professional Development Sessions
- Memphis 101
- Site visits with key Memphis leaders
- Inclusion to community engagement events
Visit newmemphis.org for more.
Talent – NAWBO
NAWBO brings more women empowerment, inspiration, and confidence to the Upstart Accelerator teams.
Featured Perks
- Upstart companies are able to participate and attend all NAWBO programming, workshops, mixers, and speaking engagements
- NAWBO will source women mentors for Upstart teams
- NAWBO will market Upstart teams to its membership and through its marketing channels
Visit nawbomemphis.org for more.
Reason 2: A Better Experience
Low-Volume, High-Access
Ask any past team for two things that make Start Co. different. Chances are they'll tell you the same: 1) Small, 6-team cohorts, and 2) Constant access to power players. Want to chat with a CEO at a national logistics company? We'll make it happen. The creative director at an award-winning branding firm? Done. With Start Co. cohorts, your unique needs are always in focus.
Big Demo Day, Big Opportunity
While our cohorts are small, our 24-team Demo Day is among the largest you'll find nationwide. Why? More teams means more investors. And that means over $1 billion in a single room when six women-led startups, six logistics tech startups, six IT startups, and six high growth startups take the stage.
Founders First, Startups Second
Build a great founder, and they'll build a great company. Start Co. programs push into areas like leadership development, public speaking, personality testing, and much more. Whatever your startup's fate, you'll walk away with some of the top entrepreneurial training in the country.
Opportunity for All
In a "majority-minority" city like Memphis, no one's more in tune with the issues of underrepresented populations. Start Co. works to increase opportunities for capital, mentorship, and networking for underrepresented founders like women, minorities, and students.
Need a Hand?
Start Co. teams have access to a pool of eager and talented interns from local institutions like The University of Memphis, Rhodes College, The Memphis College of Art and more.
The Right Investors
We aren't beholden to a single VC fund. Instead, a vast national network means exposure to the angels and VCs that best fit your needs. Start Co. teams have raised $8 million over the last three years–$13 million when considering clients who utilized our technical help. Average rounds post-accelerator are roughly $.2 million, with Series-A rounds totaling around $2 million.
There's not much we can say about barbecue, basketball, Beale Street or music you can't read on some Wiki page. But there's more to a city than tourist attractions. Memphis is a multilayered tapestry of rich cultures, hard-nosed work ethics, and a determined, underdog vibe you can't help but get swept up in. Once you feel it, you'll understand why more than few teams have relocated here. And okay, the barbecue helps too.
Reason 3: Better Support
Global Accelerator Network
All Start Co. accelerator programs are part of the elite Global Accelerator Network (GAN). Original the TechStars Network, The Global Accelerator Network is now across 6 continents, 63 cities, and 50+ accelerators, setting 1 standard for entrepreneurial excellence. Our teams benefit from the extended mentor and investor pool of The Global Accelerator Network. Learn more here: http://neverstop.co/GAN.
What is means for startups?
- More resources for starting up than 95% of the other accelerators in the world
- International investment network
- International mentor network
Angaros Group is a boutique investment firm, based out of Singapore with offices all over the world. Angaros supplies our companies with advisory, capital and consulting services in addition to valuable international connectivity. Learn more here: http://angaros.com.
What is means for startups?
- All accelerator teams get screened for investment
- Office hours with EIRs and partners
- Easy access to services for equity investment for technical product development for worthy teams
JumpStart, Inc.
Works with Start Co. to accelerate our community's entrepreneurial successes by supporting the growth of a sustainable ecosystem. Our company's benefit from advanced best practices and technical assistance combined with national connectivity to the coasts as well as the 15 other regions of the country where JumpStart is partnered. Learn more at http://jumpstartinc.org.
What is means for startups?
- National expertise and technical assistance available in only 16 regions of the US
- National connectivity to growth and expansion to 15 other markets.
Start Co. Angels
The first angel fund and network to operate in the Memphis area in over a decade was built by Start Co. The capital and the business savvy behind it ensure that Start Co. companies aren't just well-funded, but are well-equipped to maximize every opportunity for growth. http://neverstop.co/start/start-investing/.
What is means for startups?
- Early engagement with angel investors throughout the program
- Worthy teams have faster access to validation funding post acceleration
Great Partners and Sponsors
F6S Combined with Bonus Global Accelerator Network Offers
While we use F6S for the application process at Start Co. the benefit is bigger for our companies which certainly get about $300,000 worth of free or discounted startup deals in 28 different flavours including hosting, email infrastructure, analytics and customer service tools. What's more though is because our accelerators are Global Accelerator Network programs you will receive in bigger deals — often times 3 or 4 times the regular offers. It is a nice leg up. Learn more at http://www.f6s.com/f6scard.
Microsoft BizSpark
Microsoft will offer its BizSpark program, a global program that helps software startups succeed by giving them access to software development tools, connecting them with key industry players, and providing marketing visibility, to all qualified software startups at Seed Hatchery. Learn more at http://www.microsoft.com/bizspark/Default.aspx
The Rackspace Startup Program is here to provide free cloud hosting services and support at the crucial time when startups need them most. We are building relationships and fostering the community that we are proud to share our humble roots. We are here to help, offering Fanatical Support®, every step of the way. And after you reach success, we are still here, helping you as you scale. Visit http://rackspacestartups.com/signup/ to learn more.
Orion Federal Credit Union
Orion Federal Credit Union is a proud sponsor of many of our programs and experiences at Start Co. especially those that are inclusive of the entire population. In addition to monetary support, Orion executives are mentors to accelerator teams in marketing, financials, and strategy. Visit http://orionfcu.com/ to learn more.
Accelerator FAQs:
What are key dates?
- Application Deadline: March 15 at 11:59pm
- Selection Notification: April 1
- Program Start Date: May 1
- Demo Day: Thursday, August 21
- Post Acceleration Support through Thanksgiving
What are the expectations for teams?
- Moving to Memphis for at least 6 months
- 100% Focus on your startup
- Understanding the very demanding nature of our program
- Commitment to our process and method of starting up
- Saving and/or preparing enough "Dry Powder" to be in Memphis for 3 months after Demo Day
- Willingness and ability to sell your product or service
- Ability to build your product or service
What is the application process?
Highly motivated founders can apply to any Start Co. accelerators by answering a few simple questions on our application. A subset of those that apply will be given a chance to impress our team with follow-on questions and interviews. Those that truly impress will enter an intense cohort program coupled with investment and mentoring. Though we make no guarantee, we estimate that 6 or more ventures will be funded in each cohort.
*You may apply to any or all of the accelerators, including Seed Hatchery (an information technology accelerator), Upstart (an accelerator for women-led startups), and Sparkgap (a logistics technology accelerator). Each of these programs will be run simultaneously.
Will you sign a non-disclosure agreement before I send in my application?
Sorry, we can't sign non-disclosure or confidentiality agreements. This topic has been fairly well addressed by Brad Feld, whom we respect tremendously, so we'll direct you to his posts on this very topic for you to learn more: http://www.feld.com/wp/archives/2006/02/why-most-vcs-dont-sign-ndas.html
For founders, what is the investment structure?
Accepted founders will receive a monetary investment of $15,000 upon entering the program. In return for our investment of both cash and mentoring, Start Co. receives 6% of the founding level common equity in your startup. This is broken into two parts — 3% for the money and 3% for the bootcamp. This would give your company a $500,000 post money valuation. Additionally, we require that you set aside another 4% of the founding equity in your business as options. You do not need to use these options, but we encourage you to use them when appropriate to incentive others, including solid mentors who have invested significant time and resources into your startup. Note that the cash investment may be spent any way the startups desire as long as it is in service of reaching milestones and you report periodically on your burn rate.
What is the structure of the 3 month accelerator program and beyond?
The program's structure is divided into three phases: pre-acceleration, acceleration, and post acceleration. Pre-acceleration begins on May 1st with an intense period of personal and professional development. During this time, founders will be introduced to the Memphis community, form valuable connections within our network, and review professional practices that will prove helpful during acceleration.
Following the pre-acceleration period, the acceleration phase kicks off May 24th with a Founders Bootcamp Weekend. The 90-day acceleration phase is divided into 3 units of 30 days, with each unit's curriculum specifically designed to encourage rapid progress and achievement of milestones. Over the course of the program, teams will meet with mentors, participate in Monday night reporting sessions, attend weekly training and business development sessions and meet individually with advisors for office hours. Additionally, prospective angel investors, service providers, mentors, influencers, and community leaders are invited to engage startups over the course of acceleration. The program also includes various social gatherings and opportunities.
At the conclusion of the 90-day period, teams will graduate from the accelerator and present their progress to an audience of angels, venture capitalists, and community leaders during a massive Memphis Demo Day. Founders who have graduated from this program join our network of accelerated alumni.
Post accelerator, we continue to set milestones and provide direct post-acceleration assistance for at least another 3 months to support growth.
Why are 3 accelerators being run simultaneously?
Start Co. is simultaneously running three accelerators: Seed Hatchery (tech-based startups), Upstart (women-led tech startups), and Sparkgap (logistics technology startups). By running all three accelerators at the same time, teams benefit from combined resources and social capital. We are, consequently, able to attract rock star speakers, supporters, and investors to assist throughout the program. Moreover, with such a large and diverse demo day, we combat demo day fatigue and attract more capital and influencers to attend.
How will 3 accelerators run simultaneously?
While programming will overlap for certain lessons, each accelerator will have its own curriculum tailored specifically to its focus. Moreover, a number of mentors and experienced entrepreneurs will be assigned to each accelerator specifically to ensure the quality provided to each cohort.
Why do founders participating in our programs receive mentors?
Our mentors come from a wide array of backgrounds and have seen success and failure first hand in their business career. In addition to business and startup acumen, our mentors provide domain expertise. Whatever your concept there is a strong chance that a couple of the mentors have had some expertise to accelerate your success. Mentors sharpen your concept and provide tough love when needed to insure founding entrepreneurs execute quickly and as correctly as possible.


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The quest for a lush, green lawn takes a lot of work, and involves more than just mowing. More on treating your lawn without getting mowed down, in Friday night's Just before Six.
Denise Wallace enjoys her yard, but she didn't have the time to keep up on lawn maintenance, so she hired a company to spray and take care of the weeds. But she wasn't fully satisfied with the work.
"We never really actually saw them spray the yard, there would just be a little sign in the yard that said they had done the spraying and on the yard itself the weeds would be brown at the tip but they would never go away," says homeowner Denise Wallace. "Several times we called in and asked them to come back out and retreat and they would attempt to and another sign would be left, but the weeds would never go away."
"When it comes to lawn care you typically aren't even home as a consumer when the job is done so unfortunately we hear horror stories where the company didn't actually do what they said they were going to do, or they actually damaged the lawn so you want to be sure you have a good company that knows what they are doing," explains Angie Hicks the founder of Angie's List.
Fertilizing your lawn is worthwhile in any climate and can help your lawn stay healthy. Other than seeing the little flag in your yard, how can you be sure the company is applying the treatment?
"Fertilizer granules colors are usually white or yellow, sometimes they can be a purple or aqua color, but typically white or yellow are the ones you are going to see usually," says lawn care contractor Marcus Hoone. "The size is usually about cat litter size, so that is what you are looking for when you look for the granules along the edges."
You'll also notice spreader tracks in the grass. If you have your lawn sprayed for weeds, the weeds should curl up in about a week or two.
"When hiring a lawn care company to work on your lawn it's going to be a long-term relationship," says Angie. "A beautiful lawn is not made overnight so you want to establish a relationship with a reputable company."
And don't fall in love with the first lawn care company you meet.
"When hiring a lawn care company get at least three estimates, they should be estimates at your home where they evaluate your yard," explains Angie. "You should get a written document of what is going to be done on each application and be there for the first couple of applications so you can ask questions and learn how to best take care of your lawn."
Fertilizer adds nitrogen to your lawn, but if you add too much, it can actually dry it out and kill it. You'll be able to tell if you over-fertilized if you notice yellow or brown spots where the grass has died.
And be careful using pesticides, check the ingredients. Some can be very harsh on a lawn and cause damage.
Many homeowners strive for the perfect, emerald green lawn, but it takes more than regular mowing. Fertilizing is worthwhile in any climate, but a necessity when the soil lacks nutrients.
Angie's List, the nation's leading provider of consumer reviews
• Organic and synthetic lawn fertilizers are a good tool for maintaining a healthy lawn: Fertilizer promotes a lush growth, strengthens roots and helps to prevent invasive weeds and pests.
• There are many varieties of lawn fertilizer available: Most consist of three key nutrients: nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. The most popular types of lawn fertilizer are granule and liquid.
• Avoid over-fertilizing: Spreading too much fertilizer can overwhelm your grass. Fertilizer adds nitrogen to your lawn, but if you add too much, it can actually dry it out and kill it. You'll be able to tell if you over-fertilized if you notice yellow or brown spots where the grass has died.
• Don't overuse chemicals: Pesticides can be essential to preventing infestations and disease but should be used with great caution. Some pesticides are very harsh on a lawn and can cause as much new damage as it prevents in old damage. All pesticides should be checked for natural ingredients which should take preference over harsher chemical based pesticides.
Unlike with mowing, lawn treatment
Angie's List Tips: Hiring a high-quality fertilization & treatment service
• On-site estimate: Don't hire a company that won't inspect your grass before starting work. The technician should provide an in-home estimate and measure the size of your lawn, understand your grass type and take note of existing damage.
• Don't trust generic, guaranteed, quick cures: Each lawn is a unique, growing plant, and even lawns side-by-side in the same neighborhood may need different treatment. Recovery will depend on a number of factors.
• Beware low price: Be wary of treatment companies with flashy ads that sound too good to be true. If the price is extremely low, expect an aggressive upsell.
• Think it over: Avoid companies that encourage you to sign a service contract on the spot.
• Read before you sign: Get a written contract, read and understand it before you agree to hire. It should include a refund policy and guarantee. Get a detailed invoice after each visit that details the scope of work.
• Check out your lawn: Make a point to look at your lawn if you are not home during a treatment. Lawn care specialist say homeowners should see fertilizer granules in their yard for at least a few hours after the application in most cases.


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Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon has established a new policy: He will no longer speak personally with New Times or the Arizona Republic. He will only accept questions from the publications if reporters submit them in writing.How very Joe Arpaio-esque.What's next? Will the mayor start banning ... More >>
Frank FairbanksPhoenix Mayor Phil Gordon earlier this week defended hiring Sue Lindmeier, sister of his girlfriend's business partner, saying former Phoenix City Manager Frank Fairbanks and City Attorney Gary Verburg reviewed and approved her contract.Fairbanks, who retired i ... More >>
Mayor Gordon is paying -- and dating -- his fundraiser, Elissa Mullany.Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon hasn't needed to raise money since he waltzed to reelection in the fall of 2007, leaving a war chest stocked with $370,000. Yet in the last two years, Gordon has paid his chief fundraiser big bu ... More >>


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viranchi Started The Discussion:
hi Can any one pls send me the format of Promotion letter to be given to the employees. its urgent .. would appreciate if you can give quick response cheers........ viranchi
Lavanya Ravisastry - Member Since: Apr 2007
Hi Viranchi, Ck out the attachments.Hope it is useful Rgs, Lavanya :)
Amitmhrm - Member Since: Feb 2007
Hi Viranchi,
Can use this one too...
_____/HRD/___ Date_____________
Mr/ Ms. ____________
Dear Mr./ Ms. _____________,
Consequent to the review of your performance during the last year, we are pleased to promote you as ___________________________________.
We are sure you will make best use of the opportunity offered to you and contribute substantially to the success of our organisation as you have done in the past and fully justify the confidence placed in you by the management.
A separate communication on the details of your salary revision is being sent to you.
Wishing you all the best.
For Company name
Name: ___________
Designation: ______________ Name Of Employee
Amit Seth.
Hi, Virinchi,
Here i am attaching one format,if it is worthy u can use it.
20th April 2007
Emp No.:.
Dear Mr.,
Sub: Performance based Increment for the year 2007-08.
We have just completed our first fiscal year 2006-07 and the Division Performance has been extremely encouraging and the achievements have reached all expectations and we are appreciating for your contribution towards this achievement.
Based on your performance, the Management is pleased to announce an increment of Rs.700/-and also Promote you as Asst. Manager w.e.f. 1st April 2007. The Break up details are appended below.
S.No Component Present Increment After Increment
1 Basic 4200 420 4620
3 Conveyance 1050 105 1155
Total 7000 700 7700
In the coming year, we have more challenges to face for achieve greater results and for the same we look forward for your valuable continued and committed contribution. The year 2007-08 Performance will be measured as per the KRA (Key Resulting Areas) attached with this letter.
All the Best and do a great job in the coming year.
With best regards
Manager HR.
email@example.com - Member Since: May 2007
Hi ! I download the file: promotion letter & salary.... but for opening, it requires password. so could you pls supply me the password to my email: firstname.lastname@example.com Thank so much! Regards, Nhung
falgunikumar - Member Since: Dec 2006
Hi Murthi The doc file asks for passowrd, can you please provide the password to open the file.. Thanks Falguni
prachi_jain - Member Since: May 2006
Hey can you give us the password of the file that you have sent. plz mail me at email@example.com Prachi
Dear all, Sorry for the inconvenience,.The password for that file is "inc". Thanks & Regards, Murty
shweta.ims - Member Since: Apr 2007
hi Murth, Can u proved me the password for the promotion letter & salary in my mail ID: firstname.lastname@example.com Thanks & Regards, Shweta Verma
lks.sone - Member Since: Jan 2009
Hi, Mr.murty I Tried To Open Ur Attachment But It Need Password. Pls Do The Necessary. Thanks Lalit K.singh
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Tag Archives: Aaliyah
Lifetime's Aaliyah Biopic No. 2 Cable Telepic of the Year
Film, which faced staunch criticism, got 3.2 million viewers during premiere
Despite many negative reactions and controversy, Lifetime's Aaliyah biopic had 3.2 million viewers, making it…
By Janell Hazelwood
Two New Cast Members for Aaliyah Biopic Announced
Another controversy sparked after casting of actress playing Missy Elliot
Izaak Smith and Chattrisse Dolabaille were cast as Timbaland and Missy Elliot for the upcoming…
By Cedric 'BIG CED' Thornton
Twitter Reacts To Disney's Zendaya Cast As Aaliyah
The Disney star will star as Aaliyah in a new Lifetime biopic.
If you've been living underneath a rock for the past couple of days, Lifetime recently…
By Kevin L. Clark
Publishing, Record Companies Fight Over Aaliyah's Music
Publishing company claims record label is illegally selling singer's music.
Reservoir Media Management claims to own rights to Aaliyah's platinum albums, "One in A Million,"…
By Gerren Keith Gaynor
Motivational Monday: Try Again
Like Aaliyah said, if at first you don't succeed, dust yourself off and try again.
Sometimes we do get burned out, but it is important to rally back.
By S. Tia Brown
15 Black Artists Who Died Too Young
In the wake of Amy Winehouse's passing, we reminisce on other musical greats that were taken before their time
Amy Winehouse recently passed of mysterious causes in her London apartment, marking another example of…


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Online dating brings singles together who may never otherwise meet. It's a big world and the SeniorPeopleMeet.com community wants to help you connect with singles in your area. Whether you are seeking just a date, a pen pal, a casual or a serious relationship, you can meet singles in Mississippi today! Mississippi is known as the "Magnolia State" and SeniorPeopleMeet.com is here to bring their Senior Singles together.Search Single Senior Men in Mississippi | Search Single Senior Women in Mississippi
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In Gimme Songs, musician Mark Mallman talks songwriting with his peers and heroes. This week, Lydia Loveless before Thursday's show at 7th St. Entry. What strikes me most about Lydia Loveless as a songwriter, is her ability to communicate bold-faced authenticity. I talked with her in hopes of find ... More >>
Drone Not Drones' 28-hour droneCedar Cultural Center, MinneapolisFriday, February 7 and Saturday February 8, 2014The local activist organization Drone Not Drones set up one of the most ambitious concerts in Twin Cities history with a 28-hour long rotating cast of drone musicians. It blended individu ... More >>
Pink Target Center, Minneapolis Tueday, January 7, 2014 Pink's The Truth About Love tour returned to the Twin Cities for a victory lap on Tuesday night. After selling out the Xcel last March with an excellent, acrobatic performance, why not? Showing an unencumbered spirit and relentless athleticism, ... More >>
PinkXcel Energy Center, St. PaulTuesday, March 19, 2013Alecia Beth Moore is strong as an ox, powerful as a locomotive, tough as nails, cold as ice, hard as steel, mighty as the Mississippi, badder than Old King Kong, meaner than a junkyard dog, etc. No matter how she's described, know that Pink is e ... More >>
On this day in 1923, legendary producer, record executive, DJ and Sun Records/Sun Studios founder Sam Phillips was born to a pair of poor tenant farmers near Florence, Alabama. You likely know the name for his work founding this seminal recording studio/label, as well as for helping discover and fos ... More >>
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"In summer, the song sings itself."-William Carlos Williams
Photo by Nikki MillerIn this week's issue of People magazine, "Rhinestone Cowboy" Glen Campbell and his wife Kim reveal that Campbell's battles with short-term memory loss have been diagnosed as symptoms of Alzheimer's disease.
Film resurfaces after being MIA for 14 years
From our email, here are a series of Top 7 lists compiled by the hosts of Radio K's various specialty shows, from punk to hip hop to world music (770 AM, 100.7 FM, 106.5 FM): Radio K International -- World Music Sundays 10am-Noon Radiok.org 1 Seu Jorge "Cru" (Wrasse) 2 Amadou & Mariam "Dimanche a ... More >>


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LeBron James' Mom Arrested in Miami
Gloria James, the mother of Basketball star LeBron James, was arrested early Thursday morning and cited with "misdemeanor simple battery" following a scuffle at the Miami Beach Hotel, RadarOnline is excl
Gloria James, the mother of Basketball star LeBron James, was arrested early Thursday morning and cited with "misdemeanor simple battery" following a scuffle at the Miami Beach Hotel, RadarOnline is excl
It wasn't a very high scoring game but still exciting to watch, UCONN beats Butler 52-41. Coach Jim Calhoun joins the ranks of John Wooden and Coach K with his third national title.
Last month, a video of a Jacob Tucker pulling off a series of spectacular slam dunks became a viral hit. What made the video so striking is that Tucker, a guard for Division III school Illinois College, is white and under six-feet tall -- both traits that aren't typically associated with the dunk.
The purpose of the video was to convince the public to vote Turner into the NCAA's annual slam dunk contest. The public obliged, and on Thursday night, he justified their decision by winning it.
The first week of the NCAA Basketball Tournament has been put to rest. Here are the highlights:
In workplaces all over America, folks spent Thursday morning scrambling to get their NCAA tournament brackets filled out before it was too late.
Not so at ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut
When you are watching the NCAA Tournament this month, expect to see many shots of cheerleaders, particularly during timeouts. And why not? These young (mostly) ladies are athletes in their own right, and add a lot to the ambiance
The Big East snagged a record 11 spots for the 2011 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament, including a one seed in the Southeast region for Pittsburgh, who had been the Big East's regular season champions.
Rounding out the top seeds were the defending NCAA champions
Jacob Tucker attends Division III Illinois College, and, at 5'11, stands about a foot shorter than slam dunk champion Blake Griffin. Yet, judging from this video, the guard with the amazing 50-inch vertical leap can match just about any of Griffin's award-winning dunks
Taiwan isn't exactly a basketball power, but that could all change if the rules of the game are amended to allow giant robot seals onto the court.
For some reason, Taiwanese engineers have constructed a robotic seal that can throw a basketball through a hoop with 99 percent accuracy from ten feet out.
The video is below the jump (and begins where the robot seal starts hitting two-pointers).
If you know anything about sports, you know that magic that is March Madness. Check out some of the all time greatest game winning shots.
Wow... this guy is pretty amazing! When I am at the gym I can barely stand on one of those balance balls -- check out what this guy can do on a basketball. Yeah -- I am kind of jealous!
From the action-packed first round of the NFL playoffs to the apparently-thrilling world squash finals, the stars of the sporting world were particularly photogenic this week. Here are a few of the week's best snaps


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Ebusua Dwarfs coach Sarpong would welcome extension of Premier League clubs
Ebusua Dwarfs coach JE Sarpong would welcome a proposal to have the number of Premier League clubs increased from 16 to 18.
Ebusua Dwarfs coach JE Sarpong would welcome a proposal to have the number of Premier League clubs increased from 16 to 18.
The Ghana FA plan to increase the number of participating Premier League clubs to 18 to accommodate relegated King Faisal and Ebusua Dwarfs in a bid to find a lasting solution to the raging legal battle that has delayed the start of the top-flight league, GHANAsoccernet.com understands.
Veteran Ghanaian coach JE Sarpong has slammed the Ghana FA for their proclivity for expatriates coaches in the wake of the decision of local trainers to stay away from the vacant Black Stars job.
Ghana Premier League board chairman Welbeck Abra-Appiah has lamented the lack of compensation package for bodies that arbitrate cases at the Ghana FA, which has contributed to the delay of the start of the new season.
The Ghana Football Association has decided to call off today's Ordinary Congress due to a court order.
Ghana Football Association (GFA) has started training clubs in the new system that will catapult the local league into the realms of professionalism as the training of club officials on the operation of the Club Licensing system got underway in Prampram on Tuesday.
Ghanaian giants Accra Hearts of Oak are set to complete the signing of center-back Vincent Atinga but head coach Herbert Addo must express satisfaction with his form before giving the greenlight for paperworks to begin.
Relegated Ebusua Dwarfs started a justify-your-inclusion exercise at the Adisadel College Park in Cape-Coast on Tuesday.
The Premier League Board has confirmed 23 August, 2014 as the date for the First Capital Plus Premier League awards gala.
Clubs' investment could be hit severely if managers fail to comply with the standard values that regulate the game, the Ghana FA chief Kwesi Nyantakyi has warned.
The Ghana FA says it is unaware that only two clubs will represent the country in next year's CAF Champions League and Confederations Cup competitions.
Ghanasoccernet.com understand that Ebusua Dwarfs' 21-year-old centre-back, Vincent Atinga has been denied his floating status request.
Ebusua Dwarfs claim they are yet to receive an official offer from Hearts of Oak for their defender Vincent Atinga.
Giants Hearts of Oak will name Professor Mintah as coach and will be assisted by Yussif Abubakar while Sabahn Quaye returns as Director of Operations in a massive shake-up meant to return the Phobians to the top of Ghana football, GHANAsoccernet.com can exclusively reveal.
Ebusua Dwarfs coach JE Sarpong says he will ONLY renew his contract with the club if Nana Aidoo stays on as the club's Chief Executive.


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Recap: No EU trades taken yesterday to report on. A support break did just recently occur (see bottom blue line on chart above), signalling a bearish correction is in the works - at least for the short-term.
A glance at the daily charts reminds us that the overall trend has been bearish since March of 2012, with this recent bullish correction starting in mid-July. Given that information it appears that this bearish correction could have room to run, at least down to 2350 in the short term.
That said we will continue following our swing system and we will look to get long on a falling resistance break (top blue line) with targets at 80 pips
Today's Important News Events:
Date Time (UTC) Event Forecast Previous
Fri Aug 24
JPY Cabinet Office Monthly Economic Report
GBP Gross Domestic Product (QoQ) (2Q P)
GBP Gross Domestic Product (YoY) (2Q P)
USD Durable Goods Orders (JUL)
*To see a more extensive list of news events (not just those we consider important), visit our Forex Calendar.
Trading Idea: Long on a resistance break with targets at 80 pips profit.


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Stay at Sheraton Sopot Hotel to enjoy the best sea view from your suite. It is a great opportunity to experience the magic of Polish seaside. You may choose from:
- Junior Suite
- Club Executive Suite
- Premiere Suite
Dining is not only about the food, it is also about atmosphere, feeling welcome, and connecting to the people around you, and we care about that. You will be able to experience culinary delights at our restaurants or bars. Our aim is to create a dining experience that will linger with you and your dining companions long after the evening is over.
Sheraton Sopot Hotel, Conference Center & Spa is the perfect place to gather with friends or co-workers and enjoy a great meal. Sheraton Sopot Hotel has two all day dining restaurants, two bars, Lobby Lounge with a fireplace and Library Corner, which is the perfect place to unwind with your favourite cocktail and a friendly conversation.
Culinary events at the Sheraton Sopot Hotel >
Marine style hotel restaurant, offering international and Polish cuisine. All of our dishes are prepared with unseen passion and involvement of the chefs. Open kitchen lets our guests watch them working whereas the intimacy of Chef's Table allows meetings in calm atmosphere. Wave is an ideal place to meet with family or friends.
Opening hours:
Reservation: 0048 58 767 1061
The concept of InAzia is a delight not only for the palate, but for the eyes
Opening hours:
The symbol of Sopot - the longest wooden pier in Europe measures 512 meters. Hence the origin of the bar's name. Numerous marine style details referring to our location can be found here: wooden floors, sail imitating dividers, and even sacks reminiscent of treasure boxes.
Opening hours:
Reservation: 0048 58 767 1060
A cozy place with both relaxing and comfortable atmosphere. Wide selection of coffee, drinks, delicious desserts, high class alcohols, sandwiches and salads - all these combined with the unforgettable view of Gdansk Bay from our terrace will make you visit us more often you would expect.
Opening hours:
Reservation: 0048 58 767 1060
Being a part of Wave Restaurant, Chef's Table is an ideal place to meet with friends or business partners. Private table surrounded by hundreds of wine bottles from all over the world will meet expectations of the most demanding guests. Our Chef Krysian Szidel invites you to taste his most exclusive dishes.
Reservation: 0048 58 767 1062
Vinoteque Sopot located in the cellar of the historic Rotunda elegantly
One can actually sample the best wines on offer. But leave the burden
Opening hours:
The hotel reserves the right to change operating hours without prior notice.
Sheraton Sopot Hotel, Conference Center & Spa is located next to the Baltic Sea coast and offers rooms and suites designed for your utmost comfort, as well as possibility to experience relaxing moments at the Spa.
Stay at Sheraton Sopot Hotel to enjoy the best sea view from your suite. It is a great opportunity to experience the magic of Polish seaside. You may choose from:
InAzia restaurant, with a spectacular view of the Bay of Gdansk and the longest wooden pier in Europe, offers five distinct Asian cuisines under one roof. Guests looking for culinary rapture will find refined taste of the Orient, and an array of delicious dishes inspired by the sun, and the spices of the East.
Starwood Preferred Guest creates every experience with members in mind. Award-winning benefits, and amazing global portfolio, valuable redemptions and more choices are just the beginning. See what makes SPG special, and learn how you can start earning rewards on your next stay.Join SPG Today