What is it about?
This paper shows crowd sourced information can and should be central to the services that connect people in society and allow us to achieve our full potential. Services such as wheelchair access in the built environment are shown to not only be useful but as reliable as professional information. Additionally, this information has benefits in efficiency and relevance to the user base. Further explanation is provided in the context of older adults, providing a route map for service design to create long-term success.
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Why is it important?
Crowd sourced (volunteered) information is often treated with skepticism by developers, who when faced with the absence or high cost of professional information often abandon projects. This paper proves that developers and service designers do not need to be wary of crowd sourced information. By embracing it, better services for societies most vulnerable and at risk can be developed in a better way than ever before.
Perspectives
This paper is one of the first to establish how volunteered/ crowd sourced information has real world applications that directly benefit the elements of society often ignored by developers. With this knowledge, developers no longer need to question the validity or applicability of information from untrained amateurs, but instead should embrace it as a central tenant of their work.
Dr Christopher J. Parker
Loughborough University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Capturing Volunteered Information for Inclusive Service Design: Potential Benefits and Challenges, The Design Journal, June 2013, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.2752/175630613x13584367984947.
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