Can we Trust Information ?-The Case of Volunteered Geographic Information

In this paper we take a fresh look at the problem of information quality for user contributed content. We assert that the traditional quality criteria for assessing the quality of geographic information are difficult to apply to Volunteered Geographic Information. The notion of informational trust is introduced and linked to the established notion of interpersonal trust. We then propose to use informational trust and reputation as proxy measures for information quality and outline the spatial and temporal dimensions of trust that have to be considered.

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