Quality in User Generated Spatial Content: A Matter of Specifications

In the last decade, the burst of the Web 2.0 has rapidly increased the amount of user generated content (UGC) on the Internet. Most of Web 2.0 applications allow users to interact with other users and edit website content. This collaborative edition is supposed to improve the content. Nowadays, the amount of people generating online content has dramatically increased. For instance, in the U.S., recent studies show that 35% of Internet users have created content (Flanagin, 2008). A widespread example is the online encyclopedia Wikipedia. It is a valuable source of information though it is not intended to users searching for verified information because it is often anonymous.