1. Introduction

The volunteered geographic information which emerged, when the highresolution satellite images were made available. High-resolution imageries attract the public to visualise the world from the sky (bird's eye view). People are enthusiastic to visualise the earth and gradually the identification process that contributes to the improvement in clarity. The raster-based maps got digitised to vector format by the creation of features by the stakeholders. There is a long history for the human to use maps, while making different types of decisions, from daily route planning to national military strategy. Maps or the geographical information on the maps have become the obligatory part of our daily life. This paper aims to use an example and initiative of using GIS in E-Commerce application of construction and architecture. GPS and GIS systems with similar functionality will more widely be

adopted or even would become a must in future E-Commerce applications. The task of creating such huge data and its updating is almost impossible for any single organisation. With the advent of web 2.0, many individual contributors simultaneously generated the digital data.

features of the cellular environment, it is a significant challenge to locate the target precisely. E.g., global positioning system (GPS), assisted GPS, network-based tech-

Volunteered Geographic Information System and Its Contribution in Service Sector Employment

Crowdsourcing is the concept of integrating the work of the significant participants (crowd). Here the smallest contributions are accumulated to do large tasks which are having hardships physically and economically. It is the more public contribution of work than of the specific professional task, most commonly operated and owned by non-profit making organisations having public involvement. Before the digital era, the term crowdsourcing referred for creating the funding procedure and creating commons of public interest like building communal spaces like the water bodies, parks and vacation spots. In the digital era, the concept of crowdsourcing refers to the creation of data, computation and analysis. It also channels the experts who wish to solve an issue and share the solution to the general

Virtual globes have unlocked the world of satellite imagery to the general public.

Geo-informatics is an essential tool in the developing cultural universe of human society. The collection of Geospatial Information with its attributes and its regular updates is a gigantic task in the dynamically changing complex world. The increased precision of positional accuracy and availability of latest high-resolution satellite imageries is the source of Geo-information in Participatory Geographical Information System (PGIS), further enhancing this is the time-to-time updated information in the reliable real-time world. The citizens act as sensors to capture spatial data; these data are edited and managed by a collaborative environment [8, 9].

Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) is all about the location information of mundane things appearing on the earth surface which is recorded by volunteered people through Crowdsourcing methods. The traditional techniques of geographic information were intern gathered from surveying techniques by professionals. Whereas, the conventional methods were accurate but failed to keep the map information up-to-date. The task of disintegrating the work and distributing work to many people mainly called outsourcing, in the corporate sector this system

experimenting with outsourcing while lacking a firm understanding of the relationship between internal functions and its spatial implications. Outsourcing has set companies with unexpected drawbacks. The miscommunication and lower quality of products, absence of completeness and focus, which ended in delaying of the

They allowed education, entertainment, and exploration for the newbie's [3]. Importantly, a domain to communicate their investigations and information that the public is interested in [4, 5]. The development of Digital Earth (DE) is focused on the whole of humankind to progress considering humanity as a whole. The determination is towards the positive contribution for public peace, safety, order, and general prosperity consistent with the Brundtland Commission on sustainable development [6]. DE is as much social science as it is a phenomenon of quantitative science and engineering. It should equally respect as the social science with an ontology and epistemology, i.e. the study of the nature of the 'reality' of DE (ontol-

ogy), and the study of the process of the acquisition of knowledge [7].

introduced for the economic purpose. In many cases, firms took risks

nology, the travel time of signals.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.82004

3. Volunteered geographic information

2. Crowdsourcing

public [2].

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The employment of the service sector was providing some service at a particular location at a specific time. The service type may be on a regular basis or a temporary basis. The regular service is a traditional service in the regular course of time like the supply of milk and newspaper, school bus and postal services and the like. The occasional services like the personal transport, delivery of goods, painting and catering, housekeeping and maintenance and building construction require an exact location for prompt delivery.

Moreover, some of these services required at doorsteps, which were very difficult for strangers to deliver/provide service in a particular geographical location because of the lack of the locational knowledge about the area. The ability to provide the locational information through web-based GIS servers on the go, in the smartphones as shown in Figure 1 improved the services from providing agency to the consumers.

The added advantage of the voice-based response assisted the drivers during navigation. The safe driving improved, and the advanced information regarding route and driving instructions of the navigation with the real-time traffic and weather information and the distance to be covered with the travel time ensure the punctual destination reach. Advancement in the domain network and computing has contributed to the evolution of the Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) enterprise. Targeted at providing access to the information that they require and an environment in which geospatial users and producers contribute, SDIs are still in the progressive stage, but the architecture is a necessary and useful mechanism for LBS. Wireless data communication combines the mobile and spatial data communication by giving consumers easy access through wireless devices (mobile telephones, personal digital assistants, palmtop computers) to relevant information on the Internet and intranets. The consequential technology is the positioning technology, the way to find out the position of a mobile device accurately. Referable to the unique

Figure 1. Structure of smartphone-based geographical locational service [1].

Volunteered Geographic Information System and Its Contribution in Service Sector Employment DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.82004

features of the cellular environment, it is a significant challenge to locate the target precisely. E.g., global positioning system (GPS), assisted GPS, network-based technology, the travel time of signals.
