ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the concept of Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) within the practices of mapping and cartography. It provides an accessible overview of the area, which has grown rapidly since the mid 2000s and defines what we mean by VGI. VGI is at the centre of a wide scientific community that focuses on the harnessing of new sources of GI, and on satisfying the spatial turn fuelled by the neogeography revolution, a revolution which has put mapping within the grasp of almost anybody. VGI is the grafting of the underlying social, economic and technological situation with the geospatial domain. Today, VGI comes in many flavours and from various sources: toponyms, GPS tracks, geo-tagged photos, synchronous micro-blogging, social networking sites such as Facebook, blogs, gaming spaces, sensor measurements, complete topographic maps, and so on. Mapping VGI requires art, just as it has always been with any cartographic activity.
