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Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons

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Social and Behavioral Sciences

Florida International University

Geographic information science

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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

“I Think I Discovered A Military Base In The Middle Of The Ocean”—Null Island, The Most Real Of Fictional Places, Levente Juhasz, Peter Mooney Aug 2022

“I Think I Discovered A Military Base In The Middle Of The Ocean”—Null Island, The Most Real Of Fictional Places, Levente Juhasz, Peter Mooney

GIS Center

This paper explores Null Island, a fictional place located at 0° latitude and 0° longitude in the WGS84 (World Geodetic System 1984) geographic coordinate system. Null Island is erroneously associated with large amounts of geographic data in a wide variety of location-based services, place databases, social media and web-based maps. Whereas it was originally considered a joke within the geospatial community, this article will demonstrate implications of its existence, both technological and social in nature, promoting Null Island as a fundamental issue of geographic information that requires more widespread awareness. The article summarizes error sources that lead to data being …


Cartographic Vandalism In The Era Of Location-Based Games—The Case Of Openstreetmap And Pokémon Go, Levente Juhasz, Tessio Novack, Hartwig H. Hochmair, Sen Qiao Mar 2020

Cartographic Vandalism In The Era Of Location-Based Games—The Case Of Openstreetmap And Pokémon Go, Levente Juhasz, Tessio Novack, Hartwig H. Hochmair, Sen Qiao

GIS Center

User-generated map data is increasingly used by the technology industry for background mapping, navigation and beyond. An example is the integration of OpenStreetMap (OSM) data in widely-used smartphone and web applications, such as Pokémon GO (PGO), a popular augmented reality smartphone game. As a result of OSM’s increased popularity, the worldwide audience that uses OSM through external applications is directly exposed to malicious edits which represent cartographic vandalism. Multiple reports of obscene and anti-semitic vandalism in OSM have surfaced in popular media over the years. These negative news related to cartographic vandalism undermine the credibility of collaboratively generated maps. Similarly, …