Analysis of collaboration networks in OpenStreetMap through weighted social multigraph mining

This paper aims to qualify the behaviour of contributors to OpenStreetMap (OSM), a volunteered geographic information (VGI) project, through a multigraph approach. The main purpose is to reproduce contributor’s interactions in a more comprehensive way. First, we define a multigraph that combines existing spatial collaboration networks from the literature with new graphs that illustrate collaboration based on specific aspects of the VGI modes of contribution through semantics, geometry and topology. Indeed, the ways that contributors interact with one another through editing, completion, or even consumption may provide additional information on each user’s operation mode and therefore, on the quality of the contributed data. Social collaborations drawn from indirect criteria – for example, comparisons between contributors’ activity areas – can also be contemplated under another network. Second, the resulting multigraph is analysed using data mining approaches to characterise individuals and identify behavioural groups. The implementation of a multiplex network based on an OSM data sample and an initial analysis make it possible to identify useful behaviours for data qualification. The initial results characterise some contributors as pioneers, moderators and truthful contributors, according to their special roles in the graphs. Mapping elements that include these contributors’ participation are likely to be reliable data