tour de cyclopath v10

Tour de Cyclopath*Thomas EricksonIBM T. J. Watson Research CenterSpring 2010

* Cyclopath is a project of the GroupLens Lab at the University of Minnesota by Terveen, Preidhorsky, et al. It is open source.

Tour de Cyclopath

Why this is of general interest Cyclopath represents an increasingly important new class of urban application that

• combines human-sourced knowledge with digital data to create a common resource

• provides mechanisms for eliciting and focusing human work to enhance the resource

• enables computations that provide resource-based services

• provides a platform for community collaboration

• and has the potential to serve as a potent symbol of a smarter city

Thomas Erickson, Social Computing Group, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center. slide 2

Tour de Cyclopath

Problem: Finding bike-friendly routes around the Twin Cities Good bike routes differ from good driving routes

1. Start out in opposite direction to avoid busy main street

2. Take side street that has lights at two busy crossings

5. Although greenway continues in right direction, take Park Ave due to bike lane

3. Enter greenway bike path via intersection


4. This section of bike path goes through beautiful community gardens

Terveen, Priedhorsky, et al. ~ GroupLens Lab, EE/CS, University of Minnesota

Tour de Cyclopath

Problem: Finding bike-friendly routes around the Twin Cities Good bike routes differ from good driving routes But much of the information that makes this a good route is not on regular maps




3. Enter greenway bike path via “intersection




Tour de Cyclopath

Solution: Cyclopath A user-editable map

(a geowiki) with ‘official’ data (e.g.,

USGS, MNDoT) and user-entered data

• map objects

• points

• bikeability ratings

• tags

• annotations



Tour de Cyclopath

Solution: Cyclopath User editing matters

because ‘official’ data:

• may be missing

• may be incorrect

• may be misaligned

• may need synthesis

• may be dynamic Furthermore, users can

add data that is

• personal

• timely

• qualitative



Tour de Cyclopath

The User Interface Map and map key



Tour de Cyclopath

The User Interface Map and map key Map controls

• edit, zoom, pan



Tour de Cyclopath

The User Interface Map and map key Map controls Control panels

• request routes, adjust view, revert changes, etc.



Tour de Cyclopath

Map elements Blocks (street) Points



Block Point

Tour de Cyclopath

Map elements Blocks (street) Points Tags (points) Notes (points)



Tags

Notes

for this point

Tour de Cyclopath

Map elements Blocks (street) Points Tags (points, blocks) Notes (points, blocks)



Tags

for this block

Notes

Tour de Cyclopath

Map elements Blocks (street) Points Tags (points, blocks) Notes (points, blocks) Ratings (blocks only)

• personal (private)

• estimated (from others)

• computed (from MN DoT data)



Rating

for this block

Tour de Cyclopath

Map elements Blocks (street) Points Tags (points, blocks) Notes (points, blocks) Ratings (blocks only) Intersections

• How streets connect (or not)



Intersection

Tour de Cyclopath

Map elements Blocks (street) Points Tags (points, blocks) Notes (points, blocks) Ratings (blocks only) Intersections

• How streets connect (or not)

•Important for computing routes – data often missing or inaccurate for bikes



Intersections?

Tour de Cyclopath

Map elements Blocks (street) Points Tags (points, blocks) Notes (points, blocks) Ratings (blocks only) Intersections Regions (not shown)

• Public (neighborhoods)

• Private(watch regions)



Tour de Cyclopath

Editing We want users to be

able to edit data because

• it might be missing

• it might be wrong

• it might be misaligned

• and users have a deep qualitative knowledge of places the is rarely found in official data sets



Tour de Cyclopath

Editing example Here’s a street I added.

I gave it a name, a type, and a bikeability rating



Tour de Cyclopath



Later on, someone else added the tag “unpaved”



Tour de Cyclopath



Later on, someone else added the tag “unpaved”

Later I added a note



Tour de Cyclopath

Editing & reverting And of course it’s a

wiki so I can

• set a “watch region”



Tour de Cyclopath

Editing & reverting And of course it’s a

wiki so I can

• set a “watch region”

• and inspect and revert changes



Tour de Cyclopath

Computing routes Now we can use all

this data to compute bike-friendly routes



Tour de Cyclopath



• Enter From and To



Tour de Cyclopath




• Decide whether tominimize distance or favor bikeability



Tour de Cyclopath





• And select tags to avoid, bonus or penalize when computing route



Tour de Cyclopath





• And select tags to avoid, bonus or penalize when computing route

Notice that much of this data is user entered: point names, bikeability, tags



Tour de Cyclopath

Computing routes The route



Tour de Cyclopath


• Can be color-coded according to various dimensions (e.g., hills, bikeability)



Tour de Cyclopath



• Has a cue sheet(soon with notes)



Tour de Cyclopath



• Has a cue sheet(soon with notes)

• Feedback can be provided



Tour de Cyclopath


• Notice that my route starts out in the “wrong” direction – but that’s really what I want because it avoids busy streets



Tour de Cyclopath



• And it has the other advantages I mentioned at the start of the talk



Tour de Cyclopath



• And it has the other advantages I mentioned at the start of the talk

• And the route is also half a mileshorter than that offered by Google Maps’ new bike routing feature (even though I favored bikeability over distance)



Tour de Cyclopath

Does it work? Will people really use it? Will people actually go to the trouble of adding data? Will the added data make a difference?


Tour de Cyclopath

Does it work? Usage (in season)

• In use for 1.5 years

• 1,500+ reg. users

• daily: 15-30 reg. & ~150 unreg. users

• 150 routes/day


Tour de Cyclopath





• 150 routes/day Edits

• ~10,000 edits, by 400+ users

• User input resulted in shorter routes: routes 1K shorter (14.8=>13.8K)after 9 months

For example: indicating “connectivity” between Como Ave and the Intercampus Transitway allowed computation of a new route that is .6 K shorter than the old route


Tour de Cyclopath





• 150 routes/day Edits

• ~10,000 edits, by 400+ users

• User input resulted in shorter routes: routes 1K shorter (14.8=>13.8K)after 9 months

Individual variability

• Radical variation in scope of interest and editing behavior

Relationship between a person’s views (red) and edits (blue)


Tour de Cyclopath

Research Issues:Eliciting work Improve map’s routes Improve others’ routes Improve your routes

…in progress…



Tour de Cyclopath

Research Issues:Focusing work How might Cyclopath

get users to do particular types of work in particular places?




Tour de Cyclopath

Research Issues:Focusing work The Work Hints

experiment (case 1)


Cyclopath needs your help

“…We have created a system which will automatically direct you to areas of the map that need work (more bikeability ratings entered or edits to the geography of the map itself)…”

<link to “work hints” window>

Tour de Cyclopath


experiment (case 1)

• Direct a person to an area that needs work

• let them work until they’re ‘done’

• ask if they want to do another area



Tour de Cyclopath


experiment (case 2)

• Direct a person to an area that needs work

• let them work until they’re ‘done’

• ask if they want to do another area



Tour de Cyclopath


experiment

• People did about the same amount of work per trial

• BUT they did three times as many trials: 17.7 trials vs 5.0 trials


Tour de Cyclopath


experiment

• People did about the same amount of work per trial

• BUT they did three times as many trials: 17.7 trials vs 5.0 trials

If small maroon circles can have this kind of effect, imagine what could be done by taking some lessons from theESP game!


Tour de Cyclopath

Research Issues: Summary of Findings• Visually highlighting work opportunities leads to more work

• Users also do ‘extra’ work (beyond what is visually highlighted_

• Taking users to areas they are familiar with leads to more work of certain types

• Issuing a “call to action” and providing visually highlighting causes a broader range of users to do work (and moreover the “lead workers” are different)


Tour de Cyclopath

The Future Cyclopath doesn’t have

to be about bicyclists

• skiers (iceWiki)

• walkers

• disabled

• urban tourists

• local history buffs

• garden clubs


Tour de Cyclopath


to be about bicyclists Nor does it have to be

just for route finding

• Planners (Cycloplan)


Tour de Cyclopath





• Energy management


Tour de Cyclopath






• Resource sharing


Tour de Cyclopath

Takeaways People have rich and nuanced knowledge of their habitats People are willing to do work to contribute this knowledge;

furthermore, systems can be designed so that they better elicit and focus such work If the elicited knowledge is in a form that digital systems can use,

the knowledge can be used in computations and services, as well as being used to refine itself

Why this is of more general importance Cyclopath represents an increasingly important type of urban application that







Tour de Cyclopath






• Resource sharing

• Urban ecology + = ?


Tour de Cyclopath

Why this is of general importance Cyclopath represents an increasingly important type of urban application that







End Notes• Cyclopath was conceived of and developed by the GroupLens Lab at the University of Minnesota, not IBM (I am just an enthusiast).

• Cyclopath is now open source. Find out more at http://cyclopath.org




3. Enter greenway bike path via intersection




http://cyclopath.org/

http://cyclopath.org/

tour de cyclopath v10

Education