Property regimes and the commodification of geographic information

An examination of Google Street View

Dados Bibliográficos

ID5260628
AutoresLuis F Alvarez León (0000-0001-9888-4921, University of California, Los Angeles, autor correspondente)
Ano2016
Volume3
Fascículo2
Data de publicação2016-12-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoBig Data & Society (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 2053-9517 • E-ISSN: 2053-9517
EditoraSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/2053951716637885
OpenAlexW2522953147
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas25
Referências citadas29

The body of information on the Internet is becoming increasingly geographical. This is both due to the expansion of established categories of geographic information (e.g., digital maps and geospatial databases) and to the simultaneous enrichment of other types of information through geographic identifiers (e.g., geotags, check-ins, and global positioning system coordinates). As this repository of geographic information expands, it is also a key site for multiple processes of commodification transforming informational resources into market goods. Understanding the dynamics driving the integration of geographic information into the digital economy requires a comprehensive political economic analysis. A key component of this analysis is to explain the logics of creation and allocation of economic value from geographic information on the Internet. Addressing this need, in the present article I deploy the property regimes schema developed by Schlager and Ostrom and expand it to elucidate the differentiated commodification processes of geographic information on the Internet. Property regimes are arrangements that define rules, distribute rights, and delineate roles with respect to particular goods. These arrangements are enabled by elements such as legal frameworks, jurisdictions, type of information, and technologies of access. In this article, I explore how the legal frameworks regulating traditional categories of geographic information (such as maps) have been destabilized in the process of technological innovation, leading to the creation of new informational goods along with their respective property regimes, and rearticulating legal, economic, and sociotechnical relations. To illustrate this, I analyze the case of Google Street View images through their property regimes in various jurisdictions

Business · Cartography · Commodification · Data science · Economics · Economy · Geographic information system · Geography · Geospatial analysis · Political science · Property rights · The Internet · Volunteered Geographic Information · World Wide Web · China's Socioeconomic Reforms and Governance · Computer Science · Land Rights and Reforms · Law · Sharing Economy and Platforms