TrailView: Combining Gamification and Social Network Voting Mechanisms for Useful Data Collection

Abstract

There is a dearth of structured, organized photographical information of hiking trails and nature in general. Although people frequently photograph these locations and some efforts have been conducted to create virtual walk-throughs of select locations using specialized equipment~\cite{Stanger13:Take,Olanoff13:Google}, the information is largely scattered across different social networks and other websites. With TrailView we aim to utilize the efforts and photographs of everyday hikers to create a structured view of hiking trails and nature. TrailView boasts a gamified system to encourage user-interaction and focuses on social interactions, feedback, and competition to drive data collection. TrailView also contains a point/incentive scheme designed to motivate users. This incentive scheme relies on a social voting model to drive useful data collection, and global leaderboards to encourage competition.