Exploring social interaction patterns and drivers in VGI communities using a custom geovisual analytics tool

Social interactions among data contributors are essential to the success of many VGI (volunteered geographic information) projects, and the patterns of such interactions are often shaped by geographies in which the contributors are situated. However, there is a lack of investigations on geographic context’s influences on VGI contributor behaviour and interaction. This study explores patterns and drivers of inter-contributor species identification activities in the iNaturalist biodiversity citizen science community using a custom geovisual analytics tool integrating visualization and analysis of social networks in geographic context. Geovisual explorations of the iNaturalist social network revealed that the frequency and intensity of species identification interactions in iNaturalist are influenced by three geographic contextual factors, namely, the geographic distance, land cover composition similarity and species taxon composition similarity between observer contributors and identifier contributors. The findings align with social theories concerning the key forces driving the formation of social interactions in a social network, wherein geographic distance reflects physical proximity and land cover composition similarity, and species taxon composition similarity reflects homophily effects. The geovisual analytics tool effectively facilitates exploring patterns and drivers of social interactions and offers a new lens through which to examine the social and geographic dynamics of social interactions in VGI communities.