an update from the USGS on their crowd-sourcing efforts… The National Map Corps (TNMCorps) data volunteers continue to make significant additions to the USGS’s ability to provide accurate mapping information and data to the public. To reward those citizen scientists, TNM Corps has issued virtual badges to those participants that reach certain point (structure data submission) levels.
Since a number of contributors have surpassed the current seven badges, the project has moved to develop and announce new badges, this time featuring hot air balloons, carrier pigeons, rockets and bi-planes at 1,000 point increments. Using crowd sourcing techniques, volunteers have verified, corrected, or collected more than 62,000 manmade structures providing data for the National Geospatial Program’s web-based The National Map (TNM) and ultimately US Topo maps. http://on.doi.gov/1xlmX00