Is it Crowded in Here?

Crowd-sourced or user-generated data for boaters

Published: Thursday, May 6, 2021
By: Zuzana Prochazka

Crowdsourcing is all around us. Yelp offers user-generated reviews of restaurants, medical offices, car washes, and more. Waze lets drivers alert other drivers to traffic snarls or accidents, and don’t even get me started on the Instagram influencers that not only proffer their own observations but also attract the opinions of others in droves. But, what does crowdsourcing mean for boaters?

There are apps like Wavve, a Canadian company that lets users contribute routes for others to follow as well and offers a way to find and connect with other Wavve Boating members in the vicinity. There’s also Noonsite, which provides route planning features and detailed information on country check-in procedures and requirements for cruisers traveling internationally. Argo is a free app that started in the Chesapeake and provides user-generated routes, reviews, and photos of points of interest, as well as a way to connect to other boaters. These are a few examples and the number of social boating apps is growing daily, but the lion’s share of nautical crowdsourcing is still mostly focused on electronic charting so you can use others’ experiences or develop your own charts to catch big fish, for example. Let’s see where this process came from and how it works.

Marine mobile mapping has generated buzz for a few years now but it’s a bit murky right down to the proper terminology. The process of users making their own charts has been referred to as user-generated charts, crowdsourced cartography, or even community-sourced charting. Some people use these terms interchangeably while others draw lines to differentiate the concept. “User-generated” may refer to anglers making charts for personal use while “crowdsourced” implies that multiple sources deliver the raw data to a map-making authority and then receive back a complete chart made usable in their own chartplotter.

Actually, “crowdsourced” means that there was some kind of processing or cleanup done on the consolidated data. “User-generated” can be present on the machine (you own what you create) but if you choose to share it, then it becomes crowdsourced, usually via a company that massages it into useful information.

Naming aside, DIY mapping (or user-generated content – UGC) has gained thousands of followers from when it was introduced about a decade ago. The original objectives and subsequent expectations on what it could do have evolved. One initial goal was to have multiple people help chart remote areas and another was to potentially add accuracy to existing official charts. Target markets included divers, cruisers, and anglers.

The bathymetry (depth) aspect caught on quickly with anglers as did charting for tournament lakes, but coastal regions haven’t seen as much involvement. Furthermore, fishing still leads the pack with the number of anglers using this technology far outnumbering interested cruisers or divers. Even within fishing, usage has morphed. Initially, the marine electronics companies thought anglers would go for depth, vegetation, and bottom hardness information. But so far, bathymetry (depth contours) has won out. The good news is that the majority (80%) of users share their data rather than keep it private and that’s what makes a community.

Most of existing electronic cartography is based on historical data from governmental agencies that is enhanced with algorithms (extrapolated estimates) to get additional depth contours. With DIY mapping, you get actual (versus extrapolated) depth contours. You can also add more detail to create special spots with drop-offs, ditches, and structure that can be a game-changer for fishing. For example, Humminbird’s AutoChart highlights usage on small or hidden lakes and rivers where you become the author of your own cartography, which is fantastic for off-the-beaten-path fishing holes.

Most hardware manufacturers including Raymarine, Garmin, Furuno, Navico (parent of Simrad, B&G and Lowrance), and Humminbird offer some form of mobile mapping via their cartography partners like Navionics and C-MAP. Navionics touts nearly 5,000 new edits daily including notices to mariners. Their SonarCharts data does have validation so regardless of where it comes from, it’s reviewed before it’s put back out to the community (although poor data and misbehavior in this community are reportedly rare). You can generally turn UGC information on and off in layers on your chartplotter so you can go with the official version or your own.

Most forms of these programs have a free version although Navionics also has a subscription program with enhanced features called Freshest Data. Most data can be gathered with basic transducers and will display on later model chartplotters. It’s best to ask your dealer if your unit is capable of displaying this layered information.

The trend in DIY mapping is toward simplification – making charts easier to create and share. For example, you no longer have to upload the data to a cloud via an SD card on your laptop. On a Raymarine system, you can link via Wi-Fi to Navionics on your phone and share via their app. Also, the data downloads are down to kilobytes rather than gigabytes, which was the way it used to be, so they can be done with a smartphone with or without Wi-Fi. Most of your charting will happen even as you go about your day of boating.

With minimal equipment, you can be part of a growing worldwide community of outsourced data gatherers and users. You could also just forget everyone else, chart the stumps on the bottom of your favorite lake, and bring home the big one.