Is OpenStreetMap a good source of information for cultural statistics? The case of Italian museums

Data coming from Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) are a precious source of knowledge, especially when official statistics are difficult to produce at a detailed level. However, in order to be used effectively as a supporting source, Volunteered Geographic Information must meet thorough standards of quality. In this work, the quality of OpenStreetMap (OSM) – in terms of completeness, positional and semantic accuracies – is evaluated in the cultural sector with reference to the official survey of Italian museums. This study offers novel insights into the quality assessment of OpenStreetMap points of interest, and it is a useful benchmark for the use of unconventional information for cultural analysis and policy. The results show that the number of museums mapped in OpenStreetMap accounts for 86% of the official total while – in terms of completeness – OpenStreetMap coverage is 39% overall. The distance is less than 150 metres for 77.7% of the matching museums and the similarity index among denominations is higher than 0.9 for more than half of the museums. OpenStreetMap cultural information appears to be quantitatively rich as well as positionally and semantically accurate. However, some concerns do arise about the reliability and consistency of tags and metadata.