Abstract
Community Based Location Service (CBLS) is the provision of information about services based on the geographical location of subscriber’s mobile phone towards the development of the community they are in. With the increase in mobile phones penetration, citizens can participate actively in providing relevant information to assist in the provision of services and infrastructure in the country through their mobile devices. This paper proposes a framework that will improve services and provide better infrastructure to developing countries. It hinges on four major technologies: location-based information, crowdsourcing, mobile communication devices and volunteerism. This framework takes into consideration the importance of motivating the crowd to participate in the crowdsourcing platform. Therefore the paper further investigates the willingness of the crowd to participate in the proposed CBLS crowdsourcing drive. The survey carried out indicates that 89% of the respondents want such location-based community services while 84% are willing to participate in CBLS once deployed. Services of great importance to the respondents are electricity and education while the major motivational factor for them is their ability to solve the problems and challenges in their community and also a sense of responsibility. Three prototypes mobile applications on the proposed CBLS platform are also presented.
