OpenStreetMap
Fifth post - undergraduate geography dissertation
Posted by CarolineH on 20 October 2008 in English.Hello everyone,
Thank you to all those who responded to my question about the gender bias within OSM.
This week I would like to know whether you feel this apparent gender bias within the OSM community matters or not? Should it be a cause for concern?
Please comment here, email me via the site or at caroline.hangartner@student.manchester.ac.uk
Attending first mapping party this coming weekend and will post again next week.
Thanks
Caroline
Discussion
Comment from Circeus on 20 October 2008 at 22:21
Although a gender bias is troublesome in any project where point of view may strongly influence content (the gender/geographical bias does, for example, very noticeably the way some content is presented in Wikipedia), this element has, as far as I cold tell, fairly little impact on the way content is added/selected for OSM.
Comment from acrosscanadatrails on 21 October 2008 at 07:06
From my experience so far. It seems that the difference between; say, geocachers, and OpenstreetMappers. .. i would think that Mappers are more right brained, and GeoCachers would be more Left-brained. .. Technical vs. creative.
For me, i dont understand the point of GeoCaching, as once i collected all the POI's, i can see it on a map.... so there is no need to physically find it. .. however going out and physically finding those trails/roads that aren't yet mapped, IS a challenge, and a fun competition between users. .. AND correcting the data is also fun (provided we play by the rules, and contact those other users to get input) ... just like the talk page for Wikipedia.
So I would agree with the previous post that yes, there is very little impact for OSM. And would want to add the point about those who are more technical oriented would be drawn to OpenStreetMap, becuause of its very nature.
.. OpenStreetMap is essentially a world-wide race to see how fast and accuratly we can map the world.
Engineers, Architects, survayers... any industry which involves looking at maps, and drawings, seems to be the technical type.
IMO, i would attend mapping parties, more for the technical networking, and learning from other (Gadget Nerds), most of which get excited about the latest and greatest new technology, and learning how it works collaboratively with other technology. ... probably those Ibuntu users (think that's where it started from). ... I have an interest in this because of my work with AutoDesk, AutoCAD.
IMO :)
Comment from Richard on 21 October 2008 at 09:26
I'd call it more an opportunity than a cause for concern (sorry, I know that sounds cheesy). All open source/crowdsourcing/whatever projects are predominantly male. OSM actually has a chance to be more equal, because the barriers to entry should be less - no need to learn a programming language or an arcane set of rules like Wikipedia's.
But to do so, we'd need to encourage other forms of mapping than the ever-so-slightly-Aspergers housing estate standard; make the tools more user-friendly; and offer them on less geeky platforms too (think less Java, more iPhone).
Comment from Helge Hafting on 21 October 2008 at 12:57
I am not concerned. But of course - more mappers is always better, so having more female mappers would obviously help. I guess people tend to map what they find interesting, so women will probably add more of the stuff women find interesting. That might make the map more interesting to use for other women.
Comment from wieland on 21 October 2008 at 15:34
As long there are tags like amenity=pub but no amenity=perfumery there will be a gender bias.
Comment from wieland on 21 October 2008 at 21:07
OK. It should be shop=perfumery but this is also not defined.
Also there is Tag:amenity=bicycle parking but not Tag:amenity=women parking