[diversity-talk] Fwd: [Talk-us] Chapter Board Elections

[alyssa wright]

Hi Serge,

I think you bring up a number of great points, particularly around your suggestions and questions around ethnic diversity. I'm short on time so going to respond to some things a little piecemeal. So first! Gender diversity-

It's great that the NYC events are seeing a more balanced attendance. There have been a number of studies (I quote 3 in my SOTM US presentation) that place female representation at 3-5%. This is far below Wikipedia's 9%. So from my perspective, there's still a lot of value looking at specific outreach around gender.

It's important to note that mere numbers doesn't directly equate with diversity. Ultimately I'm interested in creating technical communities that are inclusive of different perspectives, that are safe spaces for difference. This is particularly important when creating maps, as maps reflect the culture of the communities that create them.

More soon.
Alyssa.

On Aug 20, 2013, at 8:01 PM, Serge Wroclawski <emacsen at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Tue, Aug 20, 2013 at 7:13 PM, alyssa wright <alyssapwright at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Thanks Serge for the experienced perspective. It's great to know we have precedent as well as growing representation on the OSM US board. How do you suggest we continue to continue such trends?
> 
> According to your talk last year, the proportion of women in OSM is
> quite a bit lower than their proportion on the US board, so a goal of
> "proportion" might not be the right model. Really this is two
> questions:
> 
> 1. How to increase diversity in OSM
> 
> 2. What the constitution of the OSM US board should be
> 
> Increasing diversity in OSM as a whole is important, and I think we
> should be striving to do so. My experience is that we have a fairly
> healthy percentage of women involved in the project when compared to
> similar projects (other collaborative projects- such as Wikipedia) as
> measured by attendance at local OSM events. At the local events I've
> run recently, between 20-40% of attendees are women. It's not 50%
> (which would be the optimal number) but it's closer to that number. I
> think that these things are generally self-feeding- so the more women
> we have attend OSM events, the more comfortable another woman will be
> at an OSM event, just as a man might feel out of place at an event
> that was entirely women.
> 
> My experience shows that what we don't have is an abundance of people
> of non-European or non-Asian descent in attendance. I'm basing that on
> events I've run, and also on both the SOTM US events, and the SOTM
> international events. But to clarify, I'm only talking about the US
> right now.
> 
> Frankly, I'm not sure how to address this issue of ethnic diversity. I
> think some (not all!) of it is due to Socio-Economic Status. I suspect
> (and have no evidence to support this supposition) that compared to
> the US population as a whole, the OSM community skews towards better
> educated and generally more affluent. Unfortunately, it's still the
> case in the US that being white white people correlated with these
> categories as well (more educated, more affluent). And if we accept
> that this is true, then it would make sense that people who have more
> education and money have more free time, and more money to spend on
> hobbies. That said, this is neither a complete explanation of our
> situation, nor an excuse not to do our best to help encourage others
> in the project.
> 
> My biggest suggestion for increasing the number of ethnic minorities
> involved in OSM is to suggest outreach programs to neighborhood
> associations and other organizations involved in "having a sense of
> place". These are the kinds of passionate people who would have the
> local knowledge and or the passion to map their neighborhood in OSM,
> and more importantly, to keep it mapped.
> 
> What I don't know is a good way to do this kind of outreach in a way
> that doesn't come off like "selling", that's welcoming but is also
> respectful of the fact that OSM has an identity and culture of its
> own.
> 
> I'm still trying to figure that one out....
> 
> 
> Regarding the constitution of the US board, I always just look for who
> I think the best candidate is. I don't care whether they fit into
> categories. I care about how good a job I think they'd do at the tasks
> the board has to tackle. I also look at someone's involvement in the
> project. how long they've been a mapper, how often they map, whether
> or not they have a professional association that may steer their
> judgments, etc. Everyone is free to choose the candidates in the way
> they best see fit- but that's how I choose.
> 
> - Serge