[diversity-talk] Transferable tactics for increasing gender diversity in OSM

[Steven Johnson]

Darrell & list,

Good point about diversity of ideas. It touches on something I've been
mulling over for the past year or so. OSM is not simply about cool
technology, though the tech under the hood is admittedly cool.

I've given a number of presentations on OSM and over the last couple years
and increasingly I've begun to stress two ideas:
1. Engaging geography on a 1:1 scale - The notion that actively
walking/biking with an eye toward mapping forces you to engage with local
geographic features in a way that a casual amble would not.
2. Community development on a 1:1 scale - The notion that through the
shared activity of mapping a neighborhood, people give visibility to vital
community interests that might not have visibility on any other map. (Ask
@Mikel about the impacts of MapKibera, for example).

While aspects of the technology and mapping will always be a draw, getting
a steady stream of new mappers in the pipeline will depend on appealing to
other cool aspects of the project. My own belief is that the full potential
of the OSM project lies at least partially in the two notions I put forth
above.


Thanks also for the link to the book.

-- SEJ
-- twitter: @geomantic
-- skype: sejohnson8

There are two types of people in the world. Those that can extrapolate from
incomplete data.


On Thu, Sep 5, 2013 at 1:38 PM, Darrell Fuhriman <darrell at garnix.org> wrote:

> Some of the CMU folks wrote a book on their work a few years back:
> "Unlocking the Clubhouse: Women in Computing" -
> http://www.amazon.com/dp/0262632691
>
> You know that reminds me. One thing that Alyssa mentioned a while back was
> increasing the diversity of ideas, and I think that's really important.
> Trying to engage folks that aren't just tech people, is just as important
> as say increasing the gender diversity.
>
> The outreach thing is interesting, and something I've thought about a
> little bit (but not as much as I should).
>
> The benefits of a CS degree are obvious, if somewhat abstract. What are
> the benefits to OSM mapping for non-CS people, for instance?  How does it
> benefit them in ways that are more concrete than "Well, it makes the map
> better, and lots of people use that data to do neat things."
>
> d.
>
>
>
> On Sep 5, 2013, at 10:17, Steven Johnson <sejohnson8 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Thought I'd pass along this article that highlights some simple tactics
> Carnegie-Mellon Univ used to increase the proportion of women in comp
> science majors: http://tinyurl.com/m8rrfe7
>
> The outreach to high school youth seems quite do-able for the OSM
> community, as does an "OSM-for-kids" learning guide.
>
> -- SEJ
> -- twitter: @geomantic
> -- skype: sejohnson8
>
> There are two types of people in the world. Those that can extrapolate
> from incomplete data.
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