[Osmf-talk] Reaching out and diversity (Was: Re: AGM and board elections)

[Paul Norman]

On 9/27/2014 4:45 AM, Jaak Laineste (Nutiteq) wrote:
> I think it is even well below 5%. After hearing inspiring talk by 
> Alyssa Wright in last year SOTM I totally agree than this is an issue 
> by itself. Map is reflection of the world of mapmakers, so if only men 
> do it, then you end up with underrepresented kindergartens and 
> overrepresented brothel amenities, to give a trivial example. If OSM 
> wants to be “objective model of the world” then it cannot be so much 
> white-western-rich-male-geek centric.

I have in the past tried to keep my mapping diverse by periodically 
mapping what I wouldn't normally map or encounter. I particularly 
noticed this when I was working on mapping industrial areas, something 
outside of many mappers experience. While you can find reams of 
documentation on mapping education*, there was almost nothing on 
industrial areas at the time.

This being said, the oft-quoted example of underrepresented 
kindergartens is a bad one, since it's not supported by the evidence, 
and using an unsupported argument takes away from where it is an issue. 
Kindergartens outnumber brothels by about 100:1 and stripclubs by 200:1. 
A significant number of brothels were mapped by one mapper, while there 
is a broad base of mappers adding kindergartens. Brothels show a much 
more localized distribution, probably associated with where they're legal.

* Of course, part of the difficulty with mapping education *is* the 
reams of documentation, which is often conflicting. This is not unique 
to education.