[Talk-us] Gender in OpenStreetMap

[Zoe Gardner]

Am absolutely delighted, motivated and encouraged (not to mention
entertained) by the discussion here stimulated by the issue of gender bias
in OSM. From this and the previous thread (as well as responses to my diary
entries) it is evident that there is both support for and understanding of
this kind of research amongst the OSM community and how it might be
beneficial to OSM as a platform. For the more sceptical I have attempted in
diary entries, group mails and personal responses to elucidate the
rationale behind the research but wonder whether this is getting through.

This research is in no way critical of the valuable work that all OSM-ers
do. Nor is it an attack on men or their particular interests (research has
previously found a 96% male bias by the way). Instead, it is an effort to
understand the impact of this bias: research has intimated that the bias is
a problem but not stated how. By analysing what and how men and women map
differently - if indeed there is a difference - the problem can somehow be
qualified either way and I can't see how this would be detrimental to OSM.

Survey still open by the way (the greater the number of responses, the
greater the reliability of the results)!

https://nottingham.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/osm-user-profiles


On Wed, Sep 6, 2017 at 6:23 AM, alyssa wright <alyssapwright at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Thank you Spencer for your thoughts!
>
> Speaking from my own experience, I come to OSM with many blind spots and I
> rely on others to help me understand what those blind spots are.
>
> Perhaps that is one best ways academic research can contribute to OSM --
> to let us see  something new that we were not able to see before.
>
> And thanks to Spencer for being brave enough to share your recessive eye
> color [1][2].
>
>  ;)
> Alyssa
>
>
> [1] Did you know that green is recessive to brown but dominant over blue?
> Hope you weren't mapping during bio classes.
>
> [2] I think it's super creative that Spencer combined the "mapping blind
> spots" and "eye color" in the same thread! Yay! OSMers are so creative!
>
> On Tue, Sep 5, 2017 at 9:36 PM Spencer Gardner <spencergardner at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> My thoughts are:
>>
>>    1. The negative reactions to the study seem to be putting the cart
>>    before the horse. If our goal is to make OSM the most accurate and complete
>>    map on the planet, it makes sense to me that we would want to understand
>>    where our blind spots might be, whether they're due to differences in
>>    participation by gender, ideology, etc. I would expect a vigorous debate
>>    and passionate disagreement about what (if anything) to do about a blind
>>    spot if one is found, but that's not really the question at hand. Let's
>>    cross that bridge when we come to it. Of course, I'm willing to entertain
>>    arguments for why someone shouldn't pursue this line of inquiry but I don't
>>    see a compelling reason.
>>    2. Thanks to the OSM community (esp. Ian, Alyssa, and the rest of the
>>    board) for encouraging open, respectful conversation. I find my own
>>    feelings on topics like this to be more complicated than either of the
>>    screaming sides so I believe it's critical to ensure many voices are heard,
>>    even from those whose perspective we find difficult.
>>
>> Regards,
>> Spencer
>> (green eyes)
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Sep 5, 2017 at 6:47 PM, alyssa wright <alyssapwright at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Re your question about 👁🌍
>>>
>>> If you are doing an academic study on eye color and OSM/VGI contribution
>>> -- I'd be happy to moderate a townhall as well.
>>>
>>> For what it's worth, I have blue eyes (and glasses).
>>>
>>> Alyssa.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Tue, Sep 5, 2017 at 7:12 PM, Joel Holdsworth <
>>> joel at airwebreathe.org.uk> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Could we have one eye colour, also? ;-)
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On 05/09/17 17:03, Ian Dees wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Hi all,
>>>>>
>>>>> Let's continue the conversation on this new thread, keeping in mind
>>>>> that we all need to keep our mind open and have productive and positive
>>>>> conversation.
>>>>>
>>>>> I reserve the right to add a moderated cooling off period if we get
>>>>> too hostile towards each other again.
>>>>>
>>>>> -Ian
>>>>>
>>>>>
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