OpenStreetMap
Fourth post - undergraduate geography dissertation
Spisany wot CarolineH dnja 13 October 2008 w rěči English.While attending the State of the Map conference in Limerick, I noticed that women seemed to form only a small minority at SOTM '08 and, as OSM does not collect this type of data from members, I wondered if this was representative of the OSM community as a whole.
So, this week, I would like to ask:
From your experience, are the majority of OSMers male? And if so, why do you think this is?
Please comment here, message me via the site or at caroline.hangartner@student.manchester.ac.uk
Thanks and best wishes
Caroline
Diskusija
Komentar wot wieland spisany dnja 13. October 2008 21:28
My experience is, yes, the majority is male.
Men like to be explorer, find new ways.
Women like to go known, secure ways.
Since stoneage.
Komentar wot 42429 spisany dnja 13. October 2008 22:11
Dear Caroline,
I suppose that 99% of all mappers are male (including me).
In my opinion, some reasons may explain this gender bias:
1. Collecting tracks and ways is a task that is most effectively done by a single person travelling alone. Men like it, women dislike it.
2. When collecting tracks, you have to walk through residential areas which are inhabited by many different people. For example, last Saturday I visited a street where many women asked me to buy their service. Maybe some women dislike walking alone through "dangerous" or unpopulated areas.
3. Even if you walk through "safe" areas, you sometimes have to use a no-exit street twice in order to get a good track. Local inhabitants often look at me, but they don't understand why I am going such a funny way. As a man, I don't care what people say or think, whereas a woman may feel ashamed.
4. A GPS logger is quite expensive and its handling is a sophisticated task. Men are willing to spend one hour to learn it, whereas women may feel disappointed after half an hour without assistence.
5. Many tracks are taken while motorcycling oder travelling on heritage railways. These hobbies are usually associated with males, e.g. 73% of all motorcycle owners are men.
6. Each internet project has a gender bias. 88% of all German Wikipedia users are male, 10% are female. However, Wikipedia is much easier to use because it does not depend on so many rules like Openstreetmap.
7. Probably no mapper would oppose female participation, but many procedures are designed for male brains. K46 was L152 is an information that seems to be evident for men, but women may feel confused by these abbreviations. For example, it is not possible to attach a photo to a specific crossing or a specific street that helps to remember information from real life.
That was my very personal opinion. I don't care about the next 10 opposing comments bashing me. However I would like to know if you agree or disagree to some of my arguments. If you are going to prove the opposite, you are welcome.
If you want to cite me, please convert my spelling mistakes into standard English.
Yours FK270673
Komentar wot alv spisany dnja 14. October 2008 07:07
Any technical profession and hobby has a gender bias, from devastating to negligible. Be it technical university education, freight transport or car sports, the women are a minority. Of these only car sports attracts female spectators (which could want to try the sports themselves) because the drivers are showing off their sport skills; there's nothing hormone rush inducing in shouting "look at my big map!" (just as "look at me solve this with a 17th order Laurent-series" might appeal only to math professors)...
Also, the male mappers are (for the most part) either outdoor people (hiking etc.) or the geeky type (like me). Most of the active outdoor-hobbyist women are more likely to concentrate on the doing the outdoors part, not on watching and correcting the map. Technically oriented geeky women are such a minority (and only sociologists can try to explain why) that it'd be as probable to find a fairy flying around with a gps.
(I could and should refute the points in the previous comment, except for the first one, but I'll limit myself to the notion that point 7 is definitively solved by photomapping.)
Komentar wot LivingWithDragons spisany dnja 18. October 2008 15:18
Yep, I agree that OSM seems to be full of males. Half the women I've seen/met at mapping parties or SOTM08 have been (dragged?) along by their partner just for the social side of it.
Where you go (in order to cover every road/footpath) for mapping is a very logical thing, and women don't seem to get that.
Females seem to enjoy going geocaching with me more, there is one distinct goal and the walking/journey/searching takes attention over the GPS device/technology. I think females are less likely to understand why I'm mapping every single road (although a fair amount of guys don't get it either).
When I organised a mapping party, a couple that are my friends went out together and seemed to enjoy it. There notes were very interesting to read what someone does for their first time (what they thing is worthy of noting/mapping). I don't know who was deciding what to map at each time, but we can assume "very shiny red postbox" was what the girls noticed.