Some of you will remember - and will have participated in - a demographic survey i conducted almost two years ago which aimed to establish whether there were any differences between the genders in the way contributors edit in OSM. Since then I have conducted several analyses of the data I collected and shared the results at several conferences. Each of the these papers is available on my researchgate profile which can be accessed from the following link.

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Zoe_Gardner4

I’m delighted to announce that the following peer reviewed paper titled “Quantifying gendered participation in OpenStreetMap: Responding to theories of female (under)representation in crowdsourced mapping”, based on the data I collected from the generous OSM users that participated, has just been published and is accessible online using the link below.

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10708-019-10035-z

Abstract: This paper presents the results of an exploratory quantitative analysis of gendered contributions to the online mapping project OpenStreetMap (OSM), in which previous research has identified a strong male participation bias. On these grounds, theories of representation in volunteered geographic information (VGI) have argued that this kind of crowdsourced data fails to embody the geospatial interests of the wider community. The observed effects of the bias however, remain conspicuously absent from discourses of VGI and gender, which proceed with little sense of impact. This study addresses this void by analysing OSM contributions by gender and thus identifies differences in men’s and women’s mapping practices. An online survey uniquely captured the OSM IDs as well as the declared gender of 293 OSM users. Statistics relating to users’ editing and tagging behaviours openly accessible via the ‘how did you contribute to OSM’ wiki page were subsequently analysed. The results reveal that volumes of overall activity as well editing and tagging actions in OSM remain significantly dominated by men. They also indicate subtle but impactful differences in men’s and women’s preferences for modifying and creating data, as well as the tagging categories to which they contribute. Discourses of gender and ICT, gender relations in online VGI environments and competing motivational factors are implicated in these observations. As well as updating estimates of the gender participation bias in OSM, this paper aims to inform and stimulate subsequent discourses of gender and representation towards a new rationale for widening participation in VGI.

Since completing this study, I have conducted some further analysis on the same dataset and plan to publish the results of this in due course.

This kind of research, which focuses on those that have created this vast database, simply cannot happen without your cooperation and support so a huge thanks to everyone who participated in the survey and allowed me to access their edit history.

My last diary entry, which linked to some initial results from the survey, generated a comment about different contributors undertaking different types of mapping activities and the impact this could have on the data produced. The content of my most recent conference presentation with Peter Mooney at AGILE 18 in Sweden, discussed exactly this.

The results of this particular analysis showed that although women are more likely to be engaged in mapping for humanitarian purposes (i.e. HOTOSM), the prescriptive nature of these tasks mask the natural mapping behaviours and interests of those that complete them, i.e. many women.

Please see below for links to both the paper and powerpoint presentations.

http://www.cs.nuim.ie/~pmooney/websitePapers/AGILE2018PM_ZG.pdf

https://www.slideshare.net/ZoeGardner1/investigating-gender-differences-in-openstreetmap-activities-in-malawi

It’s been almost a year since 326 OSM contributors kindly participated in a survey of user demographics. The purpose of the survey was to attempt to measure the impact of the gender participation imbalance on mapping behaviours and patterns.

In April of this year I delivered my paper ‘Gender differences in OpenStreetMap contributor activity, editing’, based on the survey data, at the GISRUK conference in Leicester to an audience of GIS academics and professionals. This was well received and prompted a discussion of gender issues in OSM more broadly.

The three main findings of the analysis were:

1. Not only are there more male participants than women, of those that participated, men are more active than their female counterparts with many more contributions and time spent editing.
2. Men are more likely to modify existing edits whilst women demonstrate a preference to add new data
3. Men contribute to a wider range of tagging categories than women

If you would like to read the short paper in full it is available as a pdf below. ]

Thank you again to all who participated.

https://www122.lamp.le.ac.uk/download/GISRUK2018_Contribution_045.pdf

Some of you will know that I recently conducted a survey of OSM user demographics. The survey closed at the end of August. Since then I have been collating and cleaning the data ready for analysis. The survey generated a fantastic response and I would like to extend my thanks to everyone who took the time to participate.

As promised, sixty respondents have been randomly selected to receive a £15 Amazon voucher as a small gesture of gratitude for participating. I have now sent the voucher codes out via the OSM messaging system so please check your in box to see if you are one of the lucky recipients.

I hope to be able to share some preliminary results in the coming weeks and look forward to seeing exactly what the data reveals about the impact of gender bias in OSM contributing.

A couple of weeks ago I launched an online survey aimed to collect demographic data about OSM contributors for a research project (funded by the University of Nottingham and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council) concerned with gender biases in OSM. The survey has received a great response and I would like to send my thanks to all users who have so far participated.

However, more responses are needed (especially from women). I would therefore like to encourage any mappers, male and female, who have not yet participated, to consider doing so. There are only six questions and the survey takes less than a minute to complete, plus you could earn a £15 Amazon voucher for your time (apx. US$20).

The gender imbalance in OSM contributing is a recognised aspect of the project. The results of this survey will help to better understand the impact of this bias which could lead to more targeted strategies for widening participation. For more information and to complete the survey please visit:

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

Thank you.

A couple of weeks ago I posted a diary entry introducing myself, my interests in OSM and showcasing an upcoming survey for OSM editors. I am very pleased to announce that the survey is now live and I would like to invite as many OSM editors as possible, to participate. The survey is anonymous and only takes a couple of minutes to complete.

The project is motivated by recent research that has found a strong male bias in OSM participation. This has led to assertions that various geospatial knowledge could be under represented or poorly recorded on the map. However, the actual consequences of this bias remain little explored or reported. By collecting information about contributors to OSM, which can then be analyzed along with their editing patterns, the impacts of this bias might begin to be measured and therefore better understood.

If you are interested in or would like to participate in the study, please click on the link below, which will take you to the Bristol Online Survey website where you will find more information and an opportunity to participate in the survey. As a small incentive, at the close of the survey in a few weeks’ time, 60 respondents will be drawn at random to receive a £15 Amazon voucher.

To participate in the survey, click on the link below:

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

Please do think about participating. It is hoped that knowledge about the way participation biases impact on crowdsourced maps will enable new strategies to be developed to address any resulting voids in the geospatial information provided by amateur mappers. In turn this could strengthen the role played by platforms such as OSM in urban planning and sustainability and raise the profile of the important mapping work that you all do.

In the meantime, if you would like to know more about me, my research activities or the project, please visit my University webpage (link below) and do not hesitate to get in touch directly or via the OSM messaging service.

https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/engineering/people/zoe.gardner

Thank You

I thought I would use the user diary as a means of introducing myself and my research activities. I am a Research Fellow in the Nottingham Geospatial Institute at the University of Nottingham interested in participation biases in geospatial crowdsourced projects such as OSM and other Volunteered Geographical Information (VGI) projects. I am also interested more broadly in biases in citizen science. My current research project is concerned with the way in which participation biases in OSM may potentially affect the usability of the data that is collected and subsequently what is available to location based service providers which use OSM as their primary geographical database.

It is my belief that a better understanding of participation biases in VGI can give us improved potential to contribute to the future sustainable planning of our urban environments and improve services in rural communities.

Having said this, my diary entry here is also an opportunity to set the scene for those of you who may be interested in getting involved in this work through participating in a survey which I will soon be publishing online.

My proposed survey will be aimed at collecting some brief demographic information about the OSM contributors who respond. I then intend to perform an analysis of the OSM database to try to identify differences between the activities and contributing behaviours of male and female contributors to OSM. This is of major interest to me. I hope that the results will enable me to make some important conclusions and observations about current VGI contribution practices and make useful and meaningful recommendations back to the OSM community and other crowdsourced data stakeholders around gender issues in participation. A key part of the dissemination of my research results will be making the outcomes of the work available to the OSM community via my OSM diary, the mailing list and hopefully an open-access journal paper.

I am hoping that many of you will be interested in the study, sufficiently so to take part! I am interested in the activities and behaviours of both male and female contributors and would encourage as many users as possible to participate. Identifying patterns of activity in the OSM database, based on which type of users contribute which type of information, could work to consider how to improve gender specific participation.

As soon as the survey is available I will publish it here as well as disseminate it through the OSM mailing system.

In the meantime, please don’t hesitate to contact me through the OSM messaging system if you wish to learn more about the survey or research project in general. Thank you for reading this far and I will post again with a link to the survey when it is open.