[Sociam-soton] Re: Web Science Research Week project request

[Leslie Carr]

I've just signed up to OpenStreetMap (it's that or do marking!) and of the profiles of the 30 mappers in my locality, only 2 are identifiably female. So it certainly looks like Glen Hart from the Ordnance Survey is right in his assertion.

Prof Les Carr
Web Science Institute
University of Southampton

On 14 Feb 2014, at 16:55, Leslie Carr <lac at ecs.soton.ac.uk<mailto:lac at ecs.soton.ac.uk>> wrote:

We have a SOCIAM-relevant project put forward by the OS for our WSI Research Week (24-28th Feb):

Motivating the Crowds
It is well known that most crowdsourced projects attract very specific contributors.  Using OpenStreetMap as an example the profile of a typical contributor is that of a middle-class technology savvy male in his twenties.  In fact research has shown that active membership by women is as low as 3%.   This therefore challenges the notion of crowdsourcing as truly democratic.   It maybe that this bias doesn’t matter, the data is obtained so, so what?  However, without involving a broader-church it is impossible to answer this question in that we are unaware of what is missing or how the bias actually affects our view of what is produced.
The research aim is to investigate ways of encouraging under-represented groups such as women and working class people to contribute place-related information to a web service.  What would motivate them and is there a potential for obtaining different information?


We have a number of students signed up to undertake this, but it would obviously benefit with some leadership / inspiration or even contribution from SOCIAM researchers. Glen Hart will be coming on Monday afternoon (17th Feb) to discuss the project with anyone who is available.

Can you let me know if you would be able to offer advice / time on this activity?


Prof Les Carr
Web Science Institute
University of Southampton


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