As promised I updated my Diary to include promotional texts with variations with more to come. Feel free to remix upon them and to actually use them to spread our word.

What are the root causes and systematic issues within our community that could be addressed to improve diversity?

Much of our activity runs over the internet and you can just know about OpenStreetMap when you search for free geodata on the internet. You cannot get to know OpenStreetMap through press, Meetups or other mainstreamed events. Relaying on blog posts dedicated to everything happening in the GIS world is not helpful to gain attention from “normalos” from outside of the Open Source, GIS, linked data and tech world.

To come to diversity: - Less women - because almost everything runs over the internet - women are less interested in “technical stuff” - Solution: - Women tend to be more communicative then men and are likely more willing to talk to others in real life (Meetup concept, meet and great concept, come together and do something concept). - less people from countries of the global south - structural weaknesses inside their countries - low bandwith - other channels are being used for getting information - not being aware of their individuals powers - Solution: - working together with NGO’s working in the said areas - providing services around OpenStreetMap to help people in developing countries (countries of the global south) - Different Ethnial groups - Solution: - providing services dedicated for their interest (e.g. LGBTQ+ centric maps, disabled people centric maps, …) - people with disabilities - Solution: - Offering services to such persons to make their lifes easier.

1. We can create a Wikipage which then we can integrate in the osm.org website. The wikipage can provide a quick overview of what OSM is, which tools are used and which are the easiest way of mapping (starting points e.g. streetcomplete)
2. On registration OSM prompts the user to type in his location. Based on that we can show him/her a list of community channels (Telegram, Discord, Slack, IRC, Facebook etc.) from the community index.