2021 Survey Results: Difference between revisions

* ·The survey required Internet access (but so do contribution to and use of OpenStreetMap, so this particular bias is of relatively little concern).

* ·It required knowledge of one of the 18 languages used in the survey (this is the largest number of languages used to date in any OSMF survey, and was part of a concerted effort to reduce bias toward speakers and readers of English).

* ·It was announced and advertised through OSM-centric communications media (OSM mail lists; direct email to user groups and working groups; social media channels used by OSM contributors and users, local chapters, and local communities; newsletters; banners on osm.org and in editors) but access to the survey instrument was unrestricted (this created potential for oversampling, i.e., inclusion of respondents external to the OSM community).

Post-survey, we noted that members of the OpenStreetMap Foundation were overrepresented.  Based on the demographic data, slightly more than 1/5 of respondents declared themselves to be Foundation members.  However, comparison of summary statistics of the entire sample with summary statistics of Foundation members revealed no substantial bias in the data due to this.  It is highly probable that employees of NGOs and firms using OSM data as well as members of working groups as well as of local chapters and communities were also overrepresented.  Again, however, no substantial bias in the data due to this could be discerned when results from those segments were compared to other segments.