Revisiting Engagement in Humanitarian Mapping: An Updated Analysis of Contributor Retention in OpenStreetMap
Zarif Mahmud, Aarjav Chauhan, Dipto Sarkar, Robert Soden · CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Extended Abstracts · 2022
This study revisits findings of the 2016 paper by Dittus et al. that considered trends in contributor retention in humanitarian mapping projects organized using the OpenStreetMap (OSM) platform. In addition to revisiting many of the same metrics used for the 2017-2020 time period, our research takes on a broader scope by evaluating a wider cohort of recruits, as opposed to specific projects evaluated by the original paper. As a result, our findings offer an updated and more complete picture of contributor retention in humanitarian mapping projects. We also offer several insights and future research opportunities for long-term contributor retention in online peer production projects.