Ordnance Survey – Great Britain's national mapping agency
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Can you help Ordnance Survey to better understand how people think about space and place?
The Research department here at Ordnance Survey is calling for volunteers from the general public to take part in research studies exploring how people view the world around them.
The aim of this research is to find better ways of helping people with spatial information, by finding out how they think about it. Knowing how our brains deal with information about space and place is vitally important to many of Ordnance Survey’s customers, in particular the emergency services. Firemen and Ambulance drivers must know exactly which location a caller means when reporting an incident, in order to get there quickly and save lives. For this reason, and many others, studying the ways that people think and talk about what’s where in their local area is an important concern for our research team.
In order to continue with this research on people’s thinking we need your help. A lot of our studies up until now have been carried out with our own staff and with academics but we don’t know if everyone out there views space, place or maps in the same way. We need all sorts of people to get involved. We want people who love maps, hate maps, have a good sense of direction or always get lost; basically anyone!
Taking part in our research means you would only be called on occasionally, every few months or less. You would spend up to an hour doing simple things to help us, such as looking at maps or answering straightforward questions. We will pay travel expenses and a small fee for your time. Sometimes you won’t even need to travel as it may be possible to carry out some studies on the internet or by posting a survey out to you.
If you are over 18 and are interested in taking part then we want to hear from you! We are already among the best mapping agencies in the world but with your help we could get even better.
For further information or to sign up, please contact Emilia on 023 8030 5235 or by email to researchvolunteers@ordnancesurvey.co.uk.