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I actually think there is a -lot- of room for a small OSMF to grow
and to evolve. <br>
<br>
I have always assumed that "small" in the end refers to limiting the
scope of what we do to the really necessary central functions with
as much subsidiarity as possible and not creating a large
bureaucratic top heavy organisation. Back to the comparison with the
Wikimedia Foundation, you can run a substantial enterprise with a
quite a bit less than the $50M or whatever amount WMF is planning on
requiring annually in the future, so I don't think being "small"
limits us in any practical way if we really want to do something.<br>
<br>
As to the future group, my expectation of it is not so much that it
should find yet another set of audacious goals, but more concrete
how our business model should evolve so that we can actually work
towards achieving the goals. IMHO the spread of opinions on that is
far greater than where we should be at the "end".<br>
<br>
I don't think it is particularly useful to point fingers at mistakes
made in the past, I believe it suffices to point out that we now do
have a set of articles that are not totally at odds with what we
actually do, that we now do control our core assets, that we now do
have a proper accounting system in place and have greatly improved
governance. There is still work to do (mainly budgeting and
transparency), but we are clearly further along the path to making
the OSMF a stable and viable organisation.<br>
<br>
As to the the "employing staff" issue, I consider it a bit of a red
herring. On the one hand it is not necessary for us to employ staff
directly, on the other hand we have never had enough stable income
to even remotely contemplate having full time staff (regardless of
all spouting about "we have enough money lets just employ somebody"
that we have heard multiple times). Financing and related issues is
however something I expect the OSMF to attack in the upcoming
months. That we are at the limits of what can be expected of unpaid
volunteers in some cases is something I hope we are all acutely
aware of.<br>
<br>
Simon<br>
<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Am 10.09.2013 22:03, schrieb Mikel
Maron:<br>
</div>
<blockquote
cite="mid:1378843406.8242.YahooMailNeo@web161703.mail.bf1.yahoo.com"
type="cite">
<div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:times
new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:12pt">
<div><span>I don't think OSMF has decided to stay small, but
rather has stayed small due to the inability to make
decisions. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">There's
been plenty of folks who wanted it do more, and still do.
Sometimes there are different ideas. There's no way to
choose, so often the default happens, which is nothing. I do
support anyone willing to try to instigate things to happen.</span></div>
<div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 12pt; font-family:
'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; background-color:
transparent; font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size:
12pt;"><br>
</span></div>
<div>As for the SWG, yea it's dead, please kill it. Even getting
a "tile layer policy" together took dental surgery like effort
and pain; I'm not sure we can claim credit for refreshing the
logo. We never set out to tell anyone what to do, that's just
the same FUD as any time the SWG faced. Rather the question
has always been how to structure processes so that things the
community do want to happen, actually happen. Perhaps it was
just the word "Strategy" that gave people allergic reactions.
If the Future group can do better, I think it's just a
different name and different faces, for the same general idea.
Good luck!</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Paid staff, that day will definitely come. Grant himself
has said he'd be happy to be paid to do Ops. Andy Allan was
paid to finish the redaction bot. I've talked about it for
years, the Board has talked about it for years. There's just
no way we can continue to forever rely on the kind of
volunteer system administration that we are so so fortunate to
have from the Ops team. And it wouldn't take any change to the
AoA, there's nothing in the governance about paid employees.
but would require that OSMF have a proper accounting and HR
system.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>I've come around to the idea that OSMF should stay small,
but should do its the things in its limited responsibility and
governance view really really well. And OSMF should give space
for other organizations, which are interested in acting
strategically, to do things within the OSM community. That's
the crucial point of having a Local Chapters agreement, and
its why that's the only thing I'm going to possibly volunteer
my time on substantially within the OSMF in the foreseeable
future.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Finally, while Wikipedia will always be one our key
guideposts, both attractive and repulsive, we should take a
clear eyed view at what they do. They are hardly top down, and
the way the put together their last strategic plan was very
experimental and outrageously consultative. <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://strategy.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page"
style="font-size: 12pt;">http://strategy.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page</a></div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>-Mikel</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>* Mikel Maron * +14152835207 @mikel s:mikelmaron</div>
<div><br>
<blockquote style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(16, 16, 255);
margin-left: 5px; margin-top: 5px; padding-left: 5px;">
<div style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york',
times, serif; font-size: 12pt;">
<div style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york',
times, serif; font-size: 12pt;">
<div dir="ltr">
<hr size="1"> <font face="Arial" size="2"> <b><span
style="font-weight:bold;">From:</span></b> Serge
Wroclawski <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:emacsen@gmail.com"><emacsen@gmail.com></a><br>
<b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b>
alyssa wright <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:alyssapwright@gmail.com"><alyssapwright@gmail.com></a> <br>
<b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Cc:</span></b>
Kate Chapman <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:k8chapman@gmail.com"><k8chapman@gmail.com></a>;
diversity-talk
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:diversity-talk@openstreetmap.org"><diversity-talk@openstreetmap.org></a> <br>
<b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sent:</span></b>
Tuesday, September 10, 2013 3:38 PM<br>
<b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Subject:</span></b>
Re: [diversity-talk] wikipedia parallels<br>
</font> </div>
<div class="y_msg_container"><br>
The difference between the Wikimedia Foundation and
OSM is quite large.<br>
<br>
Wikipedia is a large organization, with millions of
dollars and paid<br>
employees. It sets the direction it goes in from the
top down, via<br>
funding.<br>
<br>
OSMF has decided to stay small over the years. It has
made that<br>
position clear through years of not voting for
candidates which have<br>
talked about the issue of money or paid employees,
until this year.<br>
Such candidates include Kate, and myself. Both of who
have run for the<br>
OSMF, and both of which have lost in the past, on this
platform.<br>
<br>
Despite Kate getting into the OSMF (and maybe being
able to change<br>
this), it would be a major sea change for the OSMF to
radically change<br>
positions regarding something as fundamental as paid
employees, and<br>
probably would require a new amendment to the Articles
of Association-<br>
which as you saw this year, is not easy to get
through.<br>
<br>
The problem with the Strategic Working Group, and the
now, "Future<br>
Working Group" is that they tend to be proscriptive.
"We should be",<br>
which is actually "You should be"- and no one likes to
be told what to<br>
do with their spare time.<br>
<br>
Instead, when possible, the energy one might otherwise
expend trying<br>
to change everyone's opinion about how they should
spend their free<br>
time would be better spent doing the work that needs
doing, and then<br>
getting people to agree to it afterwards.<br>
<br>
I didn't always hold this view- I still don't think
it's optimal for<br>
all things, but after years of tilting at windmills,
I've learned to<br>
become more practical in expectations of how the OSMF
operates.<br>
<br>
<br>
- Serge<br>
<br>
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