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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Le 25/11/2015 13:10, Dave F. a écrit :<br>
</div>
<blockquote cite="mid:5655A54F.20201@madasafish.com" type="cite">How
do you perceive these "dangers" will manifest themselves?
<br>
<br>
Dave F.
<br>
<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
<br>
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Dear OpenStreetMap Community members,<br>
<br>
Let me first apologize for writing about topics that usually do not
need to be considered by those who only care about improving this
wonderful common good that is OpenStreetMap. Unfortunately, it has
become necessary because there seems to be a potentially serious
threat on what OpenStreetMap is and will be.<br>
<br>
Some might consider this issue to be more specifically appropriate
for the OSMF-talk list, as those with a right to vote on the current
election must be there. However, it is not of concern only to the
registered members of the OSM Foundation, as it might end up
impacting the whole of OSM. It also happens that I have stopped
renewing my membership to the OSMF after an election where a
candidate was excluded from the vote because his views on a
controversial subject (related to license change) were strongly
different from those of the majority of the previous Board. Note
that Mr. Maron was already a member of this outgoing Board, that had
a conception of basic democracy different from mine, according to
which it should have been up to the voters not to vote for a
candidate if they didn't agree with his views. So, anyway, I cannot
write to that list.<br>
<br>
A recent exchange with some mappers not familiar with what goes on
in HOT US Inc., as well as some of the emails I read on the
osmf-talk web archive, have made me aware that it could be useful to
summarize how I view it after being involved in many crisis
activations since Haiti 2010 earthquake, before HOT US Inc. or the
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:hot@openstreetmap.org">hot@openstreetmap.org</a> mailing list even existed. This might also be
seen as another attempt to answer Frederik's question on osmf-talk :
“What should OSMF *not* learn from HOT?” (Even though I see now that
Rod has answered that quite well).<br>
<br>
In short, it seems that HOT US Inc., besides its officially started
purpose, and certainly because it views these secondary purposes as
necessary to accomplish it, aims to collect money from donors
willing to support the « humanitarian » use of OSM, and exercise
control over the ways people contribute to these uses. Its reality
in practice is thus in direct opposition to the « support – not
control - OSM » motto of the OSMF.<br>
<br>
<br>
A lesson I remember from my high school philosophy teacher is that
you shouldn't judge a foreign culture based on your values, but on
its own. If I try to apply this guide to HOT US Inc., based on what
I think I know of some US values, that some might even be tempted to
consider universal, or at least broadly admired and shared, here is
what I find :<br>
<br>
- Democracy : Voting members of HOT US are selected through a strict
cooptation mechanism, with constraints sufficient to ensure that the
initial members keep their dominating influence. This can also be
observed in the result of the votes. Yet some leaders of HOT US
sometimes present themselves as legitimate representatives of the
broader community of OSM/HOT contributors, which is false by
construction.<br>
<br>
- Free speech : As you probably know, this is protected by the First
Amendment to the US Constitution. Yet in several current cases, it
appears that prominent and legally responsible members of HOT US
Inc. consider that some provisions of the « HOT Code of Conduct »
should prevail on this US constitutional right. You may also have
noticed that I've been submitted to a priori moderation on the
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:hot@openstreetmap.org">hot@openstreetmap.org</a> mailing list, without notification, and
without justification by at least an example of an inappropriate
email, when I became aware of it and asked for a reason. So the most
likely explanation is that Mr. Maron (who had silently setup this
moderation) must have been afraid that I could ask questions about
his conflicts of interest or the cronyism around him, as I had done
on an internal list before. As he is also moderator of several of
the most important OSM mailing lists, including this “talk” list,
this example of abusing of his moderator role to protect his
personal interest could be already in itself worrying to all those
in the OSM community who think that the possibility to exchange
views freely is necessary in a sound community, as now everyone
would have to worry about exposing oneself to such a measure before
writing to the lists.<br>
<br>
- Rejection of public lies : Several communications of HOT US Inc.,
both internal and external, are in contradiction with facts. They
sometimes combine with the next item, ...<br>
<br>
- Prohibition of theft : … to take undeserved ownership and credit
on things done by others (and in particular numerous voluntary
mappers around the World – most of them in non-English speaking
parts, or, for examples on more specific points, what was done with
humanitarian drones, or some satellite imagery to support disaster
mapping), and present them as if they were HOT US's, to justify
asking for undue recognition or funding (including from the public).<br>
<br>
- Duty to assist : This value should of course be particularly
important for a so-called « humanitarian » organization. Yet I have
witnessed several cases where other considerations – such as a
narrow view of pleasing potential donors maybe, took precedence over
actions that would have been in the general interest of the affected
populations, that HOT US Inc claims to help help.<br>
The most deeply worrying recent development is the policy to put
aside very experienced activation coordinators, who have had a
critical role in large scale activations, such as for Haiyan, Ebola
or Nepal earthquake, and replace them with a self-nominated
coordinator, without any previous experience of real activation
coordination, as has been the case recently for the Afghanistan
& Pakistan earthquake. We can thus expect that for the next
large scale disaster that will hit, the OSM/HOT response will be far
from what it could be, and thus less efficient in helping saving
lives. All that because some apparently consider that their power to
exercise control on activations should come as first priority, above
any other consideration.<br>
<br>
It is also disturbing that some large « humanitarian » partner
organizations apparently choose to ignore these issues. Maybe they
are not sufficiently aware of the damage they cause to the real
efficiency of their contributions. Or maybe it is a symptom that
this is not what they really care about, in fact.<br>
<br>
As others have written before, it has been very disturbing to try to
raise these issues with people in charge at HOT US Inc., who could
apparently at first be considered honest and of good faith, and be
confronted to a kind of deaf arrogance, always very certain of being
right.<br>
<br>
If I take a step back, and if you allow me an broad analogy on a
different scale, it reminds me of the march towards the 2003 Iraq
invasion, where knowledgeable experts, millions of people
demonstrating around the World, and in particular the leaders of my
country, were telling the US leaders that they were wrong, and that
the « weapons of mass destruction » pretext story was false. Yet
they carried on, invaded Iraq, disbanded its army; and in 2014 Daech
took Mosul. And a couple of weeks ago slaughtered 130 people in
Paris.<br>
<br>
I don't know exactly where OSM will be in a few years if HOT US
Inc., through his number of candidates, and Mapbox too through Mr.
Maron, are allowed to extend their influence over the OSMF Board. If
you remember the multiple Mapbox pressures on the OSM license, the
« share alike » clause, necessary for OSM to resist in front of big
businesses, might be gone. Strange things could happen on the
copyright front, as was evoked in the osmf-talk thread. Or in the
field of OSM based services. I don't know. But based on what we have
seen on the « humanitarian » side, even though OSM had, and still
has, such a broad and wonderful potential there, many unthinkable
and not very nice things could happen.<br>
<br>
So, if you care about the future of OSM as a common good for the
general interest, and if you have the right to do so, please vote
wisely.<br>
<br>
Best wishes,<br>
<br>
Jean-Guilhem<br>
France<br>
(where, particularly since the Charlie Hebdo attack, we are somewhat
reluctant to submit to pressures to restrict our freedom of
expression).
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