<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:small">This is boring and sensible and not what we have come to expect from candidates this time.<br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:small"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:small">There is so much money riding on OSM these days that I wonder if we should have some sort of remuneration for board members or at least some paid staff. It might attract a wider variety and make us a little more independent of commercial interests but this would be a very big change for the board and membership to consider. It would also need to be thought about. I understand in the US nonprofits may not pay their directors but certainly in Canada Cooperatives at least can and do.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:small"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:small">Cheerio John<br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:small"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:small"><br></div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On 25 November 2017 at 00:37, Paul Norman <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:penorman@mac.com" target="_blank">penorman@mac.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<p>I've announced my standing for board previously, after feedback
from a few people. I've now posted my manifesto, at
<a class="m_17521487816064480moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.openstreetmap.org/user/pnorman/diary/42816" target="_blank">http://www.openstreetmap.org/<wbr>user/pnorman/diary/42816</a>.</p>
<p>I'm Paul Norman, OSM user pnorman. I've been mapping since 2010,
and involved in other facets of OpenStreetMap since 2011. For the
last three years, I’ve been on the OSMF board, and am running for
re-election. During my time I’ve seen the board grow in
productivity, the finances become more stable, and us make good
strides in transparency.<br>
<br>
Outside the board, I’m also involved with the OSMF on the Data
Working Group, License Working Group, and Membership Working
Group. As a software developer, I’m a maintainer of OpenStreetMap
Carto and osm2pgsql, as well as being involved in many parts of
rendering toolchain.<br>
<br>
In my work life I’m an independent software developer, working on
map rendering, cartography, and PostGIS for clients. My main
contract right now is with Wikimedia Foundation, as the developer
on their maps team. In the past I’ve worked for CartoDB, Mapquest,
and other companies.<br>
<br>
Looking back at what I put in my 2014 manifesto, I’m moderately
pleased with the progress we’ve made in both transparency and
productive board meetings. Neither are perfect, but they’re a vast
improvement over three years. Overall, I’m satisfied with my time
on the board. I accomplished some of what I wanted to, and think
my manifesto desires were realistic.<br>
<br>
My concerns are now<br>
<br>
<b>Conflicts of interest</b><br>
<br>
6/7 board members work with OSM somehow in their jobs. This
includes four with employers who sell services based on OSM data
and can easily run into conflicts of interest. We are not managing
this, which might have worked in the past, but is not a good
practice. There’s stuff we need to set up like having an email
discussion out of sight of the people with conflicts. Right now
it’s considered acceptable for a board member to take part in
discussions where they have a conflict of interest. Clear rules
would also protect board members from pressure from their
employer.<br>
<br>
On a working group whenever there’s occasionally been an
intersection between my work and the WG. In these cases I’ve
removed myself from the discussion. This is what we should all be
doing on the board.<br>
<br>
Unfortunately, as someone who is paid to work with OSM data, I run
into conflicts of interest myself, but in practice, I have less
than most with the nature of who I work for.<br>
<br>
<b>Support, but not control</b><br>
<br>
The job of the OSMF board is to support the mappers building the
map, but not control them. I worry we are losing sight of that,
and people increasingly want to exert control and consider the
mappers secondary. We need to protect the ability for people to
independently do activities, even if it’s not something the board
agrees with.<br>
<br>
<b>Volunteer capacity</b><br>
<br>
A lack of volunteers was an issue when I ran three years ago. It’s
a bit better, but still one of the biggest issues facing the OSMF.
Working groups need more people. A growing number of members have
been attending board meetings, but I’d like to see multiple ones
at every meeting. We need good people on the board, but we also
need an active membership who are interested in what we do, watch
us, what we do, track that we deliver, and offer appreciation in
return.<span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><br>
</font></span></p><span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888">
<p>Paul Norman<br>
</p>
</font></span></div>
<br>______________________________<wbr>_________________<br>
osmf-talk mailing list<br>
<a href="mailto:osmf-talk@openstreetmap.org">osmf-talk@openstreetmap.org</a><br>
<a href="https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/osmf-talk" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://lists.openstreetmap.<wbr>org/listinfo/osmf-talk</a><br>
<br></blockquote></div><br></div>