<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
</head>
<body>
<p>Dear all,</p>
<p>It has become painfully clear, repeatedly, that these kind of
issues cannot be resolved with the current definitions, procedures
and guidelines in OSM. <br>
When I refer to issues I mean:<br>
1. disputes, editing wars including related mailing list, forum
and other channels like social media;<br>
2. similar disputes and different interpretations in the use of
any of the name tags and/or boundaries in OSM, not specifically
Persian/Arabian Gulf.<br>
</p>
<p>We need to resolve this, improve our guidelines and procedures,
so we can proceed with a diverse and inclusive community, a space
where all political, cultural and religious views are respected
and expressed in an open and neutral way.<br>
To achieve this we need to improve our wiki, our guidelines and
consensus procedures, so when they appear the working groups and
committees like the DWG and the LCCWG Moderation Subcommittee can
take arbitrary actions which comply and are supported by our
community.</p>
<p>Both names and boundaries have had my interest since I joined
OSM. I was faced with numerous local disputes and recently got
involved in the search for authoritative and reliable resources to
offer the community. For the application of the boundaries as
defined by the International Law of the Sea this has been found
and we have reached a state where a waiver and cooperation
agreement can soon be finalised. It is a resource which accurately
reflects all bilateral treaties, international law and official UN
positions. It is often used by the UN and other renowned and
neutral organisations for geo related data and visualisations.<br>
</p>
<p>I believe as a community we should support and accept these
resources. Resolve, find consensus based on the same primary
reference, the UN, and when it comes to marine areas the IHO.<br>
I will prepare a proposal in the coming week trying to address
this and present it on the tagging talk list for comments,
improvement and voting. The initial proposal will include:<br>
1. the basic use and guidelines for the name and boundary tags
will not be changed in case there are no disputes;<br>
2. in case of any disputes, in the first place, official and
public treaties, regulations from the UN and/or the IHO and
international court decisions will be decisive, in the second
place bilateral treaties between the involved parties, to
determine the position of us, the OSM community. No matter how old
they are. <br>
3. If, still, after 1. and 2. no consensus can be determined, the
issue will be formulated in a public document or mail on which the
whole community will be requested to vote. The voting procedure
for this will be anonimous, non-biased and give equal voting
rights to countries and indegionious people or international
minorities. This will be tricky but I have gathered some guidance
about it on which the community can comment and make adjustments
in the proposal process.<br>
4. Any corrective actions or sanctions will only be taken by the
DWG or the LCCWG Moderation Subcommittee, based on a non-biased
outcome of 1, 2 or 3.</p>
<p>The timeline I propose is as follows:<br>
1. I regard this mail as a call for action to the whole community.
If you support the approach as expressed feel free to express it,
but strictly abstain from any biased comments, conclusions or
discussions. I will start a new thread for this purpose to clearly
express it as a general issue, not specifically for this
particular case.<br>
2. We give it a week to express your support for this approach on
this mailing list.<br>
3. If there are no significant and founded objections, a proposal
will be launched for RFC in the second week. The RFC and
adjustments will take max. 1 month.<br>
4. After voting, when it is approved, the wiki will be updated. In
case of a negative vote outcome the proposal will go again to the
RFC state, we don't abandon it until we reach a stayus which gets
support.<br>
5. The current relation will be reverted to the status when it was
first initiated, based on a new draft from the IHO (changeset <a
href="https://www.openstreetmap.org/changeset/67203950">https://www.openstreetmap.org/changeset/67203950</a>).
All name tags are frozen and will be reverted without discussion
by the DWG.<br>
6. After a positive outcome of 4. the new guidelines will be
implemented.<br>
7. A public apology is required to the communities of Arabian and
Persian origin regarding the accusations of one or the other being
terrorists. Those who used these terms know who are addressed. Any
opinions or accusations with these words are highly unwanted by
our community and against our etiquette. Any failure to do so
might lead to the request from the community to the DWG and the
LCCWG Moderation Subcommittee to block the related OSM accounts,
actions to remove the concerned mails from all communication
channels and the email addresses banned from the mailing lists.<br>
</p>
<p>With kind regards and respect to the whole OSM community,</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p>Bert Araali</p>
<blockquote type="cite" cite="mid:87tulwco5n.fsf@tfwno.gf">
</blockquote>
</body>
</html>