[OSM-dev] Restarting the EWG

[Jochen Topf]

On Thu, Nov 19, 2020 at 08:41:15PM +0100, Christoph Hormann wrote:
> > Paul Norman via dev <dev at openstreetmap.org> hat am 19.11.2020 17:09 geschrieben:
> > 
> > - managing development to be paid by the OSMF by contracts and grants, and
> 
> For better understanding of how the board envisions this to work, could you explain:
> 
> * why i as a pure hobby OSM contributor with experience in the field of development should volunteer my time to manage the paid development work of others on my own unpaid time.
> * how i as someone with a business or professional career interest in the OSM context would be able to contribute to this work without universally having a massive conflict of interest with every decision of substance that is being made.
> 
> Please note although these might sound like rhetorical questions they are not, i am honestly interested in how the board envisions this to work.

Why does someone want to join the EWG? Maybe because they don't want to sit at
the sidelines but contribute to OSM, take responsibility and shape the future
of OSM with their ideas and their values? I think it is totally awesome that
the barrier of entry to contribute to such a working group is basically that
you have to have an email address and nothing else. No "You have to be this
tall to ride the rollercoaster". And you get to steer the rollercoaster, too.
At least a little bit. Of course sysadmin experience would be great, but it is
absolutely not required. And of course there is a lot of work involved if you
actually want to make a difference and a lot of talking to people and
compromising. But how many places are there in the world where it is so easy to
start making a difference? I am the first to tell you that this kind of work
can be really frustrating at times, but it is also enormously rewarding to work
with others and see that your ideas can make the world a tiny bit better.

Full disclosure: I am currently paid by the OSMF for software development (the
EWG was not involved in that at the moment, but might be in the future) and I
have been paid by others, too. I am not going to join the EWG. That conflict of
interest would be too large. But that doesn't mean I can't contribute my spare
time somewhere else. I am on the board of directors of the FOSSGIS e.V., the
local chapter of OSMF in Germany. FOSSGIS is employing somebody for
organizational work, I am basically their boss. This gives me a bit more
opportunities to see my ideas and values brought into action. Although far less
than you might expect. We are not hiring minions, but people who think and act
on their ideas, their values, and their interests. And that's a good thing.
What brings OSM (and, really, anything else) forward is the shared work of
people with diverse interests and backgrounds.

Of course there are more (potential) conflicts of interest there. Theoretically
I have through FOSSGIS and OSMF some influence on EWG policy who might be my
boss in the future. And I have some influence because I know people in EWG. And
because I write this email. Why should that be a problem? I basically started
having conflicts of interest the moment I entertained the idea of making my OSM
hobby into a profession. I have done that more than 10 years ago. And I think
about that basically every day. With every project I start (or not start), with
every software I write (or write differently), with every email I write. Like
this one. That's just part of my life. And anybody's life really. We all have
to find a way to make our hobby life and professional life work together and
work together in this project. Yes, it can be very complicated sometimes, but
very often it isn't. You do your best, disclose potential conflicts of
interest, keep away from something if needed. And move on.

And just to explode everybody's mind who wants to think about the layers and
meta-layers of conflicts of interest I write about in this mail I write this
next sentence: I am available for contract work, software development or
general OSM consulting.

Jochen
-- 
Jochen Topf  jochen at remote.org  https://www.jochentopf.com/  +49-351-31778688