[HOT] Pakistan Anti-Mapping Legislation: Implications for HOT/OSM

[Joseph Reeves]

Hi Alex, all,

I've gone through your proposed blog post a few times now, it's raised a
few questions / thoughts. Some are about the issue at hand whilst others
relate more to HOT's decision making process. Many of these overlap and I'm
not expecting a detailed reply to the whole thing, but just off the top of
my head:

This post would fit into the "thought leadership" (that's a phrase I picked
up during previous blog conversations) category of blogging that we
arguably could do more of on the HOT blog and which is potentially a very
powerful output, but..

What is HOT's role in this? Obviously we can act as experts in the field,
but should we be doing so? The complete quote from
globalintegrity.orgreads "the
proposed legislation is anachronistic and ill-advised, and those with
influence need to communicate those concerns. That starts with the US
government and international relief organizations operating in Pakistan,
which for all of the complicated equities at stake need to appreciate the
severity of the proposed move and the signals it sends." We, of course, are
not operating in Pakistan, although there was a remote effort during the
2007 floods [0].

Who is the intended audience of the blog post?

Is this post intended as an FYI, or is it an official HOT statement? If
so..

Can we be a bit more constructive with the blog? That probably sounds more
harsh than I mean it to be; I'm wondering, however, if there's a way of
fleshing out the blog post with either our proposals or a set of
hypothetical workarounds. The Indonesia example, for example, is
potentially useful to introduce.

Who is responsible for these HOT communications?

Best, Joseph


[0] http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/2010_07_Pakistan_Floods


On 28 November 2012 22:00, Alex Barth <alex at mapbox.com> wrote:

>
> Ok, I have created a quick blog post here that could go up on HOT. Kate,
> Harry, Faisal and others: could this work? Obviously I don't have
> publishing permissions on hot.osm.org so someone else would have to take
> this and run the last mile with it. Please feel free to change as you see
> fit. My intention was to highlight that this could have a real impact on
> citizen mapping, HOT and OpenStreetMap and that this impact is starting to
> show now.
>
> https://gist.github.com/f657476887f3c84a32b1
>
> PS: is anybody from HOT talking to OCHA or GFDRR?
>
> On Nov 28, 2012, at 2:40 PM, Faisal Chohan <faisal at cogilent.com> wrote:
>
> > I agree with the Alex suggestions. I Iike the idea to write about
> enefits of Openstreetmap data in disaster, transparency, business use,
> social issues ( that we are trying to do with sanitation in Rawalpindi),
> fighting corruption etc and then publish this in International and local
> media. We can also take good examples from other countries. I am happy to
> be part of this.
> >
> > We tried to enhance and use Openstreetmap for the first time in
> Pakistan, resisting the use of Google maps that are in much better shape in
> Pakistan than Openstreetmap, but do not provide any Open Data. Google may
> comply with Government of Pakistan laws and then can continue improving its
> maps. But for Opnstreetmap, every individual and group  registering with
>  GOP will not be possible. Hence, improving and use of the the
> openstreetmap will be very limited after this law and will discourage
> innovation in this domain.
> >
> > On the case of starting the Rawalpindi mapping, I had one personal bad
> experience turned into tragedy in the past and that is one of the personal
> reasons to be careful. But once i have my emotions in control, I am of the
> point of view to accelerate the project instead of stopping it.
>
> Alex Barth
> http://twitter.com/lxbarth
> tel (+1) 202 250 3633
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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> HOT at openstreetmap.org
> http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/hot
>
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