[HOT] Imagery Petition

[Harry Wood]

>
> This is hard to believe that a campaign would have been mounted against you,
>

Yes that is rather hard to believe isn't it? So ermm...  maybe you shouldn't believe it?


JGC sent a message yesterday which contained set of unfounded paranoid accusations of conspiracy and "campaigns of misinformation". The message also took quite a personal tone directing accusations at Mikel. This is not in the spirit of lively polite debate which we encourage on this mailing list, and was in breach of mailing list etiquette: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Etiquette

As a mailing list moderator, I sent an email about this to him (in accordance with moderation guidelines in the above link) and also discussed the matter with him on IRC. I did assume that he must be angry to make such accusations, but apparently such foibles are beneath him. In any case I can't see how accusations like this will ever lead to a productive mailing list discussion here.

So Om G, I would encourage you not to repeat them, however... 

...I will also say thank you for the remainder of your email (below) in which you seem to be presenting a more coherent counter-argument about the benefits of applying political pressure to call for faster imagery release. Can we pick up the (polite!) discussion from there please?

Harry Wood




> Many in the field have 'pet projects' or initiatives that they are attached to, and will have used a great deal of personal energy to carry them forward. This creates hardened opinions. There is also incredulity about whether a 'thing' will work because it has been "tried before" and may have not achieved the desired result. However, every industry has a lag-time between when an idea is germinated and when it takes hold, no matter how much effort is behind it. Knowing this, means we persist regardless of how many conversations have occurred previously - and they should continue until the goal of high quality imagery for humanitarian needs is realized.
> 
> Generals and Presidents consistently make decisions accepting that others will suffer, but that paradigm is dead now. Humanity has the capability to reach out and self coordinate from person to person and there is no excuse for publicly funded satellite platforms not to provide the best possible products to those who need them, anywhere in the world. A good amount of our volunteer effort would be deleted with the introduction of a few classified change recognition tools and we could move on to other tasks.
> 
> In the US, we have the capacity as citizens to reform the intelligence structure to allow this. Most other Democratic countries have the same situation. Yet nothing happens. This gap, the lack of help in the face of need, is traumatizing for all involved. OSM represents the power of collected individuals just as online petitions do. Anyone who doubts this should look around petition.org to see who has been affected by such a simple seeming mechanism.
> 
> I also believe that the greater human need should take precedence over all else and I'm proud of your work.
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> Om