[Osmf-talk] February OSMF Board Meeting

[Frederik Ramm]

Gerv,

Gervase Markham wrote:
> Sometimes incrementalism can only get you so far. Occasionally you have
> to sit down and redesign something, trying to take everything into
> account at once.

Nothing against that, but I have a lot of trust in the community; I 
believe that when the time is ripe to do it, they will, without 
requiring someone to set up a working group for them. I mean, members of 
the community have been sitting down and redesigning Potlatch without 
OSMF nudging them, have they not?

>> I also fear that whatever the outcome of such a "working group", people
>> would tend to respect that too much, leading to stagnation: "Can we
>> change this on the front page?" - "Sorry pal, you've got to raise this
>> matter with the working group, they spent 5 days discussing about how
>> big the donation box should be and we cannot simply change it now...".
> 
> You mock, but what's wrong with thinking hard about a design, executing
> it and then sticking to it in the face of lots of calls to "just add my
> thing here"? A lot of good UI design is saying "no".

Well it's not as if we accepted anything for the front page in the past. 
I remember someone suggesting to add CloudMade routing and it was not 
done; I remember someone suggesting to add a lat/lon display and it was 
not done...

I am just fearful of the consequences. There is no doubt that we need to 
have flexibility - we need to be able no make changes if and when the 
community wants them. It would however be superhuman for any designer. 
let a lone a working group, to anticipate future needs; it would be a 
lot of work already to design something that works today. I fear that 
we'd lose all flexibility in the process (just like big corporate web 
sites where anything you want to change has to go through the PR 
department meaning at least a 2 week delay if not more). Compare this 
with how we deal with our map: Find a problem, fix it; miss some data, 
add it - no review, no delay.

I have a bad feeling about it that's all. But then maybe any project 
accrues more committees, more working groups, more hierarchy, and more 
barriers for contributors as it gets older. Everyone has to grow up - 
and everyone has to die. Another, younger project will take over.

Bye
Frederik