[Osmf-talk] [OSM-talk] OSMF organizational change: Management Team

[Gervase Markham]

On 15/08/11 08:17, ce-test, qualified testing bv - Gert Gremmen wrote:
> @Gervase I did not ask if other  non-profit made the same mistake or not (sheep are all-over),
> but to *prove* that this works for a flat crowd based  organization the OSM is(was).
> Or actually, I did not ask, but tell you it *will not*.

Mozilla is a large, successful community project, and it has various
layers of management at the top. Clearly, it's not the same as OSM due
to the employment of paid staff and the income stream, but neither of
those are factors in deciding which _structure_ is good (except,
perhaps, that if you don't have paid staff you have to use volunteer
time very carefully, and make sure everyone is freed up to do what they
are good at).

> Apparently the same mistake as everywhere (administrations / big companies) has
> hit the board: lack of time, so a intermediate layer is being installed.

What is your proposed solution to the problem of lack of time for the
Board members?

> Let me tell you again, OSM is a crowd based organization. The CORE of it is
> used to make consensus like decisions after extensive discussions on fora and
> mailing lists.  This is what motivates  the real OSM-er, having something to create that 
> has been decided upon themselves.
> This is were strategy must be done, and not somewhere in London
> by a team calling themselves "THE BOARD" telling the rest of the OSM there *IS*
> a difference between *us* and *them*.

That's not what the board does now, and I don't expect that to change.

Gerv