[Osmf-talk] Membership applications from Skobbler employees

[Frederik Ramm]

Hi,

Martijn van Exel wrote:
> In other words, what would you have done if they would all have used 
> their private email addresses and omitted their affiliation when they 
> signed up?

I don't really have an opinion about the current case. I believe the 
current situation is that the board is within their rights to deny (or 
delay) membership to applicants and they don't have to give a reason.

But of course if this right were exercised then we'll have tons of 
people claiming that OSMF will only accept membership of those who are 
in favour of the current board so it is a delicate matter.

Also, we know nothing about the internal process at Skobbler that led to 
this so I cannot judge the current situation.

In the future - maybe as part of the AoA reform - I would like to see 
the following rules:

* Only natural persons can become members.
* They must register and pay the membership fee for themselves (i.e. it 
is not ok for a company to "sponsor" their employees).
* They must affirm that they act only for themselves and not for a 
corporate entity.

It is clear to me that rules 2 and 3 cannot really be enforced but at 
least they express the vision of OSMF being governed by individuals, and 
would make it very clear that if companies want to support OSMF they 
should choose other means than signing up their members.

If, under rules like these, 30 Skobbler employees were to sign up at the 
same time, we would take their word for keeping to these rules, and 
accept them without fuss.

Bye
Frederik

-- 
Frederik Ramm  ##  eMail frederik at remote.org  ##  N49°00'09" E008°23'33"