[Osmf-talk] AoA Discussion

[Jonathan Bennett]

On 18/07/2011 22:21, Chris Fleming wrote:

> Does anyone think that corporate members should get a vote?

No, I don't. It achieves very little while still having the potential to
cause controversy.

It achieves little because a single vote doesn't give the organisation
much power, so if they want to have influence in OSMF, legitimate or
otherwise, they'll still end up signing up employees as members.

Having corporate members able to vote, even if their influence is
limited, could be portrayed as OSMF being run by commercial interests,
and some people would believe it.

I'm happy for individuals working at companies with a commercial
interest in OSM being involved in and even running OSMF. The AoA should
ensure that they can do that while protecting the Foundation from
conflicts of interest.

By all means allow companies to become sponsors or supporters and get
some kudos from it, but there's little to be gained by calling the
arrangement "membership" of any kind.


-- 
Jonathan (Jonobennett)