[Osmf-talk] AoA Discussion

[James Livingston]

On 18/07/2011, at 10:28 PM, Frederik Ramm wrote:
> I think it is ok if the commercial world has an influence on OSM but I wouldn't want this as part of OSMF. Commercial entities can never be part of our community because they are not human beings; I would much prefer the commercial players to found their own thing - say, the "OSM business alliance" or whatever - and then the OSMF board could every now and again invite a speaker for the business alliance to their meetings if they find it appropriate.

There are other projects with something similar, for example the GNOME project's "advisory board", which consists of the corporate sponsors of GNOME. 

I think something like what you suggest could be a good idea. Like a Working Group, that doesn't have any actual power, but could meet every now and then to discuss things affecting businesses that an involved with OSM, and bring issues to the OSMF boards attention if something came up. I guess they could potentially act as an un- or semi-official point of contact if another business was interested in OSM, and wanted to have some small discussions with others about how to get involved or how being a OSM-involved business actually works in practice.


One thing that I think is missing is an explanation of what the advantages of having organisations as voting members would actually be. Without that, how to structure their membership is hard to say, and I would imagine that sponsors and local chapters (as two type of organisations) would want different types of membership.


> 2 boardmembers are elected by local chapters

What are the advantages of having board members elected by local chapters over two more elected by the general membership? That would certainly need the relationship between OSMF and chapters sorted out first too (last I heard it was still ongoing).


> 2 board members are appointed by board (e.g. for specific knowledge)"


I think this needs some specific examples of what kind of people this would get used for. Also, should that be "are appointed" or "can be appointed"? If they are being appointed for specific knowledge then they may perhaps two may not be needed.

In addition,what are the terms of their appointment? Can they be removed at-will by the board, or do they have two year terms like the others.