[Osmf-talk] Candidates: How will you know ... ?

Kate Chapman kate at maploser.com
Tue Aug 28 09:12:12 UTC 2012


I am in agreement with Henk. I don't think the board stands to just
serve the community of mappers. The board should server the
OpenStreetMap project and community, though I don't think the mappers
are the only group. Unless I'm using the term mapper way too narrowly.
For example there are people that have contributed great amounts of
code to OSM or done amazing things in terms outreach to get other
people mapping. Go actually look at their edits? They almost never add
any information. I don't think that makes them less important however.

The OpenStreetMap needs to be an ecosystem of those collecting data,
those creating tools, those performing outreach/creating instructional
materials, and those consuming that data. I don't think a person needs
to be involved in all aspects. Without this ecosystem it is difficult
to have a healthy project.

I think there is a large part of the community that often goes
unheard. There are people that don't read hours of mailing lists, or
don't speak any of the main languages of discussion in OSM, or have
other barriers. I think we need to look for ways to understand the
needs of those groups as well.

It is easy for an individual to get stuck in their own
micro-communities in OpenStreetMap, be they divided by region or
technical interest. Maybe some of the groups we don't hear from don't
care, they are happy how things are being run. We need to look towards
better ways of asking them though.

-Kate



On Tue, Aug 28, 2012 at 3:57 AM, Henk Hoff <toffehoff at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> To start of with the last question. Bluntly: nobody knows.
>
> There is an assumption in this question that "the community" is a
> homogeneous group that has a very clear view of what it wants. That is not
> the reality. With every decision that has been made there are people within
> the community who are very much in agreement and people who strongly
> disagree.
>
> Back to the prologue. "Presume board to server the mappers community". To my
> opinion that is not what the Foundation (and the Board's) primary goal is.
> The Foundation exists to serve the OpenStreetMap project. In order for the
> project to be successful, it needs a healthy mappers community and a healthy
> map-user community. The one cannot go without the other.
>
> The mapper community can do a lot of things completely by themselves. They
> don't need the Foundation for lot's of things. They can decide what needs
> mapping; they can decide who it's going to be mapped; they can decide
> whether to use imports or not; etc etc.
>
> What I have done, and what I'm intended to keep on doing when re-elected, is
> going to OSM meet-ups. Like: hack weekends (e.g. I've been the the Toronto
> hack weekend), OSM-meetups (I've been at several Mappersborrels in the
> Netherlands, birthday party in London, some Stammtisch meetings in Germany,
> etc), I've organized Q&A sessions at several Wherecamp meetups. Etc etc.
> This all to meet the OSM "community" in person and try to get a feeling on
> what's needed. These are ideal place to meet OSM-ers. Not only the
> OSM-veterans, but also people who are interested in OSM, but are hesitant to
> join.
>
>
> Cheers,
> Henk Hoff
>
>
>
> On Mon, Aug 27, 2012 at 10:14 PM, Richard Weait <richard at weait.com> wrote:
>>
>> Dear Candidates,
>>
>> Presume that the board exists to serve the OpenStreetMap community of
>> mappers.  If (re)elected, how will you know what the interests of that
>> community are?  How will you know that you are representing the
>> interests of that community in a way that that approve?
>>
>
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