[Osmf-talk] Use of osmfoundation.org email addresses and role of opengeodata.org

[Volker Schmidt]

+1

Volker Schmidt
Padova, Italy

On 18 January 2012 09:26, Frederik Ramm <frederik at remote.org> wrote:

> Hi,
>
>   yesterday, there was a post on opengeodata.org (not
> blog.osmfoundation.org) titled "Google IP Vandalizing OpenStreetMap" (
> http://opengeodata.org/**google-ip-vandalizing-**openstreetmap<http://opengeodata.org/google-ip-vandalizing-openstreetmap>),
> and signed by (quote)
>
> Mikel Maron, OSMF board member, mikel at osmfoundation.org
> Grant Slater, OSM Sysadmin, grant at osmfoundation.org
> Steve Coast, OSM Founder, chairman at osmfoundation.org
>
> (end quote).
>
> The post doesn't directly accuse Google of corporate malevolence but is
> written in a way that could easily be interpreted as such, drawing a
> parallel to another recently publicized instance of alleged Google
> misbehaviour. The post is, to put it mildly, not an example of good
> diplomacy skills.
>
> In the comments section, our own Tom Hughes writes that he considers this
> post "grossly irresponsible and wholly inappropriate", a sentiment to which
> I feel compelled to agree, and that "The board of OSMF are making mountains
> out of tiny pimples here."
>
> Immediately afterwards, he later writes: "I am told that this posting was
> in fact made in a personal capacity and as such any suggestion on my part
> that it represents an official position of the OSMF board is incorrect and
> should be disregarded."
>
> I am happy to hear that this posting was not endorsed by OSMF. This is a
> good thing. But if even someone as involved with OSM as Tom misunderstands
> that - then how many people on the outside will now think badly of OSMF
> because of a post like that? If you read the P.S. then you get an idea of
> the kind of feedback this must have generated.
>
> I would like to suggest that, if any of our board members want to publish
> their personal opinion in the future, they use their personal e-mail
> addresses and not their osmfoundation.org function aliases. On
> opengeodata.org, it is unusual to sign one's posts with name and e-mail
> at all, and *if* one chooses to sign with name and e-mail *then* uses one's
> @osmfoundation.org e-mail address, then any reader must assume that this
> is some kind of official OSMF statement.
>
> I think that, to avoid confusion, @osmfoundation.org e-mail addresses
> should only be used in OSMF business and not when signing private
> publications.
>
> Further, I would suggest that we immediately stop making any "official"
> postings to opengeodata.org, to make it absolutely clear to the public
> that opengeodata.org is a blog where anyone can publish their opinion of
> something without necessarily being endorsed by OSMF. For example, the blog
> recently carried posts like "We will go to Tokyo State of the Map 2012", or
> a call to participate in the OSMF fund raising drive; such posts create the
> impression that this was somehow an "official" news outlet rather than the
> private ramblings of a couple of geo geeks.
>
> To be clear: opengeodata.org never claimed to be in any way official; it
> is just the nature of the posts appearing there that may make it look like
> it was official in the eye of an outsider.
>
> Bye
> Frederik
>
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>



-- 

Volker SCHMIDT
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