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

[Andy Allan]

On 18 January 2012 08:37, Steve Coast <steve at asklater.com> wrote:

>> I think that, to avoid confusion, @osmfoundation.org e-mail addresses should only be used in OSMF business and not when signing private publications.
>
> You need to establish if it was in fact private for a start. Just because Tom went on a rant doesn't mean I, Mikel or Grant don't stand behind a post.

It's not a question of whether you "stand behind" a post or not, it's
a question of misrepresentation of OSMF.

If you three were acting on behalf of OSMF, then I find your behaviour
slightly surprising. As Tom was informed this is not a statement
approved by the Foundation Board, nor the Management Committee, nor
was it published by the Communications Working Group. Given that it
wasn't approved by any of those three bodies, I don't see how it could
be considered an official OSMF statement, and as an official statement
it would be strange for it not to be on osmfoundation.org.

But if it's not an official OSMF statement, I find your behaviour even
more strange. Acting as "members of the community", you took private
information - IP addresses, server logs - that is not publicly
available, and published them without any authorisation from the OSMF
on a privately-run blog. Moreover, while acting completely outwith the
remit of the OSMF, the three of you signed this personal blog post
with your osmfoundation email addresses.

So which was it - an official OSMF statement, or three people posting
a blog post?

There are clearly lessons to be learned from this, so first some
clarity on this key point is required.

Thanks,
Andy