[Osmf-talk] Affirmative Action and Board Elections

[Frederik Ramm]

Hi,

   a couple people have suggested that there should be some kind of
quota, reserving a certain number of board seats for defined groups of
people who we feel are under-represented. Most people think of women in
this respect because women are one of the largest under-represented groups.

I've already said that I don't think that the OSMF board is really the
place to effect change. Not even symbolic change; feminists often
rightly say that a couple good role models do a lot for motivation, but
what we need IMHO is female *mapper* role models, not female *board
member* role models.

I think that setting up any kinds of rules about who can occupy board
positions is silly, and un-democratic. I used to be, for many years, a
campaigner for "no (geo)commercial interests on the OSMF board", and if
given half the chance I would have enshrined a rule that would have
disallowed anyone employed by Cloudmade, Microsoft, Telenav, Mapbox,
Geofabrik, Mapquest or any other commercial organisation from being a
board member. I floated that idea with a large number of people and
almost everyone said: You know, as long as the affiliations are out in
the open, you must respect the will of the voters - if they know that
someone works for X and they vote that person in, then that's that. I
had to accept that I was perhaps over-zealous, and in the end took a
seat on the board myself even though I, too, have a commercial background.

Same with "affirmative action" when it comes to a democratically elected
body - I don't think there's room for it.

Having said that, I would absolutely love to be able to give my vote to
a couple of female contenders for a seat the OSMF board. I personally
know a couple of women who care for OSM, who have been long time
community members and bona fide mappers, and I've tried to convince them
to stand in the past, with no luck. It seems that most people who are
interested in mapping and doing cool stuff with OSM are not interested
in "politics".

I know that men can be pro-diversity or even feminists too, but frankly,
I'd much rather have women advancing their cause than men trying to beat
them at it. Advancing your own cause is, in my eyes, quite a central
element to OSM.

So if you're a woman, and you can imagine serving a couple years on the
OSMF board, please do step forward. I don't think there should be a seat
reserved for you because of your gender, but I'm pretty sure that voters
will actually prefer a diverse board to one that just preaches diversity.

Bye
Frederik

-- 
Frederik Ramm  ##  eMail frederik at remote.org  ##  N49°00'09" E008°23'33"