[Osmf-talk] [OSM-talk] From osmf-talk: "Balancing the presence of the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT US Inc) in the OpenStreetMap Foundation"

[Jean-Guilhem Cailton]

Le 25/11/2015 13:10, Dave F. a écrit :
> How do you perceive these "dangers" will manifest themselves?
>
> Dave F.
>


Dear OpenStreetMap Community members,

Let me first apologize for writing about topics that usually do not need
to be considered by those who only care about improving this wonderful
common good that is OpenStreetMap. Unfortunately, it has become
necessary because there seems to be a potentially serious threat on what
OpenStreetMap is and will be.

Some might consider this issue to be more specifically appropriate for
the OSMF-talk list, as those with a right to vote on the current
election must be there. However, it is not of concern only to the
registered members of the OSM Foundation, as it might end up impacting
the whole of OSM. It also happens that I have stopped renewing my
membership to the OSMF after an election where a candidate was excluded
from the vote because his views on a controversial subject (related to
license change) were strongly different from those of the majority of
the previous Board. Note that Mr. Maron was already a member of this
outgoing Board, that had a conception of basic democracy different from
mine, according to which it should have been up to the voters not to
vote for a candidate if they didn't agree with his views. So, anyway, I
cannot write to that list.

A recent exchange with some mappers not familiar with what goes on in
HOT US Inc., as well as some of the emails I read on the osmf-talk web
archive, have made me aware that it could be useful to summarize how I
view it after being involved in many crisis activations since Haiti 2010
earthquake, before HOT US Inc. or the hot at openstreetmap.org mailing list
even existed. This might also be seen as another attempt to answer
Frederik's question on osmf-talk : “What should OSMF *not* learn from
HOT?” (Even though I see now that Rod has answered that quite well).

In short, it seems that HOT US Inc., besides its officially started
purpose, and certainly because it views these secondary purposes as
necessary to accomplish it, aims to collect money from donors willing to
support the « humanitarian » use of OSM, and exercise control over the
ways people contribute to these uses. Its reality in practice is thus in
direct opposition to the « support – not control - OSM » motto of the OSMF.


A lesson I remember from my high school philosophy teacher is that you
shouldn't judge a foreign culture based on your values, but on its own.
If I try to apply this guide to HOT US Inc., based on what I think I
know of some US values, that some might even be tempted to consider
universal, or at least broadly admired and shared, here is what I find :

- Democracy : Voting members of HOT US are selected through a strict
cooptation mechanism, with constraints sufficient to ensure that the
initial members keep their dominating influence. This can also be
observed in the result of the votes. Yet some leaders of HOT US
sometimes present themselves as legitimate representatives of the
broader community of OSM/HOT contributors, which is false by construction.

- Free speech : As you probably know, this is protected by the First
Amendment to the US Constitution. Yet in several current cases, it
appears that prominent and legally responsible members of HOT US Inc.
consider that some provisions of the « HOT Code of Conduct » should
prevail on this US constitutional right. You may also have noticed that
I've been submitted to a priori moderation on the hot at openstreetmap.org
mailing list, without notification, and without justification by at
least an example of an inappropriate email, when I became aware of it
and asked for a reason. So the most likely explanation is that Mr. Maron
(who had silently setup this moderation) must have been afraid that I
could ask questions about his conflicts of interest or the cronyism
around him, as I had done on an internal list before. As he is also
moderator of several of the most important OSM mailing lists, including
this “talk” list, this example of abusing of his moderator role to
protect his personal interest could be already in itself worrying to all
those in the OSM community who think that the possibility to exchange
views freely is necessary in a sound community, as now everyone would
have to worry about exposing oneself to such a measure before writing to
the lists.

- Rejection of public lies : Several communications of HOT US Inc., both
internal and external, are in contradiction with facts. They sometimes
combine with the next item, ...

- Prohibition of theft : … to take undeserved ownership and credit on
things done by others (and in particular numerous voluntary mappers
around the World – most of them in non-English speaking parts, or, for
examples on more specific points, what was done with humanitarian
drones, or some satellite imagery to support disaster mapping), and
present them as if they were HOT US's, to justify asking for undue
recognition or funding (including from the public).

- Duty to assist : This value should of course be particularly important
for a so-called « humanitarian » organization. Yet I have witnessed
several cases where other considerations – such as a narrow view of
pleasing potential donors maybe, took precedence over actions that would
have been in the general interest of the affected populations, that HOT
US Inc claims to help help.
The most deeply worrying recent development is the policy to put aside
very experienced activation coordinators, who have had a critical role
in large scale activations, such as for Haiyan, Ebola or Nepal
earthquake, and replace them with a self-nominated coordinator, without
any previous experience of real activation coordination, as has been the
case recently for the Afghanistan & Pakistan earthquake. We can thus
expect that for the next large scale disaster that will hit, the OSM/HOT
response will be far from what it could be, and thus less efficient in
helping saving lives. All that because some apparently consider that
their power to exercise control on activations should come as first
priority, above any other consideration.

It is also disturbing that some large « humanitarian » partner
organizations apparently choose to ignore these issues. Maybe they are
not sufficiently aware of the damage they cause to the real efficiency
of their contributions. Or maybe it is a symptom that this is not what
they really care about, in fact.

As others have written before, it has been very disturbing to try to
raise these issues with people in charge at HOT US Inc., who could
apparently at first be considered honest and of good faith, and be
confronted to a kind of deaf arrogance, always very certain of being right.

If I take a step back, and if you allow me an broad analogy on a
different scale, it reminds me of the march towards the 2003 Iraq
invasion, where knowledgeable experts, millions of people demonstrating
around the World, and in particular the leaders of my country, were
telling the US leaders that they were wrong, and that the « weapons of
mass destruction » pretext story was false. Yet they carried on, invaded
Iraq, disbanded its army; and in 2014 Daech took Mosul. And a couple of
weeks ago slaughtered 130 people in Paris.

I don't know exactly where OSM will be in a few years if HOT US Inc.,
through his number of candidates, and Mapbox too through Mr. Maron, are
allowed to extend their influence over the OSMF Board. If you remember
the multiple Mapbox pressures on the OSM license, the « share alike »
clause, necessary for OSM to resist in front of big businesses, might be
gone. Strange things could happen on the copyright front, as was evoked
in the osmf-talk thread. Or in the field of OSM based services. I don't
know. But based on what we have seen on the « humanitarian » side, even
though OSM had, and still has, such a broad and wonderful potential
there, many unthinkable and not very nice things could happen.

So, if you care about the future of OSM as a common good for the general
interest, and if you have the right to do so, please vote wisely.

Best wishes,

Jean-Guilhem
France
(where, particularly since the Charlie Hebdo attack, we are somewhat
reluctant to submit to pressures to restrict our freedom of expression).
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