[Osmf-talk] Balancing the presence of the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT US Inc) in the OpenStreetMap Foundation

Fri Dec 4 12:19:01 UTC 2015

Hi all,

At the request of Stephane Henriod, I am forwarding a contribution to this
email which was first posted on the HOT US Inc memberships list since
Stephane was not on the other mailings lists (osmf and talk) where this
dicussion has been unfolding those past 10 days.
Stephane is currently working in Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan), like most of us he
is caught by heavy work deadlines and had no time to subscribe and email
directly. He therefore contacted me to make his view known by OSMF members
and mappers on osmf and talk lists in the context of this current OSMF
Board election.

Here goes Stéphane's email below.

Best,
Nicolas

On Thu, Dec 3, 2015 at 4:51 AM, Stéphane Henriod <s at henriod.info> wrote:

    Dear all

    I believe we have disgressed quite a lot during these email exchanges.

    My understanding is that the main initial topic concerned the risk oh
having "too much" of HOT (or HOT-US inc) at the board of OSMF. I do agree
with this statement and would like to quickly explain why. But first, let
me say what this statement doesn't mean:

    - it doesn't mean that people are bad
    - it doesn't mean that people are dangerous
    - it doesn't mean that people are not competent
    - it doesn't mean that HOT (as a community or as an NGO) is bad /
dangerous / vicious

    It only means that every global organisation needs some balance. In
Switzerland, we have a college of 7 Ministers, who are elected by our
Parliament respecting the (although weakening) so-called "Magic formula".
This means that the main political parties must be represented according to
the results of their parties but it also means that we try to keep a
balance between the linguistic / cultural areas of our country.

    I definitely do not agree with all these ministers. But I do believe
that this balance is essential, for thousands of reason that I don't want
to detail here (for the sake of keeping this email short enough).

    For the OSMF election, I believe that the same principle is beneficial.
Saying that "too much HOT is dangerous" only means that the OSMF board
needs more plurality: people who use OSM in a different way, for other
purposes, maybe even with a different philosophy.

    Exactly in the same way, I wouldn't be happy with 7 ministers elected
from my hometown. That would be probably quite cool on the short term but
it's definitely dangerous on the long term and would lead to quite some
instability.

    Thanks all

    Cheers

    Stéphane

On Wed, Dec 2, 2015 at 9:15 PM, Christian Rogel <
christian.rogel at club-internet.fr> wrote:

>
> > Le 2 déc. 2015 à 18:46, Kate Chapman <kate at maploser.com> a écrit :
> >
> > Hi Christian,
> >
> > You are well instructed on one view of the internal affairs of HOT.
> There are more than one side to any story.
> >
> > As for diversity, I'm sorry that Yantisa Akhadi who works for HOT has
> been dragged into this. I think having a board member familiar with the
> Asia region and very familiar with the OSM community in Indonesia would be
> a real asset. After all it is the 4th most populous country in the world.
> Think of all the potential mappers out there. I would willingly resign my
> HOT membership if I met Yantisa would be elected to the OSMF board, I think
> that having a variety of regional views is far more important than my say
> in HOT.
> >
> > I'm also sad that it appears I will be serving on the board as the lone
> woman again this year. In thinking about diversity I think it would benefit
> everyone to think about their own internal biases and how debate takes
> place currently may be the very thing driving a more varied leadership
> away. My favor reading related to this is "Free as in sexist?" Free culture
> and the gender gap(1). Yes gender isn't the only form of diversity though
> it is certainly one the OSMF is not doing well at right now.
> >
> > -Kate
>
>
> Hi, Kate,
>
> I was not meaning that every HOT US member standing for the OSMF Board
> must be rejected and I am not pointing at you or another person.
> I am convinced that many of them could manage suitable work at the
> Foundation.
>
> I was only pointing that the voters have to balance theirs ballots as
> suggested by the title of this thread.
>
>
> Christian Rogel
>
> _______________________________________________
> osmf-talk mailing list
> osmf-talk at openstreetmap.org
> https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/osmf-talk
>

-- 
Nicolas Chavent
Projet OpenStreetMap (OSM)
Projet Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT)
Projet Espace OSM Francophone (EOF)
Mobile (FRA): +33 (0)6 52 40 78 20
Mobile (CIV): +225 78 12 76 99
<nicolas.chavent at hotosm.org>
Email: nicolas.chavent at gmail.com
Skype: c_nicolas
Twitter: nicolas_chavent
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