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

[Christoph Hormann]

It seems to me discourse here is loosing track somewhat of the subject 
(i.e. the OSMF board elections).

It is quite obvious that many of the candidates this year have a HOT 
background of some sort and this certainly raised a few eyebrows within 
the OSM community.  Nicolas has expressed his views about this, from a 
subjective perspective for sure but without personally attacking any of 
the people involved and countering that with remarks like 'cynical' 
and 'intentionally negative' does not seem appropriate.

Ultimately it is up to the OSMF members to decide which people they want 
on the board and after the board is elected it is up to the OSM 
community to decide to what extent they want to support their new board 
through participation in working groups and otherwise.  With this 
background in mind it is probably not wise from any perspective to try 
pushing the members in a certain direction here.

Note so far several of the candidates have pointed their HOT experiences 
as qualifications for the board.  On the other hand members might also 
think their involvement in HOT to have shaped and influenced their 
views and approach to things in a way they do not consider desirable 
for the OSMF board.  In light of this i would strongly suggest the 
candidates to read and if possible answer the questions on 

https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Talk:Foundation/AGM15/Election_to_Board

if they have not already done so.  Several of these questions 
specifically cover topics where views might differ from the average OSM 
perspective within the HOT community.  And even if many of the replies 
do not directly answer the questions they are generally helpful to get 
an idea how the candidates 'tick'.

-- 
Christoph Hormann
http://www.imagico.de/