[Osmf-talk] Looking for practical manifestos

[Blake Girardot]

Dear Paul and fellow OSMF Members,

That is interesting take on it Paul.

I did not really see a lot of unicorn promising. I saw a lot of good goals.

To me being an OSMF Board Member is about supporting, strengthening
and growing the organization and the OSM community.

That means telling the story of OSM and the OSM community and value of
open geospatial data as a methodology and a practical empowering
resource a lot.

It means engaging with groups, and communities and institutions to
find new and creative ways for open geospatial data to be used and how
to strengthen the model of community based mapping and maintaining the
data can happen at the same time.

A board member must have a vision for where OSM could and should be in
1 year, 5 years, 10 years. Work with the community to come to
consensus on vision, goals and strategy.

And then the board member needs to go out and work to achieve those goals.

A good board member is telling the story of OSM at every opportunity,
its achievements and where it wants to head in the future. Reaching
out and communicating with organizations and institutions about the
importance of OSM is how you move to help secure financial support and
growth.

OSM is grass roots. Frederick's comments about humanitarian
organizations using with out supporting financially illustrates this
point. What Frederick really sees are not humanitarian organizations,
what he sees are people, front line, on the ground staff and
volunteers of large ngos who need map data. They know the best source
is often OSM. They are fighting to get OSM supported by their
institutions because they need and contribute to it to help get their
work done. If someone from their organization did come to OSMF, what
would they see? Hostility from board members? That is not how you
generate understanding and support for growth.

The OSMF Board should be supporting the on the ground people and make
sure the role of OSM is well known and its importance, not criticizing
their institutions because they are not falling at OSM's feet to give
money. A board member should be reaching out to institutions at the
right level to help them understand how important OSM is to their
mission and how OSM empowers much of their right now. (EU/EC/UN needs
to hear this too by the way)

These places and others are where OSMF Board members should be telling
the story.

Board members should not stand in the way of world wide, community
supported growth of OSM, the community is big and there is room for
more.

More looking looking forward informed by the past, instead of only
looking backward.

Cheers,
Blake



On Sun, Dec 4, 2016 at 3:39 AM, Paul Norman <penorman at mac.com> wrote:
> With voting opening, now is a good time to re-read the candidate manifestos
> and their responses to questions, available at
> https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Foundation/AGM16/Election_to_Board.
>
>
> In previous years candidates have had wildly unrealistic views of what they
> would do on the board. What the board does is outlined in
> https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Mission_Statement#Scope_of_the_OSMF_board,
> and you should look at what candidates want to do through the lens of what
> they can do. The OSMF exists to support and not control the project, and
> promises of a free pony for every mapper won't be happening.
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> osmf-talk mailing list
> osmf-talk at openstreetmap.org
> https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/osmf-talk



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Blake Girardot
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