[Osmf-talk] Upcoming board elections

[Christoph Hormann]

On Friday 25 November 2016, Simon Poole wrote:
> I'm fairly sure the undisputed nature of this election is due to only
> two places being available (I believe this is the first time) and
> both incumbents, both fairly non-controversial, standing for
> re-election. Assuming nothing extraordinary happens, it is likely to
> be the same next year too.

I do not necessarily disagree but it seems pretty clear to me this would 
not be good for the OSMF and the OSM project as a whole in the long 
term.  I don't have to be an opponent of the current board and its 
members to recognize that the current direction of the OSMF and the 
views and ideas represented by the current board do not represent a 
consensus position of the OSM community as a whole.  It might be the 
majority position of the voiceful active contributors, it might even be 
the majority position of OSM community members overall but i am pretty 
sure there are significant minorities with clearly diverging views on 
things.  And even if such views are not mine i would want them to be 
properly voiced and discussed in community discourse which includes 
them being voiced and represented by candidates in the board elections.  
And it is the purpose of the elections to discern views and people with 
significant support from those which have no significant backing in the 
community.

If i call for members to run in the board elections this does not mean i 
have anything against the candidates already running.  I don't know 
Kate personally but i am pretty sure Frederik would prefer to win in an 
election where there are solid alternatives and people actually choose 
to vote for him instead of others - even if that naturally also brings 
the risk of loosing the election because his views do not find 
sufficient support.

(yes, i probably have a somewhat biased view here coming from the 
country that invented the concept of 'alternativlos' in politics)

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