[Osmf-talk] statistics from the membership drive

[Christoph Hormann]

On Sunday 03 December 2017, Kate Chapman wrote:
> > By the way the non-proportional geographic representation is likely
> > a self emphasizing problem.  If an under-represented group does not
> > feel represented in an organization like the OSMF members of this
> > group will feel less inclined to participate in that organization.
>
> Christoph,
>
> Could you elaborate a bit more on how you would see this working?
> What would define the geographic representation? Population, number
> of mappers, something else?

I think i said this before but thanks for asking, this is important to 
be clear about.

Me emphasizing about the importance of proportional geographic 
representation is about representation of the OSM community (that is 
primarily the mappers although it in principle includes everyone active 
in the community in some form) in the OSMF membership.  I think a 
roughly proportional representation is fundamental for the legitimacy 
of the OSMF in representing the project.

Note with geographic representation i primarily mean cultural 
representation.  Strictly speaking the numbers Michael presented are 
about the country of residence and it is fairly obvious that living in 
a certain country does not necessarily make you a good representative 
of the country's local OSM community.  Likewise someone living abroad 
can still be a fairly valuable voice for the culture of his/her country 
of birth.

The question of a proportional representation of the world population in 
the OSM community is a different matter and something i think can 
better be discussed in a larger framework, not just among the OSMF 
members.

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