[Osmf-talk] Paying Board/WG was: Standing for board election

martijn at osmfoundation.org martijn at osmfoundation.org
Sun Nov 26 18:58:01 UTC 2017


On 11/26/2017 9:40 AM, Heather Leson wrote:
> Yves, you are absolutely correct. I have a background in community 
> management so I do lean towards seeing that as a potential solution. 
> But, I stand corrected- strategy first, then paying etc. It is clear 
> that if we spent half the time on a productive document planning rather 
> than going back/forth on emails, we might be further head.

Agreed. Simon mentioned earlier in this thread that it may prove tough 
to get the sustained funding needed for paying staff. It is true, that 
is not going to be straightforward. But as you say, Heather, a strategy 
is a prerequisite. I have no doubt that the funding is out there, the 
real challenge is for us to first make a good case for attracting it. 
That means being able to show that we as a project are ready to channel 
the fast growth we have been enjoying, in community, map contributions, 
and users small to very large. Frederik is right in saying that we 
should not get trapped in thinking in terms of boilerplate models. We 
have our own unique history, comparing ourselves to WMF or other 
organizations with a superficially similar mission may harm progress 
more than it would help it.

This is an important discussion to have and I am glad to see a lot of 
opinions emerging (again). I was elected two years ago on (or in spite 
of?) a platform that very much included pushing this forward[1]. We made 
modest progress with hiring Dorothea, and I am looking forward to 
figuring out what the way forward is that works for the OSM project and 
community.

Forward,
Martijn

[1] See 
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Talk:Foundation/AGM15/Election_to_Board#Paying_People



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