[Osmf-talk] Closed board meeting again

[Roland Olbricht]

Hi,

thank you for channeling the discussion in a productive discussion.

I do not think that monitoring the membership applications alone is a
bullet-proof solution. A concealed takeover would be in a cost range of
25'000 to 50'000 EUR and thus well within the range of an evil-doer.

I would like to brainstorm a couple of ideas:

- Restrict Voting Eligibilty:
I'm not sure about the legal situation in the UK; the German corporate
law would allow to restrict the voting right to active members. For the
moment being it might make sense to use the exisiting definition of
"active members" from the AoA, i.e. any member that is associated to an
OSM account mapping in three consecutive months.

- Inertia:
Both the election of only one third of the board and the STV make it
practically impossible to take over the foundation in one go. This does
not necessarily mean that there is nothing to do, but please notice that
the current ruleset is rather an asset than a problem.

- Emergency Exit Strategy:
Basically you can, due to the license, duplicate everything except the
brand. This is based on the license and it constitutes a substantial
asset. LibreOffice is an example that this can work. It also is an
effective deterrent for more sophisticated takeover attempts.

We nay want to have elements in the AoA that facilitate the transfer, in
an ideal case including the right to co-use the brand by any substantial
part of the membership. This can backfire if an astroturfed part of the
community is claiming that and therefore requires caution.

- Veto rights for local chapters:
This is a very difficult one. We had discussed this at the OSM gathering
of the German FOSSGIS conference. Countries differ wildly in size,
economical and cultural background, and there is leeway what may
constitute a country. There are examples of failed organizations with
this scheme, and the prospective examples have very sophisticated
rulesets to work to at least some degree.

Thus said, having a competent MWG like at the moment might be the in
fact best solution, although this is not a matter of the AoA.

Best regards,

Roland