[Osmf-talk] Some questions about candidates' statements

Fri Dec 6 15:36:17 UTC 2019

Hello Peda,

Thank you for posting the questions

> Do you agree with my statement or description of CoI/potential CoI? How
> would you cope with a CoI? How with a potential CoI? Especially will you
> take part in discussions? Share arguments,...? Public only? Private? Will
> you participate in votes? Will you make your CoI public? Will you make a
> potential CoI public?
> A potential conflict of interests arises, if there is a topic at board
> level where the interests of the OSM project and your employer might
> differ.

Conflict of Interest has been a very sensitive topic to the community and
something that is very important too. I agree with your statement about
what a potential conflict of interest can be defined.

Speaking for myself, me standing for the election is a voluntary decision
and the work I'll be doing for OSMF will be on my own time, but at the same
time I do work for a company that contributes or has an association with
OpenStreetMap, I’m the Senior Outreach and Community Manager at Grab. My
work is focussed on communicating mapping projects keeping community's and
Grab's best interest in place, building and supporting communities in
OpenStreetMap through workshops, OSM training sessions and have introduced
programs like Geo*Stars which brings in an opportunity for the university
students to learn and be a part of the OSM Community. The
community-building aspect does not limit to just OpenStreetMap.

Considering a huge part of my role is closely working and supporting local
communities and communicating different project across, there are lesser
chances of conflict between the two as both, their goals are, to grow,
support and collaborate with the local communities. My employer has the
highest regards for and understands the importance and the role that the
communities play in OpenStreetMap. I will keep my work and board separate,
and when it comes down to a scenario of a possible conflict of interest, I
will uphold OSMF in high regards and step back on discussions that require
conflict of interests to be flagged and not participate in voting as such.
If there is a dire need for me to participate in the discussions, I'll make
it clear as to which party I'm speaking for, for instance: I would
specifically say that speaking as a part of the board when I'm representing
the board in a discussion and same in case of my employer. When it comes to
making a COI public, I think in an Open Source platform like OpenStreetMap,
most of the discussions/issues are public in nature and has the community
involved, so most of these would be public.

I hope that answers the question. Thank you!

Best Regards,  Jinal Foflia

On Fri, Dec 6, 2019 at 1:44 PM Steve Coast <steve at stevecoast.com> wrote:

> The mail client I have here isn’t good at quoting so I’ll copy & paste:
>
>
>
> 1. What is wrong with the current petition regarding term limits?
>
> It’s a larger issue than the semantics – it hasn’t been finished. I
> remember board members talking about how important this was ~5+ years ago
> and here we are, with members running for their 12th year or whatever it
> is. It’s not clear to me that it will ever be finished unless it’s made a
> key issue. Happy to be wrong.
>
>
> 2. How many board meetings did you attend within the last three
> years? And what was the painful part in those?
>
> I couldn’t tell you the exact number, I attend anonymously now and then. I
> was at the one-but-last, I think the last one I was on a plane. Anyway,
> they sound like a funeral.
>
>
> 3. To help me scope your concern: What percentage of OSM tiles
> are served to third parties today?
>
> I don’t have an exact figure, my memory when I asked this unofficially a
> month or two ago was >50% in North America. Whatever the figure was it
> jumped out at me as far beyond where we should be. Especially when osm.org
> becomes unusable for mappers, which it has been on-and-off in north
> America! If osm.org is unusable to mappers then the figure should be 0%
> outside OSM because just spending more money on tile servers will never fix
> the issue when you’re shipping tiles for free to the world, like building
> more roads doesn’t fix traffic congestion.
>
>
> 4. Do you know why OWG is kept short on budget and did you talk
> with them if and how they could use that extra money?
>
> As best I can tell, the relationship between the OWG and the board has
> broken down. I don’t know that they’ve ever been kept on a small budget on
> purpose, I think it just broke down. Maybe I’m wrong, but it’s what I see
> and hear.
>
>
>
> There is a long list of very central things that need to be fixed or
> improved, and Andy Allen has apparently been quietly working on some if for
> a long time. How do we get more bandwidth and fix these issues? I think
> step one would be to give OWG the cash to figure it out because
>
>
>
> a) it’s a gift from the board and would signal trust in the OWG to go
> figure out whatever it is (hiring people, bug bounties, hack weekends,
> paying Andy,… whatever it is I don’t care) to help rebuild the relationship
> and
>
> b) it would be faster and more efficient to give the OWG money than to ask
> them to ask the board for funds for some long plan they’d have to write up
> and so on.
>
> c) They’re good guys, they know what needs to be done, it’s not a lot of
> money, give them cash to go figure it out. Even if we just buy the OWG new
> laptops it would be a win, but I think they can achieve a lot more with
> some love, trust and cash. If for some reason it fails then the strategy
> can be changed, but the amount of cash isn’t really a lot.
>
>
>
> Best
>
>
>
> Steve
>
>
>
> *From: *Peter Barth <osm at won2.de>
> *Sent: *Friday, December 6, 2019 10:11 AM
> *To: *osmf-talk at openstreetmap.org
> *Subject: *[Osmf-talk] Some questions about candidates' statements
>
>
>
> Hello candidates,
>
> I read through most of the questions and statements and I have a
> few follow-up questions, especially in the topic of CoIs which
> has a high significance for me.
>
> My definition of a potential conflict of interest:
> A potential conflict of interests arises, if there is a topic at
> board level where the interests of the OSM project and your
> employer *might* differ.
>
> I pay tribute to anyone who's able to put the project up-front
> other interests and I won't insinuate for any candidate that you
> wouldn't be able to do so.
>
> It is good if you can distinguish between OSM's view and your
> employer's view. It is better if there is no possibility to
> ask the question "is this your opinion or your employer's".
>
> Imho, even a *potential* CoI should always lead to you stating
> your CoI, making your input/comments public and abstaining from
> voting.
>
> Do you agree with my statement or description of CoI/potential
> CoI? How would you cope with a CoI? How with a potential CoI?
> Especially will you take part in discussions? Share
> arguments,...? Public only? Private? Will you participate in
> votes? Will you make your CoI public? Will you make a potential
> CoI public?
>
> I am specifically interested to hear an opinion of anyone
> directly or indirectly working for or with OSM or GIS data.
>
>
> Further, I have some more specific questions for Steve that I am
> interested in:
>
> 1. What is wrong with the current petition regarding term limits?
>
> 2. How many board meetings did you attend within the last three
> years? And what was the painful part in those?
>
> 3. To help me scope your concern: What percentage of OSM tiles
> are served to third parties today?
>
> 4. Do you know why OWG is kept short on budget and did you talk
> with them if and how they could use that extra money?
>
> Thanks,
> Peda
>
>
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