[Osmf-talk] Local Chapters criteria

[Simon Poole]

Am 24.07.2019 um 15:30 schrieb Felix Delattre via osmf-talk:
> ...
> Hi all - sorry for the long email - skip it if you want.
>
> I'm wondering whether not all communities started using the name
> OSM+Country without asking OSMF before :)
>
> The local community I've been mostly involved in (OSM Nicaragua),
> emerged firstly by people coming together because we wanted to work on
> that open data map - we felt welcomed to do so. When we started
> organizing the first events a suitable name was needed. At that time we
> just combined OSM with the country name (similar we/people did with
> Debian Nicaragua, Drupal Nicaragua, …), we created a logo [1] and
> registered social media accounts (like [2]) and did everything to get
> people on board. We never asked for permission to use the OSM name with
> country. We worked in the spirit of a Free Software community and we
> were connected with the global community from the beginning. You can
> call me naive, I expected this to be the most usual way all or at least
> most OSM communities kicked-off.
> Out of true curiosity: was there any local community that first had
> asked the OSMF for permission before using the name of OSM? (What about
> the elephants? Germany, US, France, Belgium?)
>
> I don't have any concrete answer to challenge risen here, I’m just
> worried we put higher burdens on new communities, than we have put on
> the ones that are around for many years. I do think we (the OSMF) should
> care, because definitively trademarks can be used abusively, and the
> OSMF must be able to take away permissions to use the name in those
> cases. Especially if groups demonstrate not to stick to our values
> (non-commercial, democratic structure, …?). In my opinion, being too
> overruled embarks the likely risk to stop emerging pioneers from
> continuing because of not feeling sufficiently recognized and
> auto-determined. And I do think we need space for communities to start
> as grass-rooty as the one Nicaragua, and based on persons’ trust and
> initiatives,

While a large number of local user groups historically haven't asked,
some have (in some cases there was handshake agreement that they would
become LCs etc). The hen and egg problem is there and there isn't really
a way to circumvent that without a lot of red tape.

The other side of this and this is something that we can't undo, is that
the early OSMF was exceedingly naive and got pulled over the table in
bad ways in certain cases. But I do have to say that there are a number
shining examples, for example OpenStreetMap France, that lived up to the
expectation that they would apply for LC status as soon as the facility
was present.

However you are mistaken if you believe that other organisations are as
laisser faire as the OSMF, from Debian to Drupal over the WMF to OSgeo.
The norm is that you need to ask before you use their trademarks, though
most have similar policies as the OSMF wrt allowed community use, but in
general using the marks in your name, domains and so on is a no no.

>
> On the side of registering an association, I wanted to comment that this
> is culturally and legally quite different in the countries all over the
> world: For example, in Nicaragua we had several attempts over the years
> to create an NGO for Free Software, but it is quite difficult to
> register an association there, because the national law requires each
> and every association to be approved by the parliament; the community
> felt more important about the group and people than about the legal
> status. On the other side - another example - in Germany there is
> already a well established term ("Vereinsmeierei") to describe the
> cultural importance Germans give to associations, and registering one is
> not such a big deal.

The OSMF does not specify a specific formal organisation form exactly
for these reasons.

> Requiring too many bureaucratic burdens makes it hard for local
> communities to get a voice in OSMF, in those countries associations are
> more difficult register. One, out of many aspects that might contribute
> to the situation that a lot of southern communities are not taking part
> here in OSMF as much as the ones I called elephants before.

As said the way around that is to have a status as a "user group".

Simon


>
> If you reached here, thanks for reading. Have a nice day.
> Felix
>
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