[Osmf-talk] OSM and OSMF - How do we (want to) operate?

[Wolfgang Zenker]

Both in OSM (the community) and the OSMF (the membership association) we
often see discussions that do not lead to any useful results. While this
might be because the topic has strong arguments on multiple sides of the
debate, at other times it might be because we (the community and the
OSMF) have not really discussed how we want to operate, how we want to
make decisions or if we should make decisions at all, what goals we
share (if any), and who should be accountable to whom for what.
Our current structures are as far as I see born out of ad-hoc decisions
of what appeared appropriate or convenient at a time, or what was
necessary for legal or technical reasons. It might well be that we want
to continue with the structures we have now, or we might find that the
structures we have are no longer a good fit for the OSM ecosystem of
today. Whichever way we go should be an conscious decision, I think. 

Not everyone will be interested in this of course, many will be content
with just mapping their part of the world or developing software. But
for those interested in going forward with ideas of how OSM and the OSMF
are or should be organized, I suggest to start discussions in local user
groups, on this or other mailing list and if sufficient interest exists,
to meet at the next SOTM and start an "organization working group". The
decision we would need to make for that is, what mandate to give to that
working group and to whom it should be accountable and deliver its
results.

Greetings,
Wolfgang
( lyx @ osm )