[Osmf-talk] Microgrant Implementation Voted on by the Board without Community Consultation?

Michael Reichert osm-ml at michreichert.de
Fri Oct 11 22:49:36 UTC 2019


Dear board,

it came to my eyes that you are currently voting on the implementation
of the microgrants programme using a circular resolution. That voting
will end on 18 October (by the way, the next board meeting is on 16
October). The document to be voted on can be found at
https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/File:Microgrants_working_document_snapshot_2019-10-11.odt
(yes it is no PDF)

I appreciate that this very long running topic [1] is nearing completion
and agree with the projects to be eligible for support. However, I am
worried that you are rushing it niw. The proposed document was never
discussed with the members of the Foundation at the OSMF-Talk mailing
list nor with the OSM community at the Talk mailing list, wasn't it? I
looked through the archives of both mailing lists since August 2018 and
found one email by Mikel from 20 September 2018 only asking for input of
a very rough draft.
https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/osmf-talk/2018-September/005296.html
https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/w/index.php?title=Microgrants_Consultation_document&oldid=5703
However, the document to be voted on now is much more detailed and a lot
of things were formulated as questions in the document. It was raised in
the discussion back then that the draft has few substance and it is not
really possible to give constructive feedback on it. [2]

The document does not look to be finished. Two section seems not to
belong to the text to be voted on:
- "Original table (for reference only)" at pages 2–3,
- "Original options for committee creation" in the section "Who will
  decide") at page 3
- item list titled "Note" in the section "Eligibility criteria" at page
  4

Two rules are duplicating each other:
> You must agree to the reporting requirements, be willing to sign a
> grant agreement, and provide the OpenStreetMap Foundation with
> information needed to process your funding. (page 3)

and

> Applicants must agree to the reporting requirements, are willing to
> sign a grant agreement and can provide OSMF with information needed to
> process their funding. (page 4 but same list of bullet points)

There is at least another pair of rules I would have merged because they
are about similar topics.

Will the document you are voting on be still a draft after voting (i.e.
it is no final voting)? I hope it is.

I would like to ask you to stop voting and have a discussion limited to
a duration of two weeks on this mailing list. Afterwards, you can edit
the draft based on the feedback and finally vote on it. The journey to
this document has taken more than two years already. The microgrant
programme is about a sum of up to EUR 50,000 (up to 10 projects of up to
EUR 5,000), about one fourth of the annual turnover of the Foundation
and it is not a large but established expense as State of the Map [3].

I will provide feedback beyond copy editing on your proposal – mainly
related to the application process and transparency based on my
experiences as the board member of FOSSGIS e.V. responsible for its
microgrant programme [4].

Best regards

Michael



[1] First ideas are likely at least have a decade old, first drafts are
two to three years old.
[2]
https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/osmf-talk/2018-September/005316.html
[3] Large SotMs have a turnover of more than EUR 50,000 including
scholarships.
[4] about EUR 18,000 per year

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