[Osmf-talk] OSGeo Oceania Local Chapter application

[Joost Schouppe [OSMF secretary]]

Hi,

You may be aware that OsGeo Oceania has applied to become an official Local
Chapter of the OpenStreetMap Foundation. As part of the application
process, we would like to ask you, the OSMF membership, how you feel about
this. Do you support this application? Do you have any questions, comments
or concerns?

We certainly did. This is the first time we received an application for an
entire region, and applications from organizations that do more than just
OSM always need a little extra scrutiny. Under "extra information" you'll
see the answers to some extra questions we asked. We also took more time to
do the local consultation.

As part of the application process, the OSMF board conducted research on
local mappers in the region. We looked for people mapping in the region,
for people adding details to OSM that you can only see from the ground,
rather than active armchair mappers tracing buildings.
We contacted 27 mappers active in Australia, New Zealand-Aotearoa and the
rest of the covered pacific region through the OSM messaging system.

As is unfortunately common with messages sent through the OSM.org channels,
response rate was low. We got 3 positive supportive responses, 1 person
didn't care about this side of OSM, 1 was unsure if they were too focussed
on Australia & New Zealand-Aotearoa, rather than the whole Pacific region.
There is an OSGeo chapter for the Pacific Islands, so we reached out to
someone we could find for that organisation. They support the application,
and are in fact also a member of OSGeo Oceania. Both groups are organising
FOSS4G SotM Oceania 2020 together.

During this time, the OSM people in the OsGeo Oceania group itself also
proceeded to increase their OpenStreetMap footing. Eduardo Neerhut and
Andrew Harvey consulted the OpenStreetMap community themselves and found 52
people expressing their support. 20 of them showed up for an initial
meeting about forming an official working group within the OsGeo
organization.

We think all in all, the local OSM communities appear to be fully in
support of this.

What do you, the wider OSMF community, think? We welcome comments and
questions before August 22nd.

Rory and Joost took on this job together, with Rory doing most of the
community research. Thanks, Rory.

All the details of the application available here:
https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Local_Chapters/Applications/Oceania

Best,
Joost Schouppe
*Secretary*
*OpenStreetMap Foundation*

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*OpenStreetMap Foundation*
*St John’s Innovation Centre*
*Cowley Road*
*Cambridge*
*CB4 0WS*
*United Kingdom*

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