[Osmf-talk] OSGeo Oceania Local Chapter application

[Andrew Hain]

I don’t think it’s reasonable to object to this application unless mappers from inside Oceania complain or the chapter becomes a negative influence on OSM, I see neither.

I do see it acceptable to review any local chapter that doesn’t support its remit reasonably including geographical and cultural extremities.

--
Andrew

________________________________
From: Christoph Hormann via osmf-talk <osmf-talk at openstreetmap.org>
Sent: 11 August 2020 15:31
To: osmf-talk at openstreetmap.org <osmf-talk at openstreetmap.org>
Subject: Re: [Osmf-talk] OSGeo Oceania Local Chapter application


I have thought about this quite a bit and my recommendation is that the
OSMF not accept local chapters on a supranational level.  Should that
idea not find sufficient support i would recommend making supranational
local chapters contingent on qualified support from all national
comunities included in their scope (which in this case quite clearly
would mean Australia and New Zealand only).

Reasoning for that recommendation:

The concept of a local chapter in its name already implies localness.
Existing local chapters predominantly represent local communities
defined by cultural similarity and offer them a level of cultural and
legal proximity that the OSMF lacks.  This is practically important in
legal as well as economic matters where mappers and the organization
they associate in exist in the same legal domain which simplifies a lot
of interactions.  This includes for example financial transactions and
contract matters (donations and funding as well as the local chapter
being able to contract with businesses and shoulder risks when mappers
organize local events or projects) and legal matters - like supporting
and representing local mappers who get in legal trouble through OSM
related activities or pursuing local license matters (like FOSSGIS does
recently w.r.t. insufficient attribution).

But especially it is important in cultural matters where a local mapper
should be able to expect to find understanding and like-mindedness
w.r.t. their cultural views in their local chapters - no matter from
where within the domain of their chapter they are.

All of this does not seem to be the case for OSGeo Oceania for the
intended regional domain of Oceania outside of Australia and New
Zealand.

You can also put it this way:  If some local mapper in a village in New
Guinea has their local chapter, which is supposed to be their
representation "when dealing with local government, business, and
media" (quote from the wiki), in Hobart, how is that going to work?

If the local OSM communities of Australia and New Zealand want to form a
common local chapter i would in principle have no issue with that
although for practical reasons i would suggest they carefully consider
if a national local chapter is not in the long term more beneficial for
the mappers.

None of this in principle rules out accepting OSGeo Oceania as a local
chapter with a smaller geographic scope.  There is precedent for that -
FOSSGIS as an association covers Germany, Austria and Switzerland but
as an OSMF local chapter only covers Germany.

I also have my doubts on the significance OpenStreetMap plays in the
OSGeo Oceania activities in general and if the position of the OSM
community within the organization is strong enough for it to fulfill
the role of a local chapter.  But i have not looked at this deeply
enough to form a clear opinion.

--
Christoph Hormann
http://www.imagico.de/

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