[Osmf-talk] Commitment to open communication channels

[Christopher Beddow]

It feels to me like the idea is to manage the risk of anyone being left
out--whether by privacy choices, local restrictions such as blocked access
to some communication tools, access to technology, access to travel. To
support a diverse community, we need a diverse set of communication
channels. Redundancy is generally easy.

A single post on for example Mastodon can be automatically reposted to
Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and copied into a mailing list, and a forum,
in moments. Feasible for a major announcement. Forcing the resulting
discussions into a single channel is not organic, it seems to concentrate
discussion whereas the community voices are dispersed.

Getting practical, I think the most neutral tool is one of the oldest on
the internet: written word via email (mailing list). Slightly newer: chat
platforms and forums. All these can be very much independent. Social media
platforms less so, but often extremely stable and user friendly. I argue
that many are more likely to follow Twitter discussions or local community
Facebook group than to keep up with the mailing list, but with tutorials
and guidance can achieve all.

There is also WeeklyOSM, which is valuable in recapping discussions from
channels people may not follow, straight to your email inbox. Many
important discussions happen in the comments of OSM Diaries, which are easy
to miss for everyone and can be very exclusive in that the discussion is
not pushed deliberately into a public arena to the most absolute degree
(which is the problem we may be facing, but is a byproduct of decentralized
and diverse communication tools).

I believe Tobias Zwick had a very interesting idea in the Microgrants
proposals about having StreetComplete as an Android mobile app integrate
some OSM news and communications. This is very relevant because the lowest
cost, most versatile, accessible device for interacting with OSM is
probably an Android mobile phone with a SIM card. Such a device gives
access to all other apps from Facebook to Slack to Twitter to Protonmail to
Mastodon and the OSM forums and IRC. Local communities already use diverse
tools and the OSMF choosing a default just adds one Morez which is
acceptable, as long as people know where to look.

Do we simply need an open source, OSMF hosted web forum? It's been the
center point of many communities from video gamers to Star Wars fans to
artists to botanists to car enthusiasts since at least the late 1990s.

/ Chris Beddow

On Mon, Aug 17, 2020, 14:07 Jóhannes Birgir Jensson <joi at betra.is> wrote:

> Let me ask you this Heather
>
> This list is completely disconnected from reality, do you find it
> beneficial to throw out such things and make them an argument against
> emphasis on open communication?
>
> 1. Do you think the OMSF mailing list is where all community members feel
> safe and included to communicate?
> 2. If not, what steps can we take to do this better?
> 3. If osmf continues down this road, how will they do so to also be ssfe,
> inclusive and equitable in terms of power and true dialogue?
> 4. What will each person responding to make sure that: more women respond,
> more people from other regions of the world respond, and, more importantly,
> that this is a safe and inclusive mailing list that is truly global, truly
> equitable and truly safe?
>
> 1. No zone can be something where every single member of an arbitrary
> group can feel safe and included to communicate. For that we are too
> diverse, speak too many languages at different proficiency and human -
> reclusive, expressive, open, closed, conflicted and steadfast.
>
> 2. We keep the dialogue open.
>
> 3. Finding the answer to this is worth a Nobel prize or two. Equitable
> power, true dialogue, you need to define somewhat narrower something so
> large in scope and vague in meaning.
>
> 4. Another Nobel prize question.
>
> These are all very fancy words, lofty goals and completely disconnected
> from the reality of group dynamics. They are maybe solvable in much smaller
> groups with selected members and under a tight control, none of which
> applies to a global list on a global project.
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