[Osmf-talk] I’m running for OSMF board and I’ve set up office hours for questions

Fri Dec 11 04:55:45 UTC 2020

Hi Edward, thanks for these excellent questions! I’ll do my best to answer them.

To your first question, about assurance: the priorities stated in my manifesto (linked below) have the health and best interests of OSM in mind. I named three areas that need work: technical operations, attracting diverse new participants through policy changes such as a code of conduct, and building bridges to under-represented parts of the OSM community.

These topics have been important to me for a decade predating my employment with Facebook. I chose to work with FB’s mapping organization to further these aims, and I’ve been consistent in my goals and proposals for many years prior to FB’s interest in OSM. I think I’m a useful addition to the board, though I’ll also point out that Eugene and Willy, candidates from the Philippines and Cameroon, also deserve your votes for a more representative global mapping project.

https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Foundation/AGM20/Election_to_Board/Answers_and_manifestos/Michal_Migurski#Manifesto

To your second question, it’s often a necessity of holding a job that comms, PR, and legal departments approve individual communications in areas relevant to the business. At FB we’re fortunate that the company allows us to engage in work-adjacent activities. By contrast, I’ve turned down roles at other well-known tech companies who refused to approve my non-profit activities or open source contributions.

I’m not sure how to best address your third point about legal personhood, except to agree that it’s correct and that rules regarding conflict of interest govern what I can do as a board member. I’m not my employer, but I did *choose* my employer and my experience in the technology and mapping industries qualifies me to help OSMF succeed at its goals.

To your fourth question, some examples of FB support for OSM: we’ve funded conference events held by the foundation and local chapters over the years, contributed  to OSM software projects, exposed billions of viewers to OSM, engaged the participation and help of other mapping entities to expand the map, and our MapWith.AI program is a benefit to OSM thanks to my colleague Drishtie Patel’s tireless work in negotiating our community approach since 2016.

FB is also a supporter of OSM’s attribution + share-alike license strategy. I know from the thread on the other list that this is a controversial statement, so I won’t argue the point but I will close with a suggestion. A large company using OSM data needs to see official policy like a formal Attribution Guideline to improve our interpretation of the ODBL. There are hundreds of people to convince of the guidelines’ legitimacy. If changing FB’s practices around attribution is important to you, please consider participating in the work of the LWG who’ve not been well-supported over the years.

I hope this answers your questions, Edward!

-mike.

> On Dec 10, 2020, at 11:38 AM, Edward Bainton <bainton.ete at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Hi Mike 
> 
> I appreciate you putting yourself forward for the board positions. I've read your manifesto and I wonder if you could clarify some things:
> 
> You say "My Facebook (FB) obligations encourage me to work in the best interests of the OSM project." 
> "Encourage" is not "require". Would you have any contractual obligation to work in the interests of Facebook if you were on the board? What assurance can you give that you would exercise your own independent judgment, espeically given your employment in what (sounds to be) a core unit in Facebook's mapping work?
> 
> You also say "My candidacy for the OSMF board has been vetted by communications and legal representatives at Facebook". To me this suggests that Facebook would have a controlling influence over you if you were a board member. Could you clarify?
> 
> In answering these two questions it would be useful if you could address the difference between "Facebook's and OSMF's objectives are compatible" (which I infer is your view) and "OSM and Facebook are different legal persons and will necessarily have different interests".
> 
> I'm also interested that you say "Facebook has been a consistent supporter of the OSM community, growth of the project, and OSM’s ODbL license strategy."
> Could you please share some examples of this support?
> 
> Thanks for your time and effort in fielding questions about your candidacy. Regards,
> 
> Edward / eteb3 
> 
> On Mon, 30 Nov 2020 at 19:03, Michal Migurski <mike at teczno.com> wrote:
> Hi everyone,
> 
> I’m excited to be running for the OSMF board this year! In 2021, OSM’s community has two opportunities to grow stronger together: we should make the OSM organization support a wider diversity of participants and we must succeed at starting to manage our technical operations professionally.
> 
> I’d like to make myself available for conversations with anyone who has questions about my candidacy, manifesto, priorities, or really anything else. I did this last year when I ran and ended up having a few really fun conversations with community members. I’m blocking these four times over the next two weeks prior to the close of voting and AGM on Dec 12; get in touch via email if you’d like to chat by text, voice, or video!
> 
> 	• Dec 1, 16:00 PST – https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?msg=OSMF+Campaign+Office+Hours&iso=20201201T16&p1=388&ah=1
> 	• Dec 3, 8:00 PST – https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?msg=OSMF+Campaign+Office+Hours&iso=20201203T08&p1=388&ah=1
> 	• Dec 4, 16:00 PST – https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?msg=OSMF+Campaign+Office+Hours&iso=20201205T16&p1=388&ah=1
> 	• Dec 9, 8:00 PST – https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?msg=OSMF+Campaign+Office+Hours&iso=20201209T08&p1=388&ah=1 
> 
> Read my complete manifesto on the Wiki for more about why I think I’d make a good OSMF board member: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Foundation/AGM20/Election_to_Board/Answers_and_manifestos/Michal_Migurski#Manifesto 
> 
> -mike.
> 
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> 
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