[Osmf-talk] Possible AoA Amendment #2: Your boss can't force you to vote a certain way

[Mateusz Konieczny]

Also +1 from, thanks for writing it! I fully share this kind of worry,
thanks for expressing it better than I could.


Oct 27, 2020, 13:52 by osmf-talk at openstreetmap.org:

> Nice piece!
> Yves 
>
> Le 27 octobre 2020 10:57:51 GMT+01:00, Andy Allan <gravitystorm at gmail.com> a écrit :
>
>> On Sun, 25 Oct 2020 at 22:51, Mikel Maron <mikel.maron at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>>>> So far we have one side saying we need to amend the AoA, and the other side (consisting, I note, of prominent employees of large corporations) saying that it's all fine, or it's too late, or we should have done it differently but let's run this coming election as-is. This doesn't fill me with confidence.
>>>>
>>> That's not even accurate about the "sides". Nor about what I am saying, for one. This kind of suspicion is exactly the thing I'm worried about will gain steam with this hastily developed proposal. Sucks to see me and others painted this way.
>>>
>>
>> I don't want to cast aspersions about your personal integrity, or
>> motivations, or anything like that. Same for Mike. I've known you both
>> for too long, and too well, for that. But when we ask people who have
>> chosen to work for large corporations about the risks and behaviour of
>> large corporations, then your viewpoints are, necessarily, coloured by
>> your own positive personal experiences. The analogy of asking fish
>> what they think about the water springs to mind.
>>
>> When all the animals in the forest get together for their annual
>> garden tea party, the elephants are of course invited too. They are
>> all nice elephants, they are wise and they are kind and they all mean
>> well. But a small mistake, a stumble or some over-enthusiastic teenage
>> elephant can lead to disaster for the whole event. And the elephants
>> are all nice, and honourable, and think well of themselves, but of
>> course the other animals are aware of the risks of having the
>> elephants at the party.
>>
>> In fact, this analogy starts to break down when you consider the
>> actual sizes of the organisations involved, compared to the size of
>> the OSMF. Instead of 'all the animals in the forest' and a few
>> elephants, please imagine a solidary rabbit holding a garden party
>> alone on the savannah, with a tiny little rabbit-sized teacup in one
>> paw and a tiny little rabbit sized scone with cream and jam in the
>> other. This is the OSMF.
>>
>> In front of the rabbit is an elephant. It's a nice and kindly elephant
>> but it towers over the rabbit. And this elephant is just one of a row
>> of ten elephants standing side-by-side. Each of those ten elephants
>> has 9 elephants in a line behind it, making a square of 100 elephants.
>> And there are three of these squares, and another 32 elephants
>> bringing up the rear. This is the size of the Facebook herd. The
>> Microsoft herd is even bigger: it has 6 squares of a hundred
>> elephants, and 74 more elephants besides. The Apple herd has 8 of
>> these squares, and another 59 elephants besides.
>>
>> Now in each of these three herds, very few elephants have even heard
>> about the rabbit, and even fewer have any interest in the rabbit's
>> tiny little garden party. They have much more important things to be
>> getting on with. But again, even if we assume that every elephant in
>> every herd is entirely wise, generous, and acts kindly towards the
>> rabbit, just one small mistake or stumble and there will be a squelch
>> and one distraught elephant will have a tiny little bit of strawberry
>> jam on its foot.
>>
>> Like it or not, elephant herds trample around, and corporations do
>> too. And if we lie down on the ground with our chins on the grass
>> beside our rabbit, and look up from its perspective to see all those
>> elephants, and the other herds besides, we would forgive the rabbit
>> for being just a tad nervous about the scones, and a tad wary when the
>> elephants suggest delay.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Andy
>>
>> [1] For this analogy, the rabbit is a European rabbit of 1.6kg, and
>> the elephants are 6000kg African elephants. Average sizes from
>> wikipedia.
>> The sizes of the three companies mentioned are based on their market
>> capitalisation: FB $810bn, MS $1645bn, A $1984bn. All are major
>> corporate sponsors of OSMF, conference speakers, have production
>> products using OSM data, or all three.
>> A comparable financial size for the OSMF is hard to determine, but I
>> have used $650k USD as the sum of cash on hand in the 2018 financial
>> report. However, the cost to gain 51% of members' votes is
>> approximately $14k USD, so if you prefer to use that figure, the
>> elephant herds are around 46x bigger than described above. Sticking
>> with the $650k USD value, we have a conversion of $1m USD to around
>> 2.46kg
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>>

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