[Osmf-talk] Conflict of interest rules for WGs

[Craig Allan]

Responding to Tobias,

In the interests of good governance I do support each WG adopting 
consistent Conflict of Interest (COI) rules. We could provide a template 
to assist in this process.

Some comments on the Board rules and DWG rules follow:

I don't like the DWG putting in an external hyperlink to third-party 
rules that we do not control.  I'd prefer our own good definitions to be 
directly incorporated into the definitions section.  The Board rules 
already define COI pretty well and do mention family members without 
defining them.

The DWG rules refer to a "case" that someone is involved in. OSM is not 
a legal firm. A COI will normally only arise if the group is making a 
decision that materially affects the interest of one or more parties. 
Can we refer throughout to "decision" instead of "case".  The Board 
rules refer to a "COI situation", which is IMHO a bit vague.

I would tidy up the DWG wording and make the four bulleted points more 
explicit by adding in all the implied words and leaving out the hyperlink.

If we align with the Board rules, then the DWG rules should say that a 
conflicted member must declare a possible conflict to the group. The 
group should then vote on the significance of the declared possible 
conflict and decide if the COI is material (or not).  If the COI is 
material to the decision, the member can be silenced or in serious 
cases, fully excluded (recused).  Whatever the outcome, the declaration 
and WG decision should always be minuted.

Note that the conflict of interest hyperlink in the DWG rules doesn't 
jump to the relevant paragraph. Its section 182 if you're interested.  
In any event, Section 182 does not define what a conflict of interest 
is. It defines other stuff. That's a big gap.  We do need to define a 
COI properly in WG rules, or point an internal link to our existing 
internal definition in the Board rules.

And a suggestion for the DWG - under International disputes, the 
citizenship of a DWG member and their family members, not only their 
place of residence, should trigger a possible COI.

HTH

Craig Allan
OSM: cRaIgalLAn

On 2020/09/18 19:42, Tobias Knerr wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> a few months ago, the OSMF board adopted rules on conflicts of interest¹.
>
> Most of the Foundation's work happens in working groups or special
> committees rather than on the board, though. Some of these groups have
> existing rules, such as the DWG Conflict of Interest Policy², while
> others do not.
>
> The board has been deliberating whether such groups should also be
> subject to rules on conflicts of interest, and if so, how these rules
> should look. We are interested in hearing your thoughts on this topic!
>
> Yours,
> Tobias
>
> ¹
> https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Conflict_of_Interest_Policy
>
> ²
> https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Data_Working_Group/DWG_Conflict_of_Interest_Policy
>
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