[Osmf-talk] Awareness on Membership software (CiviCRM) issues under Membership WG and Board review

[Mikel Maron]

OSMF has plenty of amazing enthusiastic and skilled volunteers -- I joined
the EWG this year and I'm really impressed with the team. The CWG has been
cranking out pieces, including the 20th Birthday site. Frederik is on the
DWG and they've been valiantly defending OSM from attack. Folks are putting
themselves forward for the Board elections. Etc etc. The OSMF is doing just
fine in many ways, thank you. Still membership systems have issues.

The OSMF uses third party services extensively. Largely based on open
source software, but not entirely. Without those services we wouldn't have
a place for video meetings, docs to share, email to send. Distribute tiles.
OSM wouldn't be able to exist at all if not for a vast network of services,
companies, universities, volunteers, and (gasp) paid staff. Still
membership systems have issues.

CivicCRM has long had issues. I'm really not sure why it's been so
difficult. Personally I always found CiviCRM a pain to use and manage. None
of the suggestions made are new -- more robust development and deployment,
paid services, etc. Trust me, it's all been considered. People have spent a
lot of time. People have been hired. Still there's problems. Whatever the
solution, the top priority should be a system that works and doesn't create
headaches, when there's so much else to do.

However the membership system issues are ultimately sorted out, I think
most of all it needs *someone* to be responsible for the long term and
willing to figure out solutions. It looks like several folks are jumping in
and are hard at work in the current situation. They are much appreciated.
We don't need idle ideology and armchair management. After this crisis, we
need practical decision-making and hard work.

Happy Birthday OSM!


On Fri, Aug 9, 2024 at 5:58 AM Christoph Hormann via osmf-talk <
osmf-talk at openstreetmap.org> wrote:

> On Friday 09 August 2024, Frederik Ramm wrote:
> >
> > While this sounds like a reasonable request, I fear that it will lead
> > to calls of replacing the free, open, and self-hosted CiviCRM with a
> > closed-source, siloed, software-as-a-service thingie operated by a
> > third party for money.
>
> I am aware this is how some people try to spin it now - that has nothing
> to do with what i actually suggested though.  My suggestion has nothing
> to do with the choice of software, it is about whatever software is
> used being operated in a robust and scalable way and decisions about
> its configuation and how it operates being made in a reliable, self
> determined and transparent fashion.
>
> The OSMF has substantial experience and a good track record in operating
> software in this manner in its core operations.  That the tools used
> are open source is necceessary, but in no way sufficient to ensure
> this.
>
> And since the question will inevitably come up:  The OSM community also
> has the expertise, capacity and enthusiasm necessary to cover the human
> ressources side of this.  That capacity is just - at least at the
> moment - largely inaccessible to the OSMF because of its organizational
> culture being so different from that of the larger OSM community.
>
> --
> Christoph Hormann
> https://www.imagico.de/
>
> _______________________________________________
> osmf-talk mailing list
> osmf-talk at openstreetmap.org
> https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/osmf-talk
>
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