[Talk-us] [OSM-talk] Slack

Greg Morgan dr.kludge.gm at gmail.com
Fri Apr 1 07:22:07 UTC 2016


On Tue, Mar 29, 2016 at 12:52 PM, Martijn van Exel  wrote:

> I find this a really worthwhile conversation to have. IRC is still great
> for some but it’s hardly inclusive. I like Slack and started using it early
> on. We set up an OSM US Slack, initially just for the board to coordinate,
> but we extended it to be open for all soon. They even give us free stuff
> because we’re a not-for-profit organization. I am a lurker on the Maptime
> slack and member of ~10 Slack organizations total. I introduced Slack at my
> workplace and it has gained great popularity there since. I like how Slack
> could help support a more inclusive OSM community.
>
>
I would think that the US Board should add another board member to be a
communications manager.  I now understand why corporations have paid staff
that do nothing but manage all these communication options.  For example,
 I was surprised to find that the call for US SOTM 2016 was open.  I missed
it because I don't always catch the board blog.  Had there been a board
position to send an email here, then another part of the community would
have received the message.  In a recent email chain about the US relation
tool, Martijn mentioned that he was wrapped around the axle going ca-thump,
ca-thump. I asked for permission to fix the 2015 SOTMUS page and create the
2016 SOTMUS page. The backing email is attached.  Martijn sends out a
tweet.  I see that I missed posting about it here. Oh and I have to sign up
for talk-ca to complete that important announcement too.  However, I don't
want to step on the organizing committee's toes and role in process.
That's where if feels like another board position is required to make sure
all these communication channels are filled. (I need to push the 2015 video
page edits to the weekend. Plans fizzle but I will get it done.)

Frederik mentioned Git.  I remember watching Git unfold.  Linus was taking
heat for using the proprietary Bit Keeper software to manage the Linux
Kernel development.  I think there was a Bit Keeper license violation.  As
I recall proprietary a company/person taunted Linux developers that crowd
sourced software couldn't match a system like Bit Keeper. Roughly 18 months
later, Git was complete/stable.  The software was functional and useful
much earlier than 18 months.  It seems like all creatures great and small
use the github.com site without thinking about it.  Github is a well
crafted wrapper around Git.

On the one hand, I understand all the paywalls out there that provide
different communication features.  I am concerned about the future openness
of the web when it appears that all the foundational RFCs are taken behind
these paywalls.  It almost feels like Facebook is recreating the web as a
private web. New hotness X is all the some people use.  It is hard to reach
out to these people if you do not use new hotness X to do so.  On the other
hand, there may be missed potential systems like Git if we don't stick to
our "Open Source/Open Data" guns so to speak.

I have two more thoughts.  The first is related to SOTMUS. At one time last
year there was a hope of having regional conferences.  Then the SOTMUS 2016
call for locations went out.  I am curios.  Was there an interesting
discussion on, say, Slack? Did the board forget to explain why the regional
conferences were dropped? Did the board flat out forget to think about it?

My second thought is about the legal thing.  Let's say the board had an
interesting discussion regarding the pros and cons about bringing in the
Harvard people using slack. Let's say that the board thought other people
were watching on slack or whatever you do. tick tock tick tock.  Now that
time passed and the Harvard people are discovered, the board lost the
message because the postmortem conversation looked like the board was way
too private and secretive.

By all means, I am not out running the lynch mob after the board.  I am
using these examples to show how hard communication can be. In our current
age, I think that an already difficult communication process grows as each
of these slack like tools is adopted.

Just like Betty White, I am on the Twitter.  I just don't have enough
cycles to use it.  More importantly, I need to have time to contribute at
least one change set a day big or small.  That's that way I can set out to
rule the world each day just like Pinky and the Brain.  ;-)

Regards,
Greg




Greg -- this is great. Thank you so much for getting this organized. Let me
tweet out a link to the wiki so folks are aware of it. Feel free to post to
talk-us / talk-ca too of course.

On Sat, Mar 26, 2016 at 12:13 AM Greg Morgan wrote:

> On Fri, Mar 25, 2016 at 8:33 AM, Martijn van Exel wrote:
>
>> Thanks Greg! I took the liberty to remove the call for bids from the 2016
>> page as this part of the process is behind us. Please feel free to organize
>> the page based on previous’ years pages or add your own flavor.
>>
>> Martijn
>>
>>
> No problem. I now have a substantial skeleton completed for you all.  Hack
> away on it or modify it as you see fit.  My biggest contribution is that
> you are not looking at a blank page.
>
> * I used html < ! - -  comment - - > sans the spaces to hide information
> like the SOTMUS 2016 audience.jpg photo.
> * I created the hack day on a wiki sub page.
> * Ditto for the video and conference page.  This is more of a post
> conference reference page but may be a useful copy of the official
> conference site.
> * There are the customary room sharing, ride sharing, and I am going
> sections.
> * I could not get the EventBrite one to 100 list of registrations link
> working but the 2016 link is in the page.  Please help if you know the
> secret hand shake.
>
> Here is the link again
> http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/State_Of_The_Map_U.S._2016
>
>
> Back on the main SOTM page, I added section headers to make the US
> conference list stand out better.
> Here is the link again
> http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/State_Of_The_Map#2013_2
>
> The 2015 "post conference" video reference is next on my list.
>
> Regards,
> Greg
>
>
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