[OSM-talk] Busy bee

[Etienne]

Steve
Can you clarify a couple of things please:

> For the initial vote as defined in the IRC discussion everyone on this
> mailing list (as of when this email goes out) or an OSM user is
> _eligible_ to become a member and can therefore vote. To become a member
> you need to paypal me 5 pounds or write me a hand-written snail mail
> letter.

I can read this in two different ways, either:

For the initial vote as defined in the IRC discussion everyone on this
mailing list (as of when this email goes out) or an OSM user is
 _eligible_ to become a member and can therefore vote in the initial vote.

Or:
For the initial vote as defined in the IRC discussion everyone on this
mailing list (as of when this email goes out) or an OSM user is
 _eligible_ to become a member and can therefore vote if they become a member.

Secondly, its not clear whether the initial vote is for just for the
positions of Chair, Treasurer and Secretary or for the other positions
mentioned in the IRC discussion as well.  I assume its just for the
three officers, but it would be helpful to have clarification of this.

Etienne





On 5/21/06, SteveC <steve at asklater.com> wrote:
> Hi everyone
>
> Since the OSMF discussions I've been quite busy with a number of things
> including the IoW, Mapchester and Xtech and have sort of dropped the
> ball in exercising my defacto benevolent emporor status.
>
> One thing these events did do was allow me to talk in person to quite a
> few OSM contributors in person and get a feel for how they felt about
> OSM, OSMF and where things were going. Everyone seems to think it'll
> take over the universe which is satisfying.
>
> Discussion in person and on the list seemed to stall at the 'what is a
> member' stage. In person talking to a number of people (ben deserves
> credit) a way out emerged that I didn't get any major disagreement with:
>
> For the initial vote as defined in the IRC discussion everyone on this
> mailing list (as of when this email goes out) or an OSM user is
> _eligible_ to become a member and can therefore vote. To become a member
> you need to paypal me 5 pounds or write me a hand-written snail mail
> letter.
>
> There are no second-class members, both methods afford the same
> priviliege. Parallel to this, people wishing to fulfil positions can be
> nominated or self-nominate. The initial people voted in will then decide
> on things as per the IRC discussion.
>
> The first vote will be held in three weeks time, the 11th June using the
> Single Transferrable Vote. I'm open on how long the poll should stay
> open.
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_Transferrable_Vote
>
> Oversight. Someone should verify that I'm not allocating/burning votes
> and so on. I suggest that two independent people write simple voting
> software and people vote at both sites and then these are compared. I'll
> write/reuse one, someone can volunteer for the other. If this is
> significantly diagreeable then I can just open up the member list etc to
> someone people agree on. I'm not going to ship the entire member list to
> everybody, it'd be an invasion of privacy and we don't have a policy.
> Yet.
>
>
> Why this system? Because it shows effort and covers both bases. Most
> people I spoke to are happy to pay some minimal amount of money to
> become a member, vote and get on with it. Some people feel that they're
> already contributing a lot or that money should not be an issue. It's a
> view I can understand, I share it with other organisations I'm involved
> in. In this case, sending me a letter shows some effort and costs next
> to nothing. Interesting postcards get bonus points :-)
>
> It also tackles in a minimal way the 'I'll register a 100 members'
> thing. Well, you now need 500 quid or 100 hand written letters.
>
> In summary, this isn't perfect and we're finding our feet. Rather than
> stall on the issue of membership, I've tried to find a practicable
> solution and as the IRC/mailing list  discussion went, those voted will
> figure out the issues longer term.
>
> Pleas email me to get my snail mail address.
>
> I suggest http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/index.php/Foundation is a good
> place to keep track of things.
>
> Here's the IRC summary etc:
>
> http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/index.php/Meetings::20060405
>
> I hereby nominate myself for Chairman.
>
>
>
> Another issue: A couple of people have mentioned that they'd like local
> OSM groups and lists in other languages. The first one will be local-gb
> (great britain) and Nick Black'll run it. Drop me a line if anyone wants
> a mailing list etc.
>
>
> have fun,
>
> SteveC steve at asklater.com http://www.asklater.com/steve/
>
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