[OSM-talk] Import guidelines & OSMF/DWG governance

[Christian Rogel]

Le 20 sept. 2012 à 13:22, Lester Caine a écrit :

> sly (sylvain letuffe) wrote:
>> We can get back to the topic of governance and discussion about those laws and
>> who decide them, and how.
> Or just get back to fixing the process in the first place?
> SO we have less chance of misinterpreting the 'guidelines'?

Yes, it is all about governance and not only a technical issue, although many pound for 
reducing the debate to it.

OSM is going more and more political (not in the sense of ordinary politics, of course).

Some decisions elaborated on technical have to be reviewed and weighed by the 
only "political" body we have, namely the Board.

There is no way having a Board which says it is always sticking to our brilliant technical team,
whatever they decide.

We know they are all overworked, so it is not for being reproachful to anybody.

The Board can put a loose lead on minor matters, but not on decisions that affect potentially
every contributor and having put mandatory a separated count, as having blocked whithout
an inquiry about the fact fall in this category.
And these were a matter of official announcement.

Some unforeseen reactions will happen more and more, but they will have to be treated
"politically".

If the Board refuse to manage ours affairs this way, it will be  overtaken more and more,
as the community grows and as more and data will be liberated.

It can take the risk to be cornered and make dangerous or exaggerated decisions.

Furthermore, local communities will express desires and propositions.

The Board must go further and have deep reflections about le "political governance" of
the OSMF

I repeat that it will be a major concern in the future Annual General Meetings and elsewhere.




For illustrating the import issues, not only public geodata were integrated (meaning letting correct data 
in their places) under the authority of the Brest District (Communauté urbaine. 240 000 inh.)
for itds territory, but a whole area of 1500 km2, mainly OSM vacant, was added, municipality after 
municipality, by the GIS of  the previous body.

I am pounding on my own local administration for having the same integration for completing
and correcting a buildings import from the Cadastre having been cast unexpectedly by a 
Dutch citizen.
A bunch of us, in the French community, were working hard for merge thousands parts of 
the buildings.
I was happy to see my work enriched, but I do not seek for learning  how to import, 
as the GIS is very  good.
I concentrate my efforts on footways, cycleways, green spots, transports...

This Dutch made a good thing : he created a special count. this was 2 years ago. ;-).

In France, more and more public GIS are considering having their geodata open, and cast
into OSM for many public-friendly applications that could not be handled from their 
database directly.
They are interested in working with the general public for signalling incidents and
local issues and with local mappers for survey and proposing.

Christian Rogel
OSMF member