[OSM-talk] diversity amongst DWG members

[Frederik Ramm]

Hi,

On 20.09.2012 13:46, Lucas Nussbaum wrote:
> Are there plans to increase diversity amongst members of the DWG?

We've long been looking for native speakers of a couple of Eastern 
European languages (Russian, Ukrainian) because an above-average number 
of disputes arise in that area and it would be great to have the support 
of a native speaker or two.

Having said that, DWG is not actively recruiting - we're keeping our 
eyes open and dropping a hint here and there and will consider 
applications when we get them, but we don't have a recruiting drive 
going, for fear of attracting the wrong people (those who feel that DWG 
would give them power). And while language capabilities are great, the 
most important thing in a DWG member is that they can listen to people, 
that they are reasonably polite and don't allow themselves to be drawn 
into an argument too quickly. So if we have another good person from the 
UK or Canada or Germany applying we certainly won't sent them away just 
because we'd prefer someone from South America.

You may, from this discussion, get the impression that DWG is a powerful 
police force who make their own rules and block anyone who doesn't 
listen. In reality, DWG work means that you spend a lot of time trying 
to mediate mini conflicts. A mapper calls and complains that another 
mapper has deleted his work; you contact the other mapper and they claim 
that no, the other guy was at fault because he made too many errors and 
didn't listen, and so on - all the time you try and find out what has 
really happened, and who is to blame, and what you can do to make these 
people work together instead of against each other. We're not looking 
for jurors, judges, or policemen at DWG, we don't need politicians or 
the hot-headed and trigger-happy; we mostly need kindergarten teachers ;)

Bye
Frederik

-- 
Frederik Ramm  ##  eMail frederik at remote.org  ##  N49°00'09" E008°23'33"