[OSM-talk] From osmf-talk: "Balancing the presence of the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT US Inc) in the OpenStreetMap Foundation"

[Tom Taylor]

Thank you for a thought-provoking reply. I am neither a HOT voting 
member nor an OSMF voting member, so I'm probably unaware of any 
internal politics that are going on. I do chair the HOT Training WG, 
which I see as an attempt to solve a problem: hundreds or thousands of 
volunteers who want to contribute and have to be made capable of doing 
so in a very short time. And I do see a general trend toward 
professionalization of HOT operations, more or less for the same reasons.

As a naive lurker on the lists, I took the announced candidacies at face 
value. That is, committed individuals decided individually to run for 
office. I agree that if all of them got elected, HOT would dominate the 
Board, but that is surely not a foregone conclusion. But do you really 
have evidence of a HOT conspiracy as opposed to a set of committed 
individuals?

I note the references to Kate Chapman as representative of HOT. She is 
no longer executive director there. Is she not up for re-election?

Tom Taylor
TomT5454

On 27/11/2015 6:27 PM, augustindoury at gmail.com wrote:
> Hi Dave,
>
> Your question is not adressed to me but I'd like to participate here.
>
> My name is Augustin Doury, I've been active in OpenStreetMap since end
> 2012 as a daily commitment to sustain the growth of OSM communities in
> West Africa, especially on the field in Senegal where I've been a HOT
> volunteer for 5 months and last year as a Projet Espace OpenStreetMap
> Francophone volunteer in Burkina Faso for 1 year, plus missions in Ivory
> Coast (volunteer) and Togo (paid). I'm a HOT US Inc member since 2013.
>
> Because I've seen what HOT became this last 3 years, I don't want to see
> OSM project suffering the same problems as the HOT project.
>
> As others, I think that HOT is a project about using OSM in humanitarian
> and development fields, and as any open/free project, everybody should
> be able to choose his/her approach within the HOT concept but what
> occurs now is that choices are more and more restricted, less choices
> for individuals and collectives.
> Because HOT US Inc, with its specific vision, has almost monopolized the
> HOT project in terms of communication&tools (the logo, the communication
> channels, the lists, the story/reputation, the Tasking Manager, the HOT
> Exports  ...), I fear that a position at the OSMF board reinforce its
> influence.
>
> During the two pasts HOT US Inc elections, I tried as others to give
> this point of view and advocate for the definition of a HOT Project with
> a HOT Charter and HOT Commons that any individual or organization could
> concur with and even officially join and/or fund, as explained by
> Severin Menard on his diary [1]. It's for us, in our diversity, the good
> way to maintain diversity in the HOT Project, respecting minorities.
> I've seen how the HOT US board rejected this approach, saying that there
> is not HOT US Inc, there is just HOT and HOT US Inc is HOT and should
> not be called « US Inc » because it creates dividness within the HOT
> community. I've seen the level of violence some HOT US Inc people were
> able to trigger to close the debate without respect for those who work
> hard everyday, especially from the field, for making what the HOT
> project is now.
>
> The concept of attribution is essential in the OSM project and I feel
> like HOT US Inc, by its communication hegemony, benefits from the work
> of numerous volunteers from South and North who give their time for the
> HOT/OSM project, not for a NGO (which is nowadays in an active
> fundraising campain).
>
> I would not like to see this logic implements in OSMF. And simply I do
> not understand the aim of the candidates from HOT US Inc to get more
> seats at the OSMF board when Kate Chapman is already a board member.
> In my opinion, HOT US Inc should not get more than one seat to let the 6
> other seats to people who represent other aspects from the OSM ecoystem.
>
> Have a good night from Togo and good vote,
>
> Augustin
>
> [1] http://www.openstreetmap.org/user/sev_hotosm/diary/21846
>
...