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

[Joseph Reeves]

Dear all,

I've enjoyed reading these emails this week, but have stayed out of the
discussion. I just wanted to clarify some quick points:


   1. I have not discussed my running for the OSMF Board with any other
   candidates
   2. I have not discussed my running for the OSMF Board with the HOT
   group. I did sent an email to the listserv [0] but got no feedback other
   than the suggestion that I send it to the public HOT list after initially
   only sending it to the Members' list
   3. I am not convinced that the answered questions uncover any HOT
   colluding
   4. I view my HOT Membership as the recognition that I previously have
   made a commitment / contribution to HOT
   5. I have no decision making powers within HOT - I am a member just as I
   am an OSMF Member
   6. I am not a member of a secret society that controls HOT from the
   shadows. I don't think such a thing exists, although I would check that
   there have been no pizza vans parked outside the OSMF HQ for a suspiciously
   long time

I look forward to the ongoing election process and am genuinely excited
about the next OSMF Board term. Hopefully I can be a part of it!

Thanks, Joseph


[0] https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/hot/2015-November/010561.html

On 28 November 2015 at 10:32, Christoph Hormann <chris_hormann at gmx.de>
wrote:

> On Saturday 28 November 2015, Tom Taylor wrote:
> > [...]
> >
> > 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?
>
> Within the general OSM community it is probably not a widespread
> assumption that there is a cabal within HOT that pulls the strings
> behind the curtains - although there are events where you can get this
> idea - like when several people from HOT suddenly turn up in a
> discussion all representing the same standpoint.  But many mappers
> notice that people engaged with HOT often share certain views and
> approaches to things that are less common among other mappers.  You can
> see this to some extent in the answers to the questions for the OSMF
> board candidates.
>
> So when people have reservations w.r.t. board candidates with a HOT
> background this does not necessarily mean they have a problem with the
> HOT project or its organization or its influence on the OSMF.  It could
> simply be they have reservations regarding the views shared by those
> people which could well be the same views that also motivated them for
> participating in HOT.
>
> > I note the references to Kate Chapman as representative of HOT. She
> > is no longer executive director there.
>
> This probably deserves some clarification:  In contrast to the OSMF
> where everyone able to spend the membership fee can become member
> membership of the HOT origanization is restricted, the current members
> vote who can become a new member.  See
>
> https://hotosm.org/voting-members
>
> Also in contrast to the OSMF activities of the HOT membership are not
> generally public (feel free to correct me if i am wrong here).  Also
> HOT members have certain obligations of contributing to HOT activities
> as outlined on
>
> https://hotosm.org/sites/default/files/HOT_Membership_Code.pdf
>
> According to the available information Kate is a member of HOT - so are
> several candidates for the OSMF board:
>
> Mikel Maron
> Joseph Reeves
> Yantisa Akhadi
>
> Other candidates are active in HOT to some extent (like participating in
> HOT mapping tasks) but are not members of the HOT organization.
>
> --
> Christoph Hormann
> http://www.imagico.de/
>
> _______________________________________________
> talk mailing list
> talk at openstreetmap.org
> https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk
>
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