In preparation for the 2015 OSMF board election I am gathering basic info and question responses by candidate, to help people be better informed about their choices.

I’ve added annotations in italics where I felt they would be useful.

Mikel Maron

• Location: USA
• OSM User mikelmaron
• Manifesto

Questions

Where do you currently participate in the OSMF?

In the past, I have served on almost every working group, except Operations. Currently, I am on the SotM WG, and anticipate joining the LCWG again. Most every working group needs more help, and I will promote and recruit heavily for more participation from OSMF members and the broader community

Which contributions to OSM should I consider for my decision beyond your data edits at OSM?

• I mapped Brighton, UK
• Facilitated mapping in places from the West Bank, to Nigeria, to Swaziland
• I co-founded Map Kibera
• I co-founded Huanitarian OpenStreetMap Team
• I’m on https://github.com/mikelmaron. I’ve contributed to OSM website, got the first version of OSM on Garmin and the iPhone, worked on the OSM Tasking Manager. Most recently, I’ve been working on analysis and metrics of OSM.
• I’ve written numerous tutorials, spoke at tons of conferences, and represented OSM projects in venues from community meetings in slums, to international political gatherings. Important point … editing and programming are critical contributions to OSM, but there are other skills we need on the Board.

Do you use OSM at work for business purposes?

I work at Mapbox on the data team. My focus is on leveraging work here for the widest possible benefit to OSM. I’ve previously worked at the State Department, as a Presidential Innovation Fellow, on MapGive. Prior to that, I consulted on OSM related projects through GroundTruth Initiative.

Conflicts of Interest

I work for Mapbox, and am active in the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team. I am very familiar with management of Conflict of Interest. When there are items that clearly touch on my interests, I will recuse myself appropriately. In any case, in all my work, my core interest is helping OSM. Does OSMF have a clear Conflict of Interest policy? I can’t find this. If not, we need one. > http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2006/46/section/175 which I’m sure you were aware of from your previous position on the board. » Thanks. Important to understand the laws under which osmf operates. But I was asking about the policy, which guides exactly how osmf handles CoI (how it’s divulged, when and how we recuse, etc).

Who should the OSMF serve?

I want to turn this question around. OSM is made up of what we contribute to it. Whether we are contributing map data, software, design, amazing uses, community building & communication … we are serving OSM. OSMF should be the same. OSM Foundation can be a place to focus and route our energies beyond the map, a place where we can serve OSM in ways that excite us.

Role of the board

The Board needs to focus on facilitating high level strategic direction of OSMF, maintain fiduciary and legal responsibility for the entity, needs to determine budget and resources (whether in assets, volunteer time, or paid time) necessary to maintain the core of OSM (the servers, domains, data and IP), and support the communication and interaction of the community. As much as possible, the Board needs to push the actual activities of the OSMF to working groups, chapters, and people retained for services.

Communication with the community

I’m subscribed to a large number of mailing lists, try to hang in IRC, follow many OSM folks on Twitter, regularly read weekly-osm, frequently chat with OSM folks on Skype, read and post OSM diary entries. It’s a huge volume, and honestly we need to become more focused and strategic from an OSMF perspective. I do like the idea of regularly scheduled “office hours” with the OSMF. And I welcome anyone to directly reach out to me anytime.

Community involvement in OSMF

Greater involvement of Local Chapters. Excellent communication on OSMF and Working Group needs. Active recruiting drives for participation.

Diversity

From Map Kibera and HOT, and my work at State Department, I have strong connections and understandings of communities around the world, especially those not well represented in OSMF. As I talk about in my position statement, I believe enhancing the participation of Local Chapters is critical to increasing geographic diversity. Improving diversity in gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation and otherwise is very much needed in OSM generally, and I will support specific outreach and communication to make sure OSM is a welcoming place.

Paying People

I’ll quote Frederik Ramm, he here expresses a pretty sensible view similar to mine.

“there’s quite an acceptable middle ground to be found … In the current board, we agreed to take it slow - to accept that in the long run we will likely be employing a few people, and to say: Let’s learn how to do this, as an organisation, slowly, let’s start with hiring an administrative assistant for 1-2 days a week and let them do some of the tasks that currently are either being dropped or being reluctantly done.”

There are probably other tasks which are best done by paid consultants or employees. Let’s look carefully at OSMF needs, and match with the best options for resourcing. Let’s get the organization prepared to hire people, if it’s found necessary.

Board term limits

This has not been an issue. I do however wonder if a 3 year term is too lengthy. Would be interested to explore reducing to two years. Will of course serve for as long as required.

Transparency

Boards need to be both transparent, and also have space to discuss confidential issues. I would support periodic public Board meetings of some kind, and willing to consider open vote reporting, though I don’t have a solid opinion either way right now. I’d also support greater transparency through general greater accessibility of the Board outside of meetings, and more communication.

License violation enforcement

I’m not sure these cases are handled in any consistent mechanism. And whatever the mechanism, it shouldn’t become more prosecutorial. Agree this is mostly unintentional. Good and clear communication about what is needed to work with OSM is the key here.

Imports and remote mapping stance

Imports and remote mapping and surveying all have a place in OSM. I have done all and support all, when done well. Key is good communication and a productive environment to improve our map. And, better tools for monitoring and QA on OSM data are something I am eager to facilitate.

Commercial and Organized Editing Policy stance

Everyone has incentives and motivations for doing OSM. We should focus on, no matter what their incentive, that people coming to OSM can grow a passion for the mission of OSM and embrace of our values. Policies that apply to one group or another don’t encourage this. The best way to do that is through better communication, transparency, and a welcoming spirit.

At State of the Map US 2015, I asked the audience how many people worked on some aspect of OSM as part of their job … nearly 40% raised their hands. Many of us are lucky enough for our passions and work to coincide. That includes mappers, and in my experience, passion for the mission of OpenStreetMap is inseparable from doing a great job in OSM.

I work at Mapbox, with the Data team. I invite anyone with questions to learn more concreatly about what’s happening here, it’s pretty exciting. Read more on the Mapbox blog and the Mapbox mapping public repo.

Mikel’s employer has a team of employees who edit OpenStreetMap