How do we better organize to support the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team organization, staff, membership, and community? We have been on a journey to open up and consider what is the best way forward for HOT’s Governance. Now that we have the HOT Living Strategy, we have more incentive to imagine how we might evolve. We are taking stock of our governance and investigating how we might be able to encourage more people to engage in the governance of HOT.

The HOT Governance Working Group (GWG) started the process of research and engagement with the HOT membership in January 2023. We’ve documented this process in the GWG meeting minutes. Together we designed a terms of reference to hire support to help us research some initial bylaw adjustments and wider organizational needs and structures.

Our first big research is exploring how we govern with the board and to better support the membership chair. There will be future steps and research to consider the role of the membership and how we collaborate with the Open Mapping Hubs.

The board and membership asked us to consider the following topics: the possibility of appointed board members, board member stipends, and membership chair term. See the current HOT bylaws

Why the proposed changes

The HOT voting members have a wide range of skills, and have brought much insight and change to the organization. Currently, HOT’s board is elected from and by the voting membership. Over the past years, HOT board and organization have identified gaps in key expertise for the board, including legal, finance and large-scale fundraising. This has been documented in various OSM diary posts, the HOT board election discussions, and the Board and GWG meeting minutes.

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Editor note: Written by Heather Leson, Dinar Adiatma, and Can Unen

Having the most up-to-date and accurate map data is crucial for emergency response. The OpenStreetMap community and partners create this to support humanitarians. The OSM data is shared on the Humanitarian Data Exchange and is used to develop information management (IM) products for decision-makers responding to emergencies.

This short note is to help new mappers get started and to encourage data quality. The local Turkish community, Yer Çizenler, and HOTOSM coordinate this activation. For Syria, mapping is more complex as it is a conflict zone. HOT is working closely with OSM colleagues and partners to assess any HOT tasks in Syria carefully. As it is a conflict zone, we will collaborate to ensure that HOTOSM Task Manager OSM contributions cause no harm. We are here to help the helpers. We know that many want to help. We ask that you talk with other mappers to learn and help the responders while respecting the local guidance.

Data quality is important in OpenStreetMap (OSM) because it directly affects the accuracy and usefulness of the map. All data should be fit for purpose, and to make it fit purpose, it requires a minimum gap. Poor data quality can lead to incorrect or outdated information, negatively impacting the people relying on OSM for navigation, planning, and decision-making. Learn more here.

Contacts - The HOT Activation Coordinator contacts can be found on the OSM wiki

New Mappers

Are you new to OSM? This is a complex emergency, and we are glad to help you get started:

1. See basic videos on how to map via MapGive
2. Review Learn OSM and see the OSM wiki guidance for this emergency
3. Observe the daily live stream and join a mapathon
4. Use the MapRoulette challenges of Yer Çizenlerto tag the collapsed buildings from verified datasets.
5. Join the HOTOSM slack channels for #disastermapping and #mappersupport
6. Ask for help - the community is here to support your OSM journey

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Like many open projects/communities/organizations, we are asking questions about how we better organize and engage. We are asking how to get more people involved in our efforts. This post is about seeking help from the community as we shift governance models in Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT). (There is also an update about the Etiquette/Moderation guidelines (see below).)

The “Call to Action” in December 2021 noted the need across OSM’s communities to 1. shift etiquette/moderation (codes of conduct) and 2. adjust governance. In 2021, I participated in a effort to update etiquette and moderation in OSM/OSMF. This year I am leading efforts, as chair of the HOT’s Governance Working Group, to focus on revising HOT governance. As much as I have questions about OSMF and OSM organizational and membership work, this post and my diary entries on governance (going forward) will focus on HOT’s governance.

Both HOT and OMSF have board of directors. There are contributors, supporters, members, partners, and allies across both organizations and the wider community of communities. Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) has a Board of Directors and a Governance Working Group. Overall, getting involved as a volunteer in the organization change and leadership can be daunting. We want to open up and help be more diverse, equitable and inclusive in our governance - the people, the models and the overall way we work.

How you can help

The HOT Governance Working Group (GWG) is exploring how we can be more open, what changes do we need to our governance models and membership engagement. Our goal is to help more people shape our future and potentially be board members or take up other governance roles in the future. For example, the HOT GWG used to be a membership only group. We changed that. The HOT community and allies are most welcome to join us. This year we have some goals:

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We seek your community input - please help us by sharing the Etiquette guidelines and giving input on the OSM wiki by September 8, 2021. We also have some upcoming consultation meetings to hear your views. ## Announcement

The LCCWG moderation subcommittee is holding two online public meetings about the revisions to the current Etiquette Guidelines, which are now open for public comment.

The draft guidelines are found here, with comments open to Sept 8:

Both public online meetings will be held via Big Blue Button in this room:

Two timeslots to accommodate a global audience.

Meeting #1: Thursday September 2; 1400 UTC (your time zone)

7 AM Pacific Time (US) 10 AM Eastern Time (US) 2 PM UTC 4 PM Central European Time

Meeting #2: Saturday, September 4; 06:00 UTC (your time zone)

11:00 PM Pacific Time (US; evening of Sept 3) 02:00 AM Eastern Time (US) 06:00 AM UTC 08:00 AM Central European Time 09:00 Nairobi 11:45 Kathmandu 1300 Jakarta 1400 Manila 1600 Sydney

Give input on the OSM wiki by September 8, 2021

See full details for the Etiquette and moderation process on the wiki -. The draft guidelines are found here, with comments open to Sept 8th, 2021

With thanks on behalf of the subcommittee

Over 6 months ago, OpenStreetMap (OSM) and OpenStreetMap Foundation (OSMF) members, community supporters, organizations, and allies called for change in how OSM and OSMF conduct themselves.

We asked:

“The OpenStreetMap Foundation (OSMF) and OpenStreetMap (OSM) need to prioritize diversity and inclusion in positions of power and governance. We recommend a renewal and implementation of an OSM Code of Conduct and deliver on the next recommended stages for a diverse and inclusive OSM and OSMF. We want the OSMF to ask itself: who does it exist to serve? How can we be more open?”

Resource: A Call to Take Action and Confront Systemic Offensive Behaviour in the OSM Community »>The original document»>

The Result:

The OSMF board asked the Local Chapters and Community Working Group (LCCWG) to form a subcommittee on “Moderation”. This group has been meeting and coordinating since January 2021 (lead by Maggie Cawley, OSM US).

“In December 2020, the OpenStreetMap Foundation (OSMF) Board set out to “find partners to help instate a moderator team for the OSMF-talk and talk mailing lists” and in their December 2020 meeting requested that the LCCWG take the lead on this initiative. Subsequently, this group has been formed as a subcommittee of LCCWG. The Moderation Subcommittee is a temporary group of OSM community members working on this Scope of Work via this Implementation Plan. Learn more about participants and find links to any draft documents on the Subcommittee’s page. “

The Ask - Give feedback by August 18, 2021:

The LCCWG Moderation Subcommittee solicits community input on its DRAFT Process for Moderation, which would apply to the osm- and osmf-talk mailing lists. Hosted in the OSM wiki, the Discussion page is open for comments until August 18, 2021.

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Here we are again - OSMF election season. A comment on our OSMF-talk governance mailing list caused many OSM communities and individuals to join up for the purpose of the following statement .Signatories and translations are most welcome. See the full document with footnotes and signatories here Let’s do better as a community, project and network.

Summary

The OSMF and OSM need to prioritize diversity and inclusion in positions of power and governance. We recommend a renewal and implementation of an OSM Code of Conduct and deliver on the next recommended stages for a diverse and inclusive OSM and OSMF. We want the OSMF to ask itself: who does it exist to serve? How can we be more open? If you would like to sign this statement, you can do so here and your name will be added to the document:

sign the statement here

Background

We write this statement as OSM community groups, contributors and members, in response to systemic aggressive behaviour that demotivates and excludes participation by women and minority groups in OSM, as well as some men and non-binary genders. This behaviour degrades the spirit of open community culture, and damages the OpenStreetMap reputation. The catalyst for statement was the offensive message sent to the OSM-talk list [], but the systemic behaviours described span many years and many people.”

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Dear colleagues,

OpenStreetMap Foundation is holding board elections soon. You would need to be a member to run. (That deadline has long passed).

Are you thinking of running? Why and why not? Please do you homework - talk with current or past board members. Let’s talk. Feel free to post a response here or reach out directly heatherleson AT gmail DOT com.

The OSMF Board has done great work this year. It is a relief to see such teamwork from the outside. I say this because it is something that is needed to support OSM.

For a global project, we continue to have a diversity and inclusion barrier in governance. I would like to encourage women and people from other regions to run for the OSMF Board.

And when the election nominations and voting begin - please consider what a true global board could be as part of your decision-making.

Thank you for all your passion for this project.

The Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) and its vision to put the most vulnerable people on the map is almost as old as OpenStreetMap (OSM) itself. Over the past 10 years HOT as an organization has focused on programmatic funding and work to accomplish this goal. We are delighted to learn that the Audacious Project is supporting HOT to continue to nourish the growing OSM community globally for humanitarian and development response. This will allow the HOT community and organization to work towards that vision on its own terms and with a longer horizon in mind.

When HOT was envisioned the community network dreamed that mapping would be very local and support humanitarian action.

“The Audacious Project is an initiative that shows what humanity can accomplish when bold ideas meet visionary, generous supporters. Now in its second year, The Audacious Project invites visionary social entrepreneurs and nonprofits to dream big — and helps to shape those dreams into multi-year plans that are both viable and sustainable. The project then invites its coalition of partners — which includes leading nonprofits and individual donors, along with the public — to pool their resources and work together in service of these ambitious ideas. The goal is to amplify the impact of the world’s change-makers and change-funders, and move forward ideas with the potential to impact lives at thrilling scale. The Audacious Project is housed at TED, the nonprofit dedicated to “Ideas Worth Spreading.” About Audicious Project

HOT and Local Communities

HOT’s Announcement

HOT FAQs

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Hi! I trust that you are resting well during this difficult time.

A few of us edited at track for State of the Map all about community engagement, diversity and inclusion. With SOTM making format changes, It seems that the best way forward is to host online discussions for our community based on the following. Stay tuned.

And, again, maps connect us, let’s find ways to support the community of global mappers. Thanks!

Community and Foundation Track - SOTM 2020

Summary This series of SOTM workshops will help us plan and coordinate in person followed by online sessions. These sessions work as a companion to each other building on the who, why and how methods of community building. We aim to be as inclusive as possible across OSM - developers, mappers, technologists, community organizers and more. We want to collaborate with the community to formulate documentation and measurable indicators out of these concurrent workshops.

Co-organizers - Heather and Trudy. Others most welcome.

Key words community, contributions, diversity, gender, leadership, coordination, collaboration, documentation, support, training, governance

community, contribution, collaboration, documentation, governance

Submitted 1800 CET Sunday Feb. 23

Session 1 - Collaborating across Contributors 1 hour

In this 1 hour session, we will discuss and map out the types of contributors to OSM. We will talk about values and spaces to support all the types of contributions to the OSM project.

This interactive session will involve 3 parts and small group work: Small groups - we will learn about “why we contribute to OSM” - 10 minutes User journeys - we will divide into 3 - 4 groups to document the user journeys of the various types of contributions. - 30 minutes Discussing ways to document and make suggestions for improvements 20 minutes Report back and next steps.

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Last week I joined 1000s of other open advocates for 2 full days of https://fosdem.org/2020/ It was good to run into open source friends and OSM allies (Thanks OSM-be for the meetup). The event is actually bigger than 2 days if you count some of the pre-days which were very applicable (SustainOSS and Chaoss).

All the videos/slides are online, so as we consider how we might help OpenStreetMap and OpenStreetMap Foundation communities/members/working groups/board, please do consider reviewing.

Sustain OSS

SustainOSS-pre-event

Community Metrics:

Data-driven change is close to OSM’s culture. For the past years, I’ve been writing that we need a community strategy that uses data as part of our toolkit. The good news is that the Chaoss community health project is doing this. We could learn from them. This could build on the work from last year’s OSM survey, Manfred’s post on statistics, and our concerns noted in the OSM SWOT analysis. There are working groups across “open” communities on Common Metrics, Diversity and Inclusion, Evolution, Risk, and Value. I missed attending this full pre-FOSDEM day event, but all the slides are online:

Chaoss 2020

It would be good for a few of us to engage more with this network. Happy to co-work on this front.

Why do people Contribute?

The talk by James Bottomley on the Selfish Contributor was fascinating. On the one side, it was good to see a framing on the ‘ego’ of one type of contributor. My main concern about the talk is that it reinforced tropes on who contributes and why. He did not cover the heart of community responsibility or community health. We all need to be active in making this a safe, fun, inclusive, and healthy network. Overall, it was good to walk in this line of thinking.

Video: The Selfish Contributor

Legal and Policy

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Over the past years, we’ve hosted sessions at State of the Map, we had some online discussions, and the diversity mailing list provided a space for some discussion and planning. The work of Geochicas has done tremendous headway on what might be possible.

Here are some of the ideas around Diversity that were collected from a small group that met between 2016 - 2018:

Opportunities

• OSM Women Chapter- space, mailing list
• Code of Conduct, guidance for OSM
• Consultation spaces - SOTM global, SOTM Asia, Digital
• Co-Created Draft - what is needed in it
• Implementation - How to get there
• Timeline between 2 - 3 years

Programmes

• Gender-sensitivity training for men / coaching & mentoring for male allies
• Focus on recognition / celebration of women’s accomplishments (versus just opening up positions that have “duties” associated for example)
• Review and revise historical narrative of how OSM / HOT came to be to be sure to include the contributions of women who helped pioneer it but have been overlooked (OSM wiki page?)
• More mapping campaigns around issues of women & girls
• Talking points, recipes for diversity to assist supporters
• Ambassadors to help guide the tone to positive and inclusive [HOT resolution process(osm.wiki/Humanitarian_OSM_Team/Working_groups/Community/HOT_Resolution_Process)
• Promote more leadership by women and individuals from underrepresented places

Challenges

• Tone of the mailing list
• Backlash
• History of the community / momentum
• Bureaucracy of OSM, Working Groups
• Vote approved?
• Enforced how?
• Cultural differences / communication, language
• Lack of familiarity with gender and inclusion best practices
• Timezones
• To keep evolving as the challenges that OSM faces continuously change, along with the challenges that women face change too

Actions

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Here we are on the cusp of 2020. OSMF has elected a new board. Congratulations. But, now we have an all male, all northern/western board for a global open map, open source, and open data community & project.

Over the past years, I have stated quietly (posts, events, face-to-face conversations) that there is a power imbalance. Change happens in governance, I thought, so I ran and lead on both the HOT and OSMF boards to try to address some of this. Passive responses to the issues of gender imbalance, inclusion and diversity of governance have received the following types of responses:

1. It is up to the ‘community.’
2. It is up to the working groups.
3. Prove that there are issues. I don’t see any issues.

Leading up to this last election, I talked with many people to ask them to run. Women would not do so due to toxic environment, power imbalances, reputation targeting, and emotionally draining conversations. This was also the same case cited by leaders from the global majority (sometimes called the global south). People from Asia and Africa told me - the culture of governance in OSM/OSMF is not professional and would not be productive. Simply put - communication is hard in OSM and we need to recognize this.

The gender diversity of the membership a few years ago is about 10 - 12% (I reviewed and hand coded/searched this data from the Membership working group.) Kate Chapman and I wrote about OSM community to cite these gap and outline the ‘community of communities.’ [1] We tried on the volunteer board to talk about this in the sea of all the other priorities. With allies on the diversity mailing list, we’ve hosted sessions about experiences and needs at State of the Map.

What is an open organization?

Being “open” is more than the code or the data. It is about the community around it.

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Thank you for the opportunity to be your OSMF board member these past two years. The experience has been full of teaching moments while I attempted to support this beautiful project and community. It has been an honour to meet people from around the world in this community of communities. I am thankful for all the support and efforts to make OSM a healthy, global open project. It is a testament to the passion for the project. With that, I am sharing some reflections:

Board Dynamics

Boards are often a convergence of different skills, opinions, and ‘constituencies’. As with any board and/or team, there are differences in work style, time/effort, and opinion. One thing I have learned is to try to see the ‘middle ground’ or ‘middle way’. How can we meet each other half-way? Yet, the ‘my way or the highway’ mentality is no stranger to technical communities and OSMF has it in spades. [1] It is evident that each of my fellow board members (past and present) truly care about OSM. There were times when we really managed to collaborate with each other. There were other times that things went awry. Some of the conversations/debates left me completely exhausted and unable to dig in more due to the sheer volume and tone of the back/forth. In some circles, this is called ‘win by wearing down the others’. We need to find ways to negotiate more, not just in the board, but in the whole community. It is not a productive or healthy use of our time and mandate.

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We’re hosting an open discussion about “Diversity and Inclusion” in OSM at State of the Map.

“How can OSM be more diverse and inclusive? What can we do to improve this across all the various OSM spaces, including OSM governance? Diversity is the range of human differences, including but not limited to race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, social class, physical ability or attributes, religious or ethical values system, national origin, and political beliefs. Join us to share your lessons and ideas on how we might grow and support a Diversity and Inclusive approach in OSM. There are Diversity and Inclusion groups across other ‘open’ communities. OSM has a diversity talk mailing list. This will be the place where the community can continue to connect after SOTM.” full session details

The goal of the session is to give space for the OSM community to talk about their needs and to plan a way forward to supporting OSM on this journey. We will do this with small group discussions to support shared dialogue.

Details: Sunday, September 22, 2019 1400 - 1500 CEST Kleiner Hörsaal

You can learn more about our planning here

This session is being co-hosted by the Diversity mailing list colleagues.

See you there!

Thanks for the ongoing discussions about gender in OSM. At SOTM, we will build on our shared efforts to make improvements. Your support and participation is most welcome. At SOTM we will host the Open Gender Monologues. Our allies, GeoChicas, are also running a session on diversity.

Three ways you can become involved in the Open Gender Monologues:

1. Submit your experiences (optional to be anonymous) for us to read at SOTM on July 28th. We want to be sure that your voice is heard, even if you can’t join us in person. add your experiences here

2. Join us in person on July 28th to share your experiences. Just let Heather and Kate know so that we can add you to the agenda of speakers. SOTM - Open Gender Monologues session

3. Be an ally - share this diary entry on your local/topical mailing lists and social media. We want to reach as many people as possible.

Thank you and see you soon

Sharing our experiences can help us shape where we want to go. Over the past months, I have been approached by many people wanting to talk about the ‘community gaps’ or the ‘diversity’ issues in OSM. On the Diversity-talk mailing list, we’ve touched on the topics and aim to support each other. How can we become more welcoming in OSM? What are the steps we can take to be more ‘open’ with each other, and to new people?

Experiences in OSM

Open Gender Monologues is a way to share our collective stories. We want to raise awareness on gender issues in OSM. We’d love to hear your story, your experiences. You can share anonymously or with your name. We also welcome anyone who would like to share in person at the SOTM Open Gender Monologues session. And, if you want to have your story read, we can help. Here is a 3 minute survey to contribute and details on the session:

There are amazing, generous people doing fantastic things in OSM. This is what I would love to hear people consistently say about OSM. And, often, they do. But, the other side of the feedback/experience, is sometimes less helpful for OSM’s mission. There are issues with how OSM collectively manages diversity, inclusion, and community engagement. To what extent are we “open”? It is not simply about the license, the open data, or FOSS. It is a mentality and a culture of “openness”. Only by fully understanding and talking about the problems, can we productively move beyond it.

It might seem that there is just one or two stories. That has not been my understanding. The under current statements follow a pattern: “oh, ignore the tone on OSM mailing lists”, “it is not you, this is how the community has always talked with each other”, “cold response”, or “mailing lists are sometimes hard” or “it is just one or two people. Ignore them.” Honestly, if people’s experiences in OSM less than kind and welcoming, then we are not doing as well as we could.

Be an ally

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There are new General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), sometimes coined the “Eu Data Protection Regulations,” come into effect on May 25, 2018. All organizations, companies, and entities operating in the EU will be required to adhere or, at minimum, have preparedness plans. The GDPR is considered a “gold standard” which other countries outside the EU may adopt. The OSMF License Working Group prepared a detailed white paper about GDPR. This post is a compilation of resources to support the ongoing OSMF conversation.

Give me a Quick summary about GDPR Preparedness

This 2 -page checklist explains some of the considerations.

Surely, someone has made summaries for NGOs and not-for-profits? Yes!

Responsible Data Forum: top 5 considerations: 1. Responsibility and rights are foundational to the GDPR 2. The scope of the GDPR is broad, going beyond Europe 3. The GDPR broadens the definition of ‘personal data’ 4. Prepare for data audits now 5. The GDPR strengthens the rights of data subjects 6. For organisations, this is operational

Digital Impact (Stanford) Digital Impact is an initiative of the Digital Civil Society Lab at the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society (Stanford PACS). Their summary of key articles:

Got it, Show me a legal analysis

Access Now has a great article:

What are some Data Hygiene considerations

Are you tracking:

• Basic identity information such as name, address and ID numbers
• Web data such as location, IP address, cookie data and RFID tags
• Health and genetic data
• Biometric data
• Racial or ethnic data
• Political opinions
• Sexual orientation

Ok, how can I prepare?

The FutureLearn GDPR Online course suggests:

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Today is International Women’s Day. It is timely that I share notes from our recent OSM and Gender discussion. About 20 women and allies joined to talk about gender issues in OSM. Some of the topics we touched on were: research on gender in OSM, gender experiences, code of conduct and next steps.

Some quotes on why having an OSM and Gender dialogue matters:

“I believe the map represents the world and the contributors to that map should all be representative. “ “Discuss/Learn what to avoid and what to do on regular basis to improve diversity.” “I joined because the tone on the mailing lists is not right.” “I’m part of Geochicas and we work towards having more participation of women in the community. We encourage women to create and be part of mapping projects lead by them.”

Over all, we aim to support a safe and inclusive OSM. This means collaborating with each other and you, the OSM community and the OSM supporters.

What does the data tell us?

Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team performed a community survey. Of the 267 people who responded, 27% were women. In addition, HOT microgrants/device grants went to 40-45% women.

The YouthMappers community data - We estimate that about 40% of our 5,000 students are female from annual chapter reports. We also see that 25% of our 113 chapters in 35 countries have more than 50% female participation.

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How can we improve the gender balance in participation and in map content? There are some amazing leaders and best practices across the global OSM community.

Before the holidays, we had a vibrant conversation on the OMSF mailing list about gender in OSM. Some great examples of inclusive participation include GeoChicas, YouthMappers, and Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team. It would be great to hear from women and other genders that are often rare voices. With such a large community, we know that there are more people doing great activities to improve engagement.

Kate Chapman and I would like to invite OSM to join us for an online discussion about OSM and Gender. Given that women and other genders are a often a smaller group in OSM, we ask that this conversation start with us. Then, we will be sure to include the wider community.

Some of the potential topics could be: opportunities and challenges to be more inclusive, program ideas to support diversity in OSM. We will define the agenda and next steps in the call. Then, we will report back via OSM diary entries.

Here is a Doodle to be filled out by Thursday, February 22nd at 1700 CET.

Once we collect the best times, I will announce by Friday Feb. 23rd. The first meeting will be held in the Europe, Africa and Americas Time zone.

[Doodle] (https://doodle.com/poll/h63dxtikfe2bvxsz)

The second meeting will be hosted in a timezone friendly for Asia (morning) and Western North/South America. (evening) The call will be hosted on mumble

The OSMF community cited some resources which reflect participation inquiries. Other resources are most welcome. Just add them into the comments.

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Thank you to all the OSMF members, fellow candidates, board, and outgoing board members. It has been a privilege to consider your priorities for OSMF via questions, notes, and conversations.

We are the community, the map, and the project. The lovely people who make OSM part of their daily flows count on all of us at OSMF to meet the full mandate and the full potential. This means considering, then building on how we might balance the growing, changing needs of the open, global, diverse community.

Over the past few weeks, the questions on the wiki and the conversations on this mailing list have pointed to some potential actions. Converting those requests and ideas into productive working documents for consultation is the next step. There are many people on this list and in the wider community that will contribute if there are healthy spaces and a clear ask. It is up to us in the membership, in the working groups, and on the board to make this possible.

Thank you again,

Heather