OpenStreetMap
24 hours to rebalance the OSM Foundation's governance
Posted by Stereo on 14 November 2018 in English.The OpenStreetMap project is organized on an international level by the OpenStreetMap Foundation, under British law.
Some companies are paying employees to join, and there are rumors that they give voting instructions.
In recent years, the Board has gradually lost its balance. Over-representation of some areas and groups makes it difficult to maintain a balanced and diversity of government action and raises some conflict of interest issues. Therefore, it is important that all kinds of mappers join in to balance things out.
On December 15 there are board elections, and everyone who was a member before November 15 can vote.
489 ballots were cast during the last election. By way of comparison, in the last few days, 17 employees from a single US company have joined. This might not be anything sinister, but it’s worrying especially shortly before the board election, and getting the largest amount of OSMF members is the best safeguard of balance.
https://join.osmfoundation.org/normal-membership is the form. It costs £15 (about €17 or $20), it takes 4 minutes, it’s important and it’s too late in 24 hours. I am a candidate for the board election, but of course you distribute your votes however you want.
Discussion
Comment from smaprs on 21 November 2018 at 13:58
Hi, please, i’ve tried to see that information of “In the last few days, 17 employees from a single US company have joined”. Where can I find this? Or just the list of osmf members by country, by year? Where did you see that? Thanks. Sérgio / smaprs.
Comment from Stereo on 21 November 2018 at 14:21
Hi Sérgio,
Yeah, it’s part of the membership register. Anyone can make a formal request to see the register of normal members, and members themselves can request to see the register of both normal and associate members.
Guillaume
Comment from smaprs on 21 November 2018 at 14:47
Thank you Guillaume. If I join OSMF next year will suggest a table of members per country shown in the sub page of members in its website. Also the link of osmf talk to be visible in the list of all talks. Not a good signal it’s not publicly visible for ordinary OSMers. All the other talk lists are visible. Seems hiding from common mappers.
Comment from Stereo on 26 November 2018 at 14:56
Hi Sérgio,
I think those are excellent ideas. I’ll have to see if we can easily generate a table showing members per country. I believe that members get a link to osmf-talk when they join, but indeed it could be shown along with the other lists.
Please join, and encourage your friends to join! Brazil currently has 8 OSMF members. On average, 100 Brazilians edit the map every day. This puts it near the bottom of my spreadsheet for members / mappers. Together, you can make sure the Brazilian community is properly represented in the Foundation.
Guillaume