OpenStreetMap
Regarding the Call to Take Action and Confront Systemic Offensive Behavior in the OSM Community
Posted by apm-wa on 11 December 2020 in English.To the OSM and OSMF communities:
I convey the following information on behalf of the Board of Directors of the OpenStreetMap Foundation.
An outcome of the current controversy on the osmf-talk mailing list over misogynistic language is a decision by the Board as follows:
The Board will find partners to help instate a moderator team for the OSMF-talk and talk mailing lists.
These moderators need to have the trust of the community subject to the moderation (consent of the governed) by some kind of approval mechanism.
This moderator team will start to work on enforcing the current Etiquette guidelines as soon as possible. We will also start work on updating/replacing our Etiquette rules, which must focus on balancing all participants' interests.
We have asked the Local Chapters and Communities Working Group (LCCWG) to take the lead on this and to work with signatories of the open letter to the Board as well as members of the Diversity and Inclusion Special Committee to produce proposals for the Board to consider at its January meeting. The LCCWG has accepted this task. This issue will be on the agenda of the January meeting of the Board of Directors, exact time and date yet to be determined, though as is customary it will be posted to the Foundation’s website well in advance.
Members of the OSM community are, as always, welcome to share their opinions and any relevant information on this matter, either publicly via osmf-talk, or privately in direct communications to the LCCWG. I feel compelled to remind all members of the community that a Code of Etiquette has existed since June 2011 and shall be observed by all community members.
Very best regards to all, apm
Discussion
Comment from arnalielsewhere on 11 December 2020 at 06:39
Hi Allan,
would the board consider scheduling the meeting in an accessible time? As a global project with people from different timezone, we should find ways “how” to be more accessible so members could get involved (and be included). The timing of the latest board meeting as well as the upcoming AGM is not very friendly in the Asia-Pacific timezone. Hoping the board would consider.
Comment from Heather Leson on 11 December 2020 at 08:13
Thank you
Comment from Sanderd17 on 11 December 2020 at 12:15
@arnielsewhere, what timing do you propose?
I believe the time has mainly been chosen to suit Europe and California. As OSM is still European for a big part, while most big tech companies are based in California.
When you’d take global population per time zone into account, it seems however that you need to focus on East-Asian, Indian en West-European/Central-African time zones.
If you consider those three regions, you indeed have a reasonable time frame to plan a meeting (from 6:00 to 13:00 UTC is acceptable for all involved).
However, if you still want to add the US at all, adding the eastern time zone leaves you with just one hour that’s feasible for all (13:00 UTC). If you want to add California (which is a valid request IMO, due to the amount of big-tech companies, even though the overall population isn’t that high), there are no common times to be found.
Compare times in timezones: https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/meetingtime.html?iso=20201214&p1=195&p2=176&p3=33&p4=179&p5=137
Comment from apm-wa on 11 December 2020 at 12:56
@arnalielsewhere,
Timing of Board meetings depends on the schedules of Board members. The outgoing Board includes one member in UTC -8 (Seattle) and several in UTC +1 (central Europe). That has dictated meetings at six p.m. London time so that it is not too early in Seattle or too late in central Europe. When elections are over and we know the composition of the new Board, we will seek a schedule for meetings that is as convenient as possible for all Board members.
I regret that this will necessarily mean inconvenience for somebody, somewhere. As a retired diplomat who served twice in Asia (India and Turkmenistan) and twice in eastern Europe (Moscow), I understand rather viscerally the problem of having to rise in the middle of the night to participate in conference calls Washington organized based on the convenience of headquarters employees.
Timing of meetings of the LCCWG is up to its members. The Board does not manage the schedule of any Working Group.
Comment from imnichol on 11 December 2020 at 12:58
Thank you!
Comment from arnalielsewhere on 11 December 2020 at 12:58
@Sanderd17
Thanks for this information. 13:00 UTC has worked for us in the Philippines. I am not just proposing a specific time only. I am proposing that the board would look at different alternatives to be more accessible to everyone. For example, they can have alternating meeting times (15:00 UTC this month, next month can be 10:00 UTC so those who were not able to attend this month may have the chance to attend next month.) Accessible not only the timing, but also the platform being used.
Thanks.
Comment from amapanda ᚛ᚐᚋᚐᚅᚇᚐ᚜ 🏳️🌈 on 11 December 2020 at 13:54
(I’m fellow OSMF Board member) Yep, the meeting times are mostly to suit the current board members. We’ll see what the board looks like soon. We do want to be open accessible. Last night we investigated Microsoft translators live translation app, which might help people who aren’t fluent in English. Trying different timezones might be interesting.
Comment from Mus Ben on 30 January 2021 at 20:10
Merci, très bonne initiative. Bonne continuation.