These are the answers of the 2019 0SMF board election candidates to the official questions created by our election facilitator, Michael Collinson. The official questions were based on questions by the community. It was up to the candidates to answer all the questions or just a few of them. Our suggestion was to answer all of them. The official answers and questions thereof should be what voters use to judge.

Suggested community discussion period: 2019-12-01 to 2019-12-07 16:00 UTC (when voting opens).

Feel free to improve/streamline the formatting of the page, without changing the answers. Thank you.

Answers to the official questions

Tell us a little about your OSM activities

For example:

What brought you to OSM and why are you still part of it now?
What is your OSM user name?
What mapping contributions have you made in the last year?
Are you/have you been a member of any OSMF working groups?
Do you participate with other OSM mappers, for example in a local chapter or in social meet ups?
Have you run anything yourself, such as an OSM-newbie event?
Have you written about OpenStreetMap in the past - for example, in a blog, or on mailing lists, or in a newspaper? Please provide links if you can.
Do you contribute as a software developer?
Have you attended board meetings as a guest?

A01 Nuno Caldeira

I starting adding stuff to OSM in 2011 on an account that died when OSM switched from CC to OBDL. Since 2012 I been adding a lot of stuff on my homeland of Madeira among other places during HOTOSM tasks with the account NunoCaldeira. In 2015 I co-organized the III OpenStreetMap Party of Madeira. Active on the portuguese telegram OSM group where we share knowledge, workflows and create mission on map roulette or hotosm to improve data in Portugal. Frequently with other contributors, we monitor recent edits to make ensure the data quality is not degraded and improved by new contributors. I also been trying to get and communicate with the National agency to get fresh aerial imagery and opendata to improve OSM data, as they also use OSM as basemap.

I have written tutorials, tips and tricks and workflows. Check my OSM diary, my youtube channel, twitter or the Mapillary blog.

A01 Steve Coast

I founded OSM in 2004 and I think, of course, it’s still a very important project. One of my usernames is “Steve” although I have others. This year I’ve done a number of random edits with a rough focus on address data. I’ve been a member of various working groups, and came up with the idea for them. I also ran the first mapping party. I’ve written about OSM extensively in the past, most notably in the kickstarter-funded book “The Book of OSM”. I designed how most of the API works, and I’ve been attending board meetings on Mumble for some time.

A01 Jinal Foflia

I first learned about OpenStreetMap back in 2015. There was a discussion about how precise can a map be and that’s when my friend pointed out to OpenStreetMap and stated that ‘you can make this map as precise as you want it to be’. It was around the same time when the Nepal earth quake happened and even though I was hesitant to start contributing to the map, I closely followed how everyone came together and the role OpenStreetMap played in such a disheartening and critical situation. That’s when I decided that I’d want to be a part of this project and contribute.

It was so amazing to see the possibilities of the map, not just with the map data or mapping but also the technology and the impact on lives of the people. All of this was done *by people like you and me**. As they say, it holds up-to the saying “a map by the people, for the people”. I was amazed how one could add minute details on the map and be so proud *about it**. I still remember the excitement I had* after making my first edit and seeing it live on the map. (I admit, I was scared if it was a bad edit). As the time passed by, I understood mapping so much better that I would think about it in different scenarios like when I see a complex junction and I would wonder how would that be mapped or how is it mapped on OSM. Once a mapper, always a mapper!

Coincidently, after a while I joined Mapbox where I had the opportunity to build a broader perspective about OpenStreetMap. I also* got a chance to meet and work closely with some folks who have immense passion towards OpenStreetMap and have been contributing for years. With all the guidance, I started my mapping journey.

My username is jinalfoflia. You can see my mapping contributions through these years. It’s a combination of mapping for my then company - Mapbox, humanitarian initiatives that I supported, and mapping in and around my vicinity.

Helping grow the community

Over the last two years, I have run mapathons, events and workshops around the world, to teach folks about OpenStreetMap. Here are few of the many events that I have helped organize, some of which became stepping stones in building a stronger community. I supported these events sometimes as an OpenStreetMap volunteer and sometimes as a part of my role at Mapbox and Grab.

Osmgeoweek celebrations in Bengaluru! - Bangalore, India, 2015
OpenStreetMap hackweekend in Bengaluru - Bangalore, India, 2016
Ottawa Mapping party (meet-up link) - Ottawa, Canada, 2017
Get Set Go With Basaveshwaranagar Mapping Party! - Bangaluru, India, 2018
Building webmaps in Zanzibar - Zanzibar, Tanzania, 2018
Running Grab GeoStars* in SEA - a program which aims in teaching and introducing the student community of SEA to the world of Geo Spatial Data. - South-East Asia 2019
Workshop on mapping wheelchair accessible places in Singapore and also teaching the community about the importance of quality edits in OpenStreetMap through the process of validation - Singapore, 2019
Running multiple events with the help of the local teams across South East Asia. - South-East Asia, 2019
Supporting MSF mapathons in Singapore - Singapore, 2019

State of the Map Asia 2018: Co-organising State of the Map Asia 2018 along with Sajjad (@geohacker), which was the first international conference held in Bengaluru, India. It was one of the best experiences. We managed to get over 250+ participants from over 12+ countries, who came down for two amazing days of knowledge sharing and meeting the community. Supported pre-conference-events that happened across India as well as played an instrumental role in setting up key communication elements for the conference such as: Twitter, Instagram , Blog, Youtube channel.

The conference led to local papers featuring the work and the impact that OpenStreetMap brings with it. Here are few of them: New Indian Express, Skill Outlook, The Education Times.in, Deccan Herald, Deccan Chronical. A very nice article by BangaloreMirror sharing the different mapping stories and the conference. A bunch of Bengalureans are working overtime to map the city’s problems.pdf. (More details and snippets can be found here)

This has led to empowering and introducing hundreds of folks to join this amazing project and contribute to it. (Some of the workshop materials that I built at Mapbox and the personal ones.)

Supporting communications in OpenStreetMap

As I was understanding the community I also started contributed to weeklyOSM, one of the prominent OSM newsletters. I’m still startled as to how everyone collaborates in publishing this on weekly basis for the community. Difference of opinion is bound to happen as all of us belong to different geographies and cultures. The key is to learn to co-exist and embrace all these different opinions and finding common ground acceptable to the majority This experience taught me the intricacies of working with the community, how to handle sensitive issues with empathy and consideration. Community plays a vital role and here are few steps we took to encourage community participation in the newsletter:

With the help of TheFive, we developed a guest mode for community participation
How-to documents that help everyone kickstart with their contributions

I joined the Communications Working Group to understand how the working groups function in OpenStreetMap Foundation. Working with Harry Wood and others, who are community champions, who have mentored me in sharing relevant work, news, information with the community through multiple OSM channels. I see that there is so much more potential for us to do different things. I have always looked up to leaders like Kate Chapman and Heather Leson, who have previously been on the board and have been amazing OSM leaders. Their work and contributions have been an inspiration to all of us

Other than organising and supporting different OpenStreetMap related events, I have also made efforts to share amazing OpenStreetMap stories through different mediums like personal blogs posts, Twitter, OpenStreetMap diaries, Mapbox blog posts, and Grab blog posts. Here are a few:

Getting Started with OpenStreetMap
Become a power mapper!
How I built it: mapping every road in Washington state
Government and citizens collaborate to map Canada
Interacting with the local mapping community using OpenStreetMap Notes
The Silence of the Lamps - Mapping street lamps for safer roads in Bengaluru
Using Community User Experience Research to Improve OSMCha
Grab Geo*Stars
https://blog.openstreetmap.org/author/jinalfoflia/

I haven’t actively contributed to OpenStreetMap software and neither have I attended any of the OSMF board meetings as they are usually in an odd hour considering the time-zone in India and Singapore but have made sure I follow the action through the minutes as well as the mailing list.

A01 Gregory Marler

I heard about OpenStreetMap earlier, although joined around 2006/7 as something extra to do with my GPS and PDA, but also because I loved the idea of things I could with the data… once we had created enough of it. I stayed because it uncovered a love of exploring. The community has been an amazing aspect on top of this and is like a very large (and growing) family to me.

My username is LivingWithDragons to match the blog I setup when I moved home. I lived using no maps other than one that had an open license and in 2007 OpenStreetMap showed the city very blank. On old maps this would say "here be dragons" to reflect the dangers of the unknowns. I survived, and did lots of mapping in the process. It's a different feel to cover the same ground again, but I'm slowly trying to do details like house numbers or join in with projects like solar panel mapping.

I'm a member of the State of the Map organising committee, the working group for organising the international conference each year. We've done some great work together and increased ways we can support non-OSMF conferences. You might recognise me from the opening and closing sessions, but I could tell lots about what goes on without getting the limelight.

I've tried to run a few local groups in the past, although they've never lasted long. Instead I look out for people that want to run things in the region and I support them. This has included a university students' group that wanted to do some Missing Maps events, and also several small church groups that were interested in my hobby and how they can also help. I was a founding director of the OSM UK local chapter, and I still look to support that when time allows.

You can read one of my earliest writings when OpenStreetMap got nominated for an award (https://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/new-media-awards/2007/05/street-map-open-road-osm-gps). I'm embarssed by the extra spacing of our project's name. I had a few articles in local newspapers in my university town and a few London suburbs. I reported on SotM 2012 to geoinformatics. More recently I've focused on other mediums, primaily my YouTube channel Mapper Diaries as I think that reaches a different audience. Before the summer I was interviewed for an article in the UK's Guardian newspaper which would have been fantastic to get OSM back in mainstream media, but a few internal things seem to have held back it's publication.

I don't contribute to the project as a software developer, despite my original intention to focus on that. This is probably due to doing a lot of programming as my job, but I have a lot of respect for those developers that have made some brilliant software and contributions for different parts of OSM.

Usually certain topics peak my interest and cause me to attend open OSMF board meetings. I've not consistently attended them, but I have trust in the work that the board members do and I have often communicated with them via e-mail on certain topics. The most recent board meeting was a strange difference knowing that I'm a candidate and may be taking over the work that was discussed. It was certainly helpful to hear the pressing topics and thoughts of the current board members.

A01 Mikel Maron

In 2005, I was an open source software developer on a mission to get maps into the hands of people who need it most. I still am. I first heard about OpenStreetMap from Steve Coast and Tom Carden, and was immediately hooked, and signed up as “mikelmaron”. Mapping the world by walking every street with a GPS, and convincing your friends to do the same, was a ludicrous idea that was destined to be incredibly successful. I'm still part of OSM because the world is not yet mapped (and it will never be "complete"), I'm continually surprised by what OSM can do and grateful to connect with the amazing people that comprise OSM.

My contributions to OSM have ranged from software development (I built the first slippy map and got OSM on Garmin devices), to starting Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team and Map Kibera, to helping map every street in Brighton UK. I've spoken about and introduced OpenStreetMap to thousands of people, and talked to many journalists about our project. One piece of writing I'll highlight comes from my time as Presidential Innovation Fellow at the US State Department, where I secured policy commitment to enable interagency support of OpenStreetMap.

Currently I work at Mapbox, leading the Community Team, where my OSM activities focus on data quality and validation, particularly by project managing OSMCha. I have mapped with the local DC mapping community in the past, but with 2 kids I haven't had much time lately (hoping that will change soon as my oldest is starting to get interested in maps). The mapping contributions I've made recently include some spot fixes, but mostly have been in support of Map Kibera's work in rural Kenyan counties (spent July and August in Kenya in part helping Map Kibera).

Within the OSM Foundation, I've been on the Board since 2015, and previously from its start in 2007-2011. I've been on the State of the Map working group since 2015, focusing on the scholarship program (which I initiated in 2009). In the past I was on several working groups, including starting the Data Working Group.

A01 Rory McCann

> What brought you to OSM and why are you still part of it now?

I've always like maps, and always been into computers & STEM. Free Software/Open Source inherently appealed to me as soon as I learned about it, and I support those goals. Finding out about a wiki map was a natural match! I saw OSM mentioned in some FLOSS news thing years ago, and looked at my home country of Ireland, and saw about 3 or so roads, and thought “This is rubbish” and moved on. Around early 2008, I looked at it again, and enough of the “skeleton” of roads had been done that I could see something to work off, so I started tracing roads. It was a nice relaxing holiday before “colouring books for adults” became popular. I've been hooked every since, deeping my understanding and usage of OSM ever since.

Why am I still a part? Because I like maps & I like free software/open source commonly owned things.

> What is your OSM user name?

Rorym (᚛ᚏᚒᚐᚔᚏᚔᚋ᚜ 🏳️‍🌈 on osm, edits, contrib, heatmap, chngset com.)

> What mapping contributions have you made in the last year?

Loads! I've been trying to do one OSM edit per day, and in the last 2 years, I've been pretty good at that. When I'm out and about, I map things from my phone using Vespucci (e.g.: during the walking tour of Prizren at SotM SEE #2 or from the car while on a road trip in Australia in 2011). I switched from Potlatch to JOSM for the multi-year irish townland mapping project. Sometimes I use overpass turbo to fix things, e.g. I'm slowly upgrading all `gay=yes` venues to `lgbtq=primary`. e.g.. You gotta find their website, and ensure its all the same, sometimes all I can do is leave a note. Or using QA tools to do the gardening that OSM needs, liking fixing routing islands. It's grunt work, but it has to be done.

> Are you/have you been a member of any OSMF working groups?

I have been a member of the Communications Working Group for about a year. I plan to continue my (currently low) level of activity there. Now I am working on the OSMF swag programme (which now is mostly stickers), and I plan to continue that.

> Do you participate with other OSM mappers, for example in a local chapter or in social meet ups?

Yes. I've only missed a few monthly meet ups in Karlsruhe since I moved here ~5 years ago. Though lately they've clashed with the OSMF board meetings. I've been to State of the Map in 2013 Birmingham, 2016 Brussels, 2018 Milan & 2019 Heidelberg. I was at SotM Europe in 2014 Karlsruhe, and SotM Southeast Europe 2019 Prizren. I take part in, and assist with, the twice yearly OSM Hack weekend in Geofabrik for the last ~5 years (last one).

I've organized OSM meetups mapping party in Feb 2010, pub meet in Dec 2012, a hack day in 2014. Recently I went to an OSM Ireland event in Newry. I'm a member of a few local chapters of the OSMF.

I hang out online on IRC, and a little bit on the the telegram group(s) and slack.

> Have you run anything yourself, such as an OSM-newbie event?

Yes, see above. Whenever there's an event, I try to help out. I prefer 1-1 talking to new OSMers, rather than running a class. I find it more productive and helpful. A few weeks ago at an event, a middle aged woman didn't feel comfortable asking 'the teacher', but was OK with asking the person next to them (me!). Sitting next to someone and walking though how to edit can be very effective. Slow going, but effective.

> Have you written about OpenStreetMap in the past - for example, in a blog, or on mailing lists, or in a newspaper? Please provide links if you can.

Not in any consistent manner. Search engines will show my mailing list posts (DDG [ https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Alists.openstreetmap.org+%22rory+mccann%22 Google]).

> Do you contribute as a software developer?

A little. Here's links to my OSM software contributions:

I don't have any software projects which I am the maintainer of, but I know how to contribute to FLOSS, and take advantage of that.

> Have you attended board meetings as a guest?

Yes, lots since guests were allowed listen in.

A01 Michal Migurski

I signed up to OpenStreetMap in 2007 (user: migurski) after working closely with early mappers over the previous year and learning about OSM from other speakers and attendees at open geospatial conferences starting with Where 2.0 in 2005.

OSM has always been a revolutionary and exciting open data project, and it was inspiring and vital to our work at Stamen Design from its inception. I led Stamen’s participation in OSM on several fronts starting in 2006. We hosted San Francisco’s first mapping parties with Steve Coast, learned and then taught core stack technologies such as Mapnik, created new editing tools like Field Papers (presented as “Walking Papers” at SOTM 2009 in Amsterdam, https://vimeo.com/5593879) to improve the user experience of novice mappers, supported HOTOSM financially in its goal of becoming a registered non-profit, created popular and long-used OSM cartographic contributions like Toner Tiles and Watercolor Maps and applied OSM commercially for clients like Nike and the London Olympics before it was widely seen as a legitimate source of map data.

Since 2009, I have noted and influenced the use of OSM as a core piece of humanitarian infrastructure starting with quarterly exercises in collaboration with the defense community that also included OSMF board members Kate Chapman and Mikel Maron. The 2010 earthquake in Haiti spurred the US community into action and community use of tools like Field Papers carried over to the later establishment of HOTOSM. In 2016, I coined the term “craft mapping” in a widely-read and commented-upon blog post to tell a story about the project’s history and its potential future.

In 2012, I was an elected member of the OSM US Foundation board, and have proudly supported OSMUS since our first conference in Atlanta in 2010. I am also a member of three non-profits relevant to OSM. Digital Democracy works in solidarity with marginalized communities to use technology to defend their rights, GreenInfo Network creates, analyzes, visualizes and communicates geospatial information in the public interest, and PlanScore tackles the challenge of making U.S. political redistricting fair and easy to understand.

I have recently grown so excited by the large-scale use and expansion of OSM that I joined the Facebook mapping team last year to contribute to OSM’s incredible effort. We support humanitarian users with timely global geographic information through our Data For Good Disaster Maps program and we collaborate with academic institutions like Columbia University on global population density datasets. Our OpenStreetMap efforts support all of Facebook’s map display needs to expand global map coverage with assisted robot/human techniques in areas like Southeast Asia where we see strong demand for basic road coverage across enormous geographic regions.

A01 Allan Mustard

> What brought you to OSM and why are you still part of it now?

I started using OSM while posted as a diplomat to India, and plunged heavily into it in Turkmenistan, because OSM gave my embassy and me the ability to navigate in a foreign country more easily than had been the case, once we added lots of data.

> What is your OSM user name?

apm-wa My user pages can be found at https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/apm-wa and https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/User:Apm-wa

> What mapping contributions have you made in the last year?

My contributions are documented here: https://hdyc.neis-one.org/?apm-wa. During over four years in Turkmenistan, I contributed around 13,000 changesets, about a quarter of a million data points, 11,500 roads and streets, 8,500 POIs, and collected nearly 650,000 street-level images using Mapillary, as well as wrote 18 wiki articles, including a gazetteer of Ashgabat street names and a comprehensive list of all geoname changes in Turkmenistan since 1991. I expanded the Turkmenistan wiki article to 10,000 words. At this year's SOTM I was voted the "Greatest Mapper" award.

> Are you/have you been a member of any OSMF working groups?

No.

> Do you participate with other OSM mappers, for example in a local chapter or in social meet ups?

I gave several master classes in Turkmenistan before departing post in June 2019, but due to Turkmenistan's political climate, was unable to organize a local chapter.

> Have you run anything yourself, such as an OSM-newbie event?

Yes, master classes in Ashgabat, Mary, Dashoguz, and Turkmenabat, and a course in OSM mapping for staff of foreign embassies in Ashgabat.

> Have you written about OpenStreetMap in the past - for example, in a blog, or on mailing lists, or in a newspaper? Please provide links if you can.

My OSM diary is the closest thing to a blog. https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/apm-wa/diary I was the keynote speaker at SOTM 2016 in Brussels and was banquet speaker at the NACIS conference this year in Tacoma (unfortunately, it was not videographed). The Department of State and OSM Belgium wrote some things about me (links are on my user page, see link to it above).

> Do you contribute as a software developer?

Not really, but I have written two articles for the wiki on how to use off-the-shelf software to produce wall maps, and have posted the rendering rules.

> Have you attended board meetings as a guest?

No.

A01 Guillaume Rischard

> What brought you to OSM and why are you still part of it now? What is your OSM user name?

I’m Guillaume Rischard, from Luxembourg. On OSM I map as Stereo, which is easier to pronounce. My dad made maps; I loved to do that even as a child. When I discovered OpenStreetMap in 2008, there were only a few main roads displayed around me. I didn't take it seriously. In 2011, I ran into it again, and saw that the map had become a lot more detailed. I spotted a missing name, and when I saw it displayed on the map when I refreshed right after saving it, I was hooked. When I upload a changeset, I still like to open that place in my browser while it still hasn't rendered, open the same url in a new tab a few seconds later, then switch between the tabs. It never gets old. The way we map has changed so much that it rarely gets boring. But what I love the most about OSM now is the smart and generous community.

> What mapping contributions have you made in the last year?

In the last year, I’ve created 310 changesets over 115 days. I’ve mapped mostly in Luxembourg, where I live and have cleaned up a lot of addresses, in Kosovo, where my girlfriend used to live for work, and in Brussels, where she does now. In Kosovo, I was one of the main participants in the great big road geometries and name mapathon - more on that below.

Being a volunteer in the Data Working Group can also get you to map in many far away places. My hdyc stats show I’ve mapped all around the world.

>Are you/have you been a member of any OSMF working groups?

Yes! I’m a member of the Membership Working Group, where I co-wrote the report on the “suspicious signups” - 100 employees of one company signed up hoping to subvert the 2018 board elections.

I am also a member of the Data Working Group, where my most recent big project was the organised editing guidelines that were adopted in 2018. I’m unhappy with how widely they are ignored, and think that we need to revisit them. My “specialty” in the DWG is corresponding with governments and diplomats, often to explain the importance of the on-the-ground base principle.

> Do you participate with other OSM mappers, for example in a local chapter or in social meet ups? Have you run anything yourself, such as an OSM-newbie event?

In Kosovo, I’ve worked with the local community and the cadastre agency to get data opened up and integrated into OSM. We wrote data conversion tools, invented and adapted tools for mappers, and organised local meetings and mapathons to get all the street names and geometries into OSM. 43 mappers have participated, a strong and active community came into being. The Telegram channel I’ve created is active every day, the street tracing is almost done, and we will tackle addresses and administrative boundaries next.

Thanks to this OSM has quickly become, in many ways, the best map of Kosovo. From the taxi drivers to the German ambassador to the 2020 census surveyors, everyone has maps.me on their phone. The official tourist map of the capital was created with maposmatic.

The community has become strong enough to organise a fantastic State of the Map South East Europe in October, where more than 100 people from all over the region attended.

OSM has a huge potential in middle-income countries, where people want maps on their smartphones but big commercial map apps can’t and don’t care to keep up. As a board member, I would like to do more to create partnerships and support local communities. In the right circumstances, it doesn’t take a lot for OSM to mushroom.

We have small OSM meetings in Luxembourg. The last one a few months ago was three of us going for a drink one evening.

I have attended national and global OSM or related conferences in France, Belgium, Germany and Italy, and regional meet ups near me, like the Hackwochenende in Karlsruhe or a pub meet in Brussels.

In 2019, I’ve given talks at SotMSEE, at the OSCAL conference in Tirana, and two talks at SotM in Heidelberg, where I also ran a Birds of a Feather session on public transport.

I have also been a coach at three MSF mapathons in Luxembourg and Belgium, where I assisted newbies and explained best practices.

Finally, I hang out on several OSM IRC and Telegram channels.

> Have you written about OpenStreetMap in the past - for example, in a blog, or on mailing lists, or in a newspaper? Please provide links if you can.

The most significant thing I’ve written recently is probably the MWG report on the 100 suspicious signups. My co-author Steve Friedl and I were honoured to receive the OpenStreetMap award for influential writing for it at the State of the Map conference in Heidelberg.

A lot of things have been written about that report. One of the most interesting reaction was Steven Feldman’s “Entryism in Open Communities”. My favourite remains the short paragraph about the incident on the GlobalLogic Wikipedia page, which they tried to remove before that was reverted. Hah!

I’ve given a few interviews on OpenStreetMap to local newspapers and television, for example to Luxembourg City’s own magazine Ons Stad in 2015.

The few diary entries I’ve written are at https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/Stereo/diary.

I sometimes post to various OSM mailing lists. Most of what I type about OSM flows into the different chat rooms.

> Do you contribute as a software developer?

Yes! I co-maintain the editor layer index, pretty much by accident. (please help!). I’m probably the worst maintainer, since I’d like to kill the project and merge it with the JOSM imagery index.

I’ve created a tool to automatically create PTv2 bus routes from a list of stops, using OSRM and various bits and pieces. There was a lot of interest in my lightning talk, and I’d love to have a worldwide public-facing version of the tool - unfortunately, it doesn’t scale in its current form. I think we should move to a PTv3 schema which would only use platforms, stop positions and via points, and use a routing engine for everything else. For the Membership Working Group, I’ve developed a few things for CiviCRM, for example an extension to validate OSM usernames.

I also submit many github issues and PRs to various projects. I’ve made many small pull requests this year to fix small bugs or adapt to API changes. This afternoon, a small PR of mine that changes how JOSM/Vespucci/Merkaartor get called got merged onto the OpenStreetMap website. If the ‘Edit’ button is broken now, it might be my fault.

> Have you attended board meetings as a guest?

Yes. I think I’ve attended most of the meetings this year. I’ve also spoken during board meetings to present the organised editing guidelines, and had a lot of interactions with it during the GlobalLogic entryism attempt. I also enjoy regular discussions about board issues with friends on the board.

A01 Dietmar Seifert

> What brought you to OSM and why are you still part of it now?

In 2009, i saw a contribution on television about a student and their master thesis, where she added detailed information in OSM to enable routing for disabled persons. The possibility, to add data in OSM, without any business goal and interest, was and is still absolute unique for OSM.
I'm sure, the absence of business interests and goals is THE reason, OSM is to successful and still alive.

> What is your OSM user name?

My private account is okilimu. My actual business account is "NVBWSeifert" (since 2019)
My earlier business account was "PDVSeifert" (2016 - 2019)
With the account "eladestationen", i made an import of electro charging stations in 2011.

> What mapping contributions have you made in the last year?

My main activity was about public transport. I visited stops and added it, with all details, and i updated PT relations to PT V2, mostly around Augsburg in Germany. Since May 2019, i contribute data around Stuttgart in Germany. I added house numbers and some other infrastructure around car and bike parking and sharing, too.

> Are you/have you been a member of any OSMF working groups?

No.

> Do you participate with other OSM mappers, for example in a local chapter or in social meet ups?

Yes. I initialized social meetings in Augsburg in 2010 und organized them until 2019. Since my move to Stuttgart in May, i'm a member of the local monthly social meetings in Stuttgart. I'm an attendee on some Hackathon in Karlsruhe, Berlin, Essen since abount 2014 (eight or more). I visited a few other OSM social meetings in Ulm, Munich, Berlin, Karlsruhe.

> Have you run anything yourself, such as an OSM-newbie event?

Yes, I organized a few mapathons for newbies in Augsburg (3 times).

> Have you written about OpenStreetMap in the past - for example, in a blog, or on mailing lists, or in a newspaper? Please provide links if you can.

Yes. In 2010, my OSM collegue and me, we showed, how OSM mappers act, in a video statement on Bavarian Television [1]
I blogged about my OSM evaluations for streets and for housenumbers, in german and english at OSM Blog [2]
I was active on german mailing list talk-de, on local bavarian bayern mailing list and on OSM forum. Main active time was between 2010 and 2016.

> Do you contribute as a software developer?

Yes. I created the OSM street evaluation since 2011 on [3] and added the housenumber evaluation in 2012 [4].

> Have you attended board meetings as a guest?

Yes. I visited the OSMF Board meetings a few times (about 5 times). I also visited the german FOSSGIS Board meetings, the local chapter for OSM in Germany (about 8-10 times).

Clifford Snow

> What brought you to OSM and why are you still part of it now?

I discovered OSM while attending the Bellingham, WA Linuxfest, I attended an OSM presentation by Hurricane Coast. Hurricane’s presentation of OSM had me hooked.

> What is your OSM user name?

My user name is Glassman and Glassman_import.

> What mapping contributions have you made in the last year?

Everyday, I look forward to contributing, even if it’s something small. Currently my biggest undertaking is to map footways, road crossings, and kerb ramps to aid people with limited mobility plan their route. Besides mapping for pedestrians I have given a number of presentations to local agencies promoting OSM as part of the solution to helping people with limited mobility.

> Are you/have you been a member of any OSMF working groups?

I am currently a member of the recently re-established Local Chapters Work Group.

> Do you participate with other OSM mappers, for example in a local chapter or in social meet ups?

Absolutely. I have been active in a number of OSM events. Just recently I presented a workshop on how to map using JOSM at a local OSGeo event. I even attended a Corporate OSM Geo-Karaoke event. Fortunately for everyone there I didn’t attempt to sing.

> Have you run anything yourself, such as an OSM-newbie event?

Numerous events. From hosting a number of meetups to being one of the local coordinators of the Seattle State of the Map US in 2016.

> Have you written about OpenStreetMap in the past - for example, in a blog, or on mailing lists, or in a newspaper? Please provide links if you can.

I have a number of diary entries, https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/Glassman/diary. I also publish a blog on geospatial subjects at https://www.snowandsnow.us

> Do you contribute as a software developer?

The only project I’ve written is roav_uploader https://github.com/cliffordsnow/roav_uploader which are scripts to upload images from a Anker ROAV Dashcam C1 Pro to both Mapillary and OpenStreetCam.

> Have you attended board meetings as a guest?

Yes – twice.

A01 Eugene Alvin Villar

I joined OSM in July 2007 and my username is seav, which is the handle that I use for almost all of my online accounts since the late 1990s. It is actually not a surprise that I took to OSM given that I really love maps. To give a bit of a background, three of my intellectual (okay, geeky) hobbies as a kid was reading the encyclopedia (my family owned two editions of the World Book Encyclopedia), poring over atlases and maps (my childhood favorites were a Grolier World Atlas and a huge wall road map of the Philippines), and astronomy. While I wasn't able to channel my childhood passion for astronomy into an adult hobby, my love of encyclopedias has resulted in me becoming a Wikipedian in 2002 and my love of maps into an OSM mapper. I actually have heard of OSM around 2005 but I thought then that it was only a UK/Europe-only project, but when I revisited OSM again in 2007 and saw that it was actually a global project, I was immediately hooked (read my blog post about it).

In my early OSM years, I aimed to complete the Philippine road network as much as I can since this was the best way to make OSM useful and compelling to people who are otherwise not interested. But now that the country's road network is pretty close to being "complete", I have shifted to mapping and updating POIs in my local area and places I visit. I still am affected by OCOSMD (obsessive-compulsive OSM disorder) and I always fight the urge to get my phone and take notes of newly-opened or closed POIs in my surroundings especially if I have more urgent things to do. Aside from POI-mapping, I also try to map as many administrative boundaries as I can since admin boundaries are one of the usual things local people ask if OSM includes (sadly it is far from complete in my country due to a lack of publicly available and compatible sources). I also contribute to humanitarian-related mapping efforts because this is one of the areas that has received the most traction for OSM in the country (link) due to the Philippines being one of the top 3 countries most affected by natural disasters such as typhoons, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions.

Aside from mapping, I also spend my OSM-related time building and strengthening the OSM Philippines community. This includes managing the various local communication channels such as the talk-ph mailing list and social media groups, and organizing events like mapping parties, lectures, workshops, and conferences. Some of the major events that I helped organize was the State of the Map Philippines 2013, State of the Map Asia 2016 that was held in the Philippines, and Pista ng Mapa 2019, which was a combined local FOSS4G/OSM conference. In addition to mapping and organizing events, I also use my software development skills to create small tools and scripts for the PH community. This includes a tool to highlight PGS-imported coastlines that needed smoothing, a (now-obsolete) imagery coverage map, and a script to generate node density map images.

I joined the OSM Foundation in December 2016 and in the past year have attended eight Board meetings as a guest. I also attended the local chapters congress session at State of the Map 2018 and subsequently joined the effort to revive the Local Chapters Working Group spearheaded by Joost Schouppe and now renamed as the Local Chapters and Communities WG (LCCWG). This proto-WG finally started regular meetings and I was appointed the chair during the first meeting in September and have maintained the WG's minutes on the OSMF website.

Outside of but related to OSM, I support efforts for greater collaboration and understanding between the OSM and Wikimedia communities. I have given several talks and presentations during State of the Map and Wikimedia events about how Wikimedia and OSM are benefiting from each other and why I think OSM and Wikidata in particular need to be linked with each other.

You can read more about my activities and thoughts on OSM on my OSM diary or my personal blog.

Tell us a little about why you want to be a board member

What do you think you can achieve as a board member that you can't as a regular OSM(F) member?
What is the most pressing issue the OSMF board should address?

A02 Nuno Caldeira

I want to make a difference, it’s easy to criticize and not taking part of organizations that can actually make a difference on how OSM is and what it should be with it’s roots on crowdsourced volunteer contributors and not from a corporate view. From my perspective the board should be more active and not be afraid of making decisions, especially regarding to corporate members of OSMF, that repeatedly ignore the community, the guidelines, the license and most importantly the spirit of OSM due to their commercial interests.

A02 Steve Coast

As fantastic as OSM is, it can always be better. I see five main things the board needs to do:

Implement term limits for board members to encourage new voices.
Reinstate a private portion of board meetings so that board members can speak freely.
Stop being the worlds free tile server. OSM resources are constrained and should be focused on OSM. Either the board should decide not to serve tiles to the world for free, or it should be put to a vote of the members.
Double, triple or quadruple the OWG budget. The board has the cash, and there’s much work to be done.
Reorient resources to “finish the map” which means address data in the places where there are addresses.

A02 Jinal Foflia

With maps becoming an integral part of our lives, OpenStreetMap community is growing exponentially as these maps come with the capability of adding your own data, utilizing it for various purposes such as analysis and humanitarian efforts. There are a lot of things that could be done even by being a regular OSM(F) member, but being on the board, it brings in a unique opportunity as well as responsibility to spearhead and make a difference in the growth of the project. Here are two important things that I can do, if I get to be a part of the board:

Representing minorities and providing a platform to Asian communities

Increasing diversity and representation on the board is one of my main objectives.
Diversity not only in terms of gender but one of my goals will be to increase representation and provide a platform to Asian communities.
This community has huge potential and giving them a voice and a better platform to express will drastically increase engagement and retention which in turn will improve the map tremendously in this region

Device programs to build sustainable communities
Communities are the essence of OpenStreetMap. Over the past quarter we have, for the first time, sustained an editing rate of over 100,000,000 edits per month! This only emphasises on the fact that we are driving towards an active community across the globe. As a community manager working on building stronger communities, there’s a lot of ideas that I’d love to bring in, some of them are:

A platform where communities can talk and learn from each other — as most of the times, they are facing similar issues or have already experienced them.
Work towards OpenStreetMap being more welcoming, inclusive and diverse place for the community

Personally, to me a board should be one of the strongest governing bodies that is responsible for anchoring the organisation and guiding it towards the right direction.

It’s like the binding agent for the project and the community to function synchronously.

A02 Gregory Marler

There should not be much I can achieve on the board that I can't as an OSMF or community member. I see serving on the board to be a responsibility to represent the community and deal with select matters that get escalated (either by working groups or by direct contact to the board). In representing the project there is an opportunity to promote what it is doing and promote the direction that it's community members take it, and I would really like to exhalt the efforts of the working groups as I do that.

Pressing issues always depend on your view point, and these questions tend to focus on the big ones that are needing decisions and actions. It's pressing for the board to show that work is being done on these issues, and that continue with them for actions. The board hasn't always been good at communicating, and while it gets better this is often a focus on "transparency" of it's work rather than promoting what the board and the working groups have achieved.

My personal pressing issue is that OpenStreetMap doesn't get forgotten despite being increasingly used throughout the world and different industries. The OSMF has done well to now include this in the mission statement but I'm doing seeing it be proactive on telling people how it is relevant, or what it's done and been used for in the last 10 years.

Not covered by the questions is the topic of OSMF spending money. The current board was trying to look at ways to responsibily utilise money in that the organisation has, and it wasn't getting much feedback or a solution. It's likely this is another issue that will need to be picked up by the board has a whole. The community has been reluctant to spend capital for good reason, but not spending any can become a hinderence.

A02 Mikel Maron

The Board has responsibility to manage the core resources of the project, ensure good governance, and determine and initiate the direction of Foundation activities.

I myself feel a responsibility to continue to serve, provide continuity, and help the Foundation evolve to better support OpenStreetMap.

Most pressing are the needs of our software development community and infrastructure support. OSM essentially started as a software development project -- we had to build it before we could really use it, and it took a couple years to be reliably functional. There was space then to just jump in and do it. Now, there are orders of magnitude more stakeholders in the software of OSM, 15 years of accumulated technology, and hundreds of splinters of projects. OSM is actually a very vibrant ecosystem with incredible innovation and utility, all based on quality data and straightforward APIs. But building collaboration and investing in common tools, and making contributions that go back to the core, at best takes heaps of work and coordination. At worst, it’s too often unhealthy and undermines our software development, such as the recent situation where disagreement and admittedly bad communication mushroomed into pointed criticism of iD’s maintainers. We can not be at war with the very people we depend on to build OSM. We can no longer go down to the pub and laugh it off. Yet the lack of support structures for technology in OSM tacitly assume this is what works for OSM in 2019.

I admit, my observation is nothing new. Since I re-joined the OSMF Board in 2015, it’s a regular topic, which we have been able to do little to nothing about. Partially it’s been our own perception that it’s not the Board’s role to get involved, and that past efforts at setting technical direction have gone very wrong (I was part of those too). However, there is a void, and a growing expectation that the Board “do something”. This was apparent from our recent surveys, individual comments, and questions to Board candidates. The project needs a roadmap, overall direction, guidelines & community engagement plan. But what is it that the Board should do? A simple proposal.

First thing, the next Board should be up front and clear that some kind of support structure is needed for technology. It's the Board’s job to help figure it out. It’s not going to just happen. It doesn’t mean that the Board is taking over software development and system administration.

Second, have a time bound, structured discussion. That means direct conversations with all key stakeholders in our software and infrastructure, hearing what’s working and what’s not, and the kinds of things they’d like to see. This needs to be done with expectations of good faith on all sides, and speaking directly and clearly. As well, a detailed community survey focused on the topic. Dorothea can help keep this on track. It should be done before the end of March 2020.

From there, propose a plan, get feedback, and enact. And by plan, it wouldn’t be details about technology choices, but I reckon a plan for support structures, principles, and a rough idea of what improvements are needed. It’s hard to speculate what form this should take now.

That's it.

A02 Rory McCann

I think there's a particular vibe in OSM which I think I can help protect. I want to ensure the hobby mappers are represented, that people who care about user freedom are represented in OSMF, and I think I can make a difference. I think I can help use what privilege I have to address the diversity statistics in OSM. People treat me as a white cis hacker dude, so maybe they'll listen to me.

> What do you think you can achieve as a board member that you can't as a regular OSM(F) member?

Vote on board decisions. Hopefully people who don't follow OSM politics much would listen to me more because they'd think I am a super famous person who is a Board Member tm, and hence think I'm a real adult who knows what they're doing.

Everything else could in theory be done by any OSMF/OSM member.

> What is the most pressing issue the OSMF board should address?

Regulatory capture by private companies, who want to make OSM merely data source for them, or a source of good press to make them appear "open".
Failing to live up to the task of promoting diversity, and resulting a project full of dudebros (some may say that's the case already, I don't think we're quite at brogrammer level now).

A02 Michal Migurski

I’ve been an excited participant in OpenStreetMap for much of the project’s history because it’s a rare example of a globally-successful open data project. The resulting map has been the best choice for so many areas I’ve worked: cartography, mobility, urban data, humanitarian intervention, and large-scale analysis have all benefited from OSM as a platform.

OSM is in a state of rapid transition from a gutsy challenger of copyright-restricted mapping agencies to a victorious critical utility for a wide variety of large and small users. We won! Now OSM’s historic organizational methods need to be updated for its new role.

I offer a unique perspective on OSM needed to inhabit this new role: the foundation has in the past deferred hard questions of large-scale participation and influence and mostly stayed silent on long-term problems. It’s clear from even the questions here that the volunteer community is curious and worried about corporate intent and participation. The board needs representation from members experienced with data usage and having direct lines of communication to extensive users of the map who can clear up some of the mystery. I’m personally excited to bring experience with map accessibility, humanitarian applications, data consumption, engineering process, and robot-assisted mapping to the board’s decision making process so that we can meet the future head-on.

A02 Allan Mustard

Four OSM mappers urged me to do this, and since I retired in June, it is now possible. They indicated that they think my experience as a diplomat and heavy contributor of data in a third-world country would be useful to OSM. What do you think you can achieve as a board member that you can't as a regular OSM(F) member? Pay back the organization for the incredible service it provided my embassy and me. What is the most pressing issue the OSMF board should address? Keeping the organization robust and able to meet future challenges. Sustainability of the organization is paramount.

A02 Guillaume Rischard

I want to strengthen the OSMF resilience against all negative external influences. It was incredibly tedious to do this from MWG - some board members saw us as the squeaky wheel, and tried to make us go away at every step of the process. We won in the end, but hope that it will be easier to have an impact on the inside.

The 2018 GlobalLogic incident wasn’t an isolated case. As I write in my manifesto, they tried again this year. The recent dot-org heist reminds us that open communities are at risk of getting hijacked.

The proposed AoA changes go in the right direction, but they aren’t enough - the MWG report made suggestions that the board didn’t consider. We need more. We need to rethink what it means to be a member, and make it easier for those with skin in the game and harder for those who don’t to influence the foundation’s direction.

OpenStreetMap suffers from communitarianism and adversarial narratives: craft mappers, hotties, corporate mappers, for example - which side of the flame war are you on? It’s hurting the project. I want to work against adversarial narratives, and use the OSMF board’s pulpit to encourage finding consensus in the wider community.

We need to diversify our income to be less dependent on a few large sponsors. I want to explore the big potential we have with NGOs and state agencies, for example those active in the international cooperation programmes.

There is no single one most pressing issue the OSMF faces. The board has had a tendency to focus on one or two issues and neglect the rest. It’s never easy with volunteers, but if we manage to tackle that, we can tackle everything else more easily.

A02 Dietmar Seifert

> What do you think you can achieve as a board member that you can't as a regular OSM(F) member?

Please look at my manifesto.

> What is the most pressing issue the OSMF board should address?

Control and limit the work of big professional players.
Integrate local chapters and get closer to working groups

A02 Clifford Snow

> What do you think you can achieve as a board member that you can't as a regular OSM(F) member?

There are five areas I’d like to achieve which are in my Manifesto:

Update our Core Values
Move the Board to be more strategic and less operational
Build a strong working relationship with our corporate partners
Support building a strong and secure infrastructure
Seek the input from the entire community using different forums

> What is the most pressing issue the OSMF board should address?

I see four main issues OSMF should focus on, inclusiveness, infrastructure, governance and branding.

A02 Eugene Alvin Villar

One thing that has compelled me to run for the Board is my observation that the OSMF and especially the Board is lacking in geographic and ethnic diversity. If my observation is correct, I would like to state that thus far, *all* of the present and past Board members have been white people who are all based or residing in either Europe or Canada/United States. As a global project, I think this lack of geographic and ethnic diversity is a problem on the same level as the lack of gender diversity (see also question #4). There have been several OSMF members from Asia, Africa, and Latin America that have run for the Board in the past but unfortunately none have been elected. I really think that the Board would benefit from the perspective of non-Western people and this is why I decided to nominate myself.

Being a board member

Please describe any experience you have had in ANY or ALL of these 3 areas:

Being a board member for OSMF often involves complex negotiation and discussions within the board, with working groups, and with the wider OSM community. Teamwork and the ability to make decisions, listen (truly listen) and hear a diverse set of opinions takes humility, time management, calm process planning, and community-building skills. Please also share examples on how you managed scenarios and conversations that you may not agree with and/or that challenge you.
Do you have experience of managing a project or a team of people? Do you have any experience of coaching others to lead (i.e. managing managers)? How long have you been doing these things?
Have you ever managed multiple stakeholders with different agendas? What was the situation? What did you do? What challenges did you face and how did you overcome them?

A03 Nuno Caldeira

I been LWG member for a year, previously i have experience in a hiking camping organization for four years.

A03 Steve Coast

I have a wide variety of experience starting and running projects and teams in both “free/open” scenarios like OSM and in for-profit environments. I’ve also been an advisor to many startups and a few individuals, working with and coaching them through various challenges. The key is to unlock people’s potential wherever possible, by removing obstacles and giving permission. This is challenging in open projects where “nobody is in charge” since most of us are taught to wait to be told what to do. When that doesn’t come, it can lead to stasis and paralysis. I think the important thing for the board to do going forward is to be able to have frank conversations, which just aren’t possible when everything is public. Secondly, individuals and the board itself need to take clear leadership to make decisions. It’s impossible to do things that please everyone all the time – hard decisions need to be made that will annoy some people. The board needs to accept that and move forward, and new voices will help make that happen.

A03 Jinal Foflia

In order to answer the above question, one of the scenarios that come into my mind was when Mapbox Data team was planning a mapping project in a few cities of one of the countries that were precisely mapped and has an active community. It all started with some misunderstanding as the preliminary communication took place in English which isn’t the preferred language of communication for the local community. That was the first lesson learnt — as to try to communicate in the local language to have clearer and better understanding.

There was quite a backlash with the community, but my team and I decided to jump on a call with the community leaders and eventually came to a consensus wherein our team would not be adding data directly to the map but instead leave notes for community to verify and add data at their own pace. The community agreed on this proposal. My team made sure that these notes were communicated and that lead to a smooth running of the mapping project where the community participated and so did we. This is one of the fine examples which showcases that we all can work together and make OpenStreetMap the best map in the world.

A03 Gregory Marler

Involving complex negotion and discussions: For several years I was a volunteer, team leader, and on the management team of Durham Street Lights which provide practical and emotional support to people in the city 10pm to 4am. This was is different to the OSMF requirement, but it allowed me to attend several training courses including Listiening Courses, Conflict Resolution, and Mental Health assistance. I've also been the Code of Conduct lead for SotM which has had a few concerns to respond. Taking time is a critical aspect, and often that comes with putting in the effort to find each person and give them the opportunity to speak privately, offering them a mediator too. With the conference I put in a lot of time to chat to people during the breaks and queues for registration. I hope that sets me up to be a friendly and approachable face when needed, but it also lets me know the various feelings of the event. Exploring different mediums of communication is also good, and has been especially helpful in meetings across different languages/cultures. For over 10 years I've volunteered with the youth group connected to my church. This brings in additional leadership, but also encouragement and coaching experience. Journeying alongside the teenagers and knowing them well is an important step to encouraging them. Formally I mentor a teenager 1:1 which covers a little on faith and a lot on school, life, and aspirations. I hope I am doing more of this in the OpenStreetMap community too, identifying that individuals have stuff worth sharing and celebrating their achievements together.

Experience managing projects and stakeholders: I've managed a few projects in my work. As a web developer (including online software) it's quite easy to find yourself crushed between different stakeholders that want different things from the system. It's important to understand the requirements and the reasons behind the desires to then see how they can fit together and where that involves comprimises. Often unacceptable comprimises are avoided by translating each stakeholders requirements, which might be due to differeing use of technical terms or unfamiliar wording.

A03 Mikel Maron

I've learned through tough experiences in OSMF and HOT. A critical practice to handling complex discussions is to limit the scope of a disagreement to the topic at hand. And, personally, it is very important to stop disagreements from boiling over into my working relationships, and especially to impact my emotional well being. For example, I was deeply disappointed by Frederik Ramms's blog post about iD, but in parallel I worked cordially alongside him to support State of the Map Africa ticket registrations. Nicolas Chavent and I had many intense disagreements about the operational direction of HOT, but I now readily admit that I agree with critical points he makes about the effectiveness of mapathons. Ultimately, I know we are all intensely passionate about this project, and while we don't have to like each other, I respect other's place in this project and expect the same in return.

I currently manage a small team at Mapbox, and have managed other teams and projects there and in prior roles for 10 years. I particularly feel lucky to have known and learned from great leaders at Mapbox. Very seldom as a manager do I order people to do something, rather I see my role as providing what they need to excel. Key is keeping the best interest of the people on your team as first priority. That means protecting their work from forces outside the team, while simultaneously building an expectation of high standards. Clarity and honesty are important. Coaching others to lead is an even harder skill, which I approach by sharing what and how I've learned along the way.

Let me be clear, I don't think the OSMF Board is a management role akin to leading a team. It does have a governance responsibility to advance the interests of OSM, and I do think it should take a more assertive role than it has in the past to absorb input from across the project and build movement for a set direction. My negotiation and management experience will help me in that role.

A03 Rory McCann

> Please describe any experience you have had in ANY or ALL of these 3 areas:
> Being a board member for OSMF often involves complex negotiation and discussions within the board, with working groups, and with the wider OSM community. Teamwork and the ability to make decisions, listen (truly listen) and hear a diverse set of opinions takes humility, time management, calm process planning, and community-building skills. Please also share examples on how you managed scenarios and conversations that you may not agree with and/or that challenge you.

I'm not sure how to answer this. I don't have public examples of me being a boss and """listening to people""". "Difficult conversations that challenged your opinions" can include some very personal & private conversations which I'm not going to post about here.

> Do you have experience of managing a project or a team of people? Do you have any experience of coaching others to lead (i.e. managing managers)? How long have you been doing these things?

No, I'm just a grunt. Despite coming from a relatively middle class background, I wasn't born to lead the plebs. I'm not a manager, nor have I gone on executive training courses.

> Have you ever managed multiple stakeholders with different agendas? What was the situation? What did you do? What challenges did you face and how did you overcome them?

I'm not 100% sure what this question means, it seems to use business-type jargon, so I might miss some subtleties. But surely nearly everyone has had dealings with people with different agendas & goals. Just talk to everyone, try to understand and empathize with them. Try to explain (not necessarily excuse) people's behavior, and think about the best way forward.

A03 Michal Migurski

I have extensive experience in non-profit management and board experience. In 2013-2015, I was Chief Technology Officer at Code for America (CfA), a nationally-known organization helping municipal and state governments adapt and thrive with new technology. I led a team of engineers, user experience researchers, and designers.

On two occasions at CfA, I assisted government agencies, one state and one city, with difficult choices regarding new approaches to describing user needs and setting up contracts for digital services. In both situations, our team needed to work closely with experts on the government side who were unfamiliar with possibilities outside traditional “one big contract” approaches. We invested much time and effort in providing resources and conversation to talk about possibilities and slowly educated everyone involved on lower-risk ways to build and deliver technology. We relied on non-threatening experimental prototyping and helped everyone talk through and understand their users’ needs to justify the exercise. Ultimately both government agencies delivered successful projects and cite CfA’s involvement as critical to avoiding pitfalls and problems.

In large or conservative organizations it’s not difficult to find participants who deeply care about their work and can help navigate a path through bureaucracy. With both of these agencies we encountered tremendous resistance. We maintained focus on agreed-upon, shared goals. By taking a slow approach we were able to identify what the resistance was seeking to protect (reputation, existing gains) and acted to ensure that they stayed protected.

A03 Allan Mustard

> Being a board member for OSMF often involves complex negotiation and discussions within the board, with working groups, and with the wider OSM community. Teamwork and the ability to make decisions, listen (truly listen) and hear a diverse set of opinions takes humility, time management, calm process planning, and community-building skills. Please also share examples on how you managed scenarios and conversations that you may not agree with and/or that challenge you.

This is the heart of diplomacy, and my 37+ years in three U.S. foreign affairs agencies provided me with a wealth of exactly this experience. My career culminated in an ambassadorship, where all these skills were exercised daily. Perhaps the best example of how I have applied these skills in the OSM context can be seen here: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Talk:Proposed_features/office%3Ddiplomatic The discussion of how to tag consulates took a turn I had not anticipated and the final result was far from what I originally proposed, which was a real exercise in humility. Two comments during voting included, "This is the best-handled tagging proposal that I have seen and participated in on the tagging mailing list.", and "Well researched and thought out. All proposals should aim at this standard. The author is wasted in diplomatic service and should be promoted to the DWG."

> Do you have experience of managing a project or a team of people?

Yes.

> Do you have any experience of coaching others to lead (i.e. managing managers)?

Yes.

> How long have you been doing these things?

I served in U.S. government management positions from 1988 to 2019, i.e., for 31 years.

> Have you ever managed multiple stakeholders with different agendas?

Yes.

> What was the situation?

I ran a U.S. embassy and had to deal with the competing interests of different U.S. government agencies, the host-country government, and NGOs.

> What did you do? What challenges did you face and how did you overcome them?

The biggest challenge was promotion of human rights in a country with an abysmal human rights record. Our primary vehicle for promoting human rights was education, and you will not be surprised to know that promoting OSM as a community-based activity was part of that.

A03 Guillaume Rischard

The word ‘managed’ in the question is, probably unconsciously, leading. It’s very unpleasant, as a working group volunteer, when members of the Board try to manage you like an employee. A board member has to listen, actively support and shield against problems. Authority and trust are fragile.

Outside of OSM, I ran for city council in 2017 and am a member of Luxembourg city's mobility commission. I’ve been an activist in local and national politics, both when my party was in the majority and the opposition. I am or have been on the board of several non-profits. I understand both the OSMF and how to get things done there.

I am, I think, good at listening to different positions and achieving consensus and reaching compromise. Linguistically and culturally, I am used to it. The destructive oversimplifications of extremism and antagonism have never attracted me.

You can’t have a sustainable impact unless you understand the other side and can find solutions where most will benefit. On the other hand, I’m not an compromise extremist who loses track of the point just because one minority is vocal.

I get things done within the OSMF - see the GlobalLogic incident or the organised editing guidelines, for example. I have convinced government agencies in Luxembourg and Kosovo to open data that is useful for OSM.

I’ve been working as a consultant since 2013, and am used to supporting and advising managers. I couldn’t do my job if I didn’t know how to listen to them and understand their issues.

A03 Dietmar Seifert

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A03 Clifford Snow

I’m going to attempt to answer all three question at once. My prior career was managing people, leading teams and as a facilitator. My early career was spent managing union employees. We often had different goals but by working towards solutions that gave us both what we needed we were able to work together to accomplish our goals. We didn’t always reach a consensus but I felt like we did our best. The key to success for OSMF is to create community supported goals. These goals can influence stakeholder agendas.

A03 Eugene Alvin Villar

I mentioned in my answer to question #1 that I have been a Wikipedian since 2002. One of the skills I learned by being a long-time Wikipedian is to discuss issues and disagreements respectfully and civilly on Wikipedia talk pages. This includes avoiding ad hominem attacks (focusing on the issues at hand instead of the person talking), and being as diplomatic as possible. In addition, I have served on the Board of Trustees of Wikimedia Philippines, a local chapter of the Wikimedia Foundation, from 2010 when the chapter was founded until 2017. During my time on the Board, I have taken on various positions including Chairperson, President, and Secretary, and I have had my fair share of interpersonal conflicts including having to expel a member who acted maliciously against another member (the Board held a hearing and decided to expel that member based on our policies), respectfully voicing disagreements with the Wikimedia Foundation regarding their actions and/or policies, and mediating between our Treasurer and a project lead regarding issues on disbursement of project funds. I also had the experience of being a project lead that involved managing a group of volunteers.

Board diversity

Three remaining board members are men and only one of the twelve candidates is a woman.

Is this indicative of a gender diversity problem within OpenStreetMap? If so:
Can you describe the problem as you understand it?
What is the role of the board to help fix this?
What will you do in particular?

A04 Nuno Caldeira

Board diversity should first come from the members. If we need more female members which can then run for the board, we need to improve improving the ratio of gender. I believe we need more female contributors first which will reflect in OSMF.

A04 Steve Coast

Diversity needs to be diverse. We should promote equality of opportunity for diversity in nationality, age, color, race, ability, gender, orientation and so on. The board should, where possible, reflect the diversity of the community. A first step in this direction would be to understand what that diversity looks like today across OSM users, which is difficult to achieve in an anonymous online environment. Especially when many of OSMs users are downstream of OSM itself, using it via third-parties.

A04 Jinal Foflia

Diversity is extremely important in any community as it brings in different perspectives, opinions, experiences, and so much more. All of these contribute to an individual’s unique experience of the world and are important for a community as enormous as OpenStreetMap.

Yes, if there’s a little or no participation from this community, it’s an indicative that we as a community need to be thinking of making ways for this to increase and there is something that is lacking that is a barrier in making this happen. The first step is to admit that there is a problem and the next step is to address it.

This is something that cannot happen over-night but for sure is something that we can take steps towards. For instance, I loved the idea of wearing pro-nouns badges in the SotM Global Conference this year, everyone has a right to be addressed the way they prefer, us making that possible is a welcoming step for helping increase their involvement.

The board can start showing that in the way we engage with the communities, having some specific programs that recognise the minority leaders in the community. Have event and general code of conducts that also addresses this community. This are first few steps towards an inclusive community.

I’m not stating the following because I’m the only woman participant in the elections (I wish there were more folks who contested) but having some representation of the minorities in the community like the working groups, board, forums, etc will help us remember to hear and look out for their perspectives and concerns, else it’s easy to forget them.

A04 Gregory Marler

Two women stepping down from the board will make an impact on gender diversity. In the candidate list there also feels like a lack of nationality/residence diversity. Several board members were active in encouraging specific people to run for election, and I'm also glad that I wasn't excluded from their encouragement by them only focusing on where the minority representation is. We all need to make an effort to encourage individuals we know by telling them we think they would be great for certain roles. I was recently reminded of this during a diversity worksop when someone admitted they only present talks if they're told to, and I was shocked because that person is always so good at it I assumed they were actively seeking those opportunities.

I've noticed OSM change from being very geeky and tech focused to being more diverse in the people that are part of the community. This is been helped by more developed tools and websites, along with events having different focuses and different promotion approaches. As a wider group of people come into OpenStreetMap it starts to cause all the sub-areas and activities to appear more approacable and even those areas that are known to lack diversity can be expanded.

We can still do much better. There seems to be easy division between groups of OSMers and divides such as traditional OSMers and newcomers or Humanitarian Mappers and local-only mappers. I've tried to ease a bit of that tension by attending different events and mixing up sub-topics, and also being present in different places where communications happen. I would like to see us celebrating and sharing in each others succeses as it is can all be positive for the project.

A04 Mikel Maron

This is a problem.

Further by my count, of the 27 Board Members we've ever had, only 4 have been women. Of the 65 candidates, only 8 have even been women. Across the Foundation working groups and membership, and across the project, we don't have good numbers to measure (but should). I suspect there is serious under-representation of women there as well.

This is a problem because women make up more than half the people in the world we want to map. Yes, including everyone makes our map better. But it's also simply the right thing to do to make sure the opportunity to participate in OSM is accessible and equitable. Being open does not guarantee that everyone feels welcome. And yes, many women feel, and have been made to feel, not welcome, particularly in OSMF governance. Other communities have grappled with the same issues, so we do not need to trail blaze.

To address this means accepting the reality of the issue, identifying what barriers exist, and then support initiatives to make change. The most important role for the Board is the first, to state that the problem raised by many in our community is legitimate and needs time and effort. The Board should formulate a specific request for work, and ask the people and groups already working on the issue (such as GeoChicas and those who organized the series of in-person and online diversity discussions) to do research and put together recommendations for the Foundation to take up to address diversity in the OSMF and Board.

One more thing. Gender is only one dimension of diversity. For example, Board Members have only ever come from these countries: UK, Netherlands, US, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Ireland, Switzerland, Canada, Russia, Belgium. This and other kinds of diversity issues need our recognition and attention.

A04 Rory McCann

> Three remaining board members are men and only one of the twelve candidates is a woman. Is this indicative of a gender diversity problem within OpenStreetMap? If so:

Yes. I don't understand how OSMers can see a community where a large percentage of participants are from traditionally privileged groups, and think “Yep, nothing untoward here”.

> Can you describe the problem as you understand it?

We live in a society. The society has biases, which we have unconsciously picked up those biases and we repeat them. Through education & activism we can change things. Any human structure can be changed by humans.

> What is the role of the board to help fix this?

Discourage/penalize bigots (e.g. with a CoC), and lift up & promote marginalized people because representation is very very important (IMO).

> What is thewill you do in particular?

Keep banging on about Codes of Conduct. Attempt to increase representation. Be explicit, and tell people from marginalized groups that they are welcome. The default is for marginalized people, for those who suffer oppression, to assume that they will continue to face oppression in regular groups, and that's often a safe assumption to make. So we must be explicit. We must show that we don't support discrimination, that we do want to destroy the patriarchy/white supremacy/heterosupramacy/kyriachy/etc.

A04 Michal Migurski

Lack of gender diversity within OpenStreetMap is absolutely a problem. Both women who departed the board have publicly hinted at gender as a core frustration that impacted their participation in OSM (https://twitter.com/wonderchook/status/1193889537446907907, https://twitter.com/HeatherLeson/status/1193940013634985984). We can address board diversity by first working on community diversity and later revisiting practices such as self-nomination of board candidates.

Much of the broader world perceives OSM as a space primarily by and for men. The makeup of core community mailing lists, working groups, and various informal power structures reinforces this belief. Outgoing board member Frederik Ramm explicitly deemed paid or professional mapping a second-class form of community participation for OSM in preference to informal, unpaid, volunteer mapping or “hobby mapping”. Hobby mapping is a form of participation available mostly to men with spare time who feel safe mapping public spaces, in geographic locations accessible to bicycle or pedestrian mappers. It is not a model universally useful for expansion into new areas, and our significant failures in diversity are a result of failures in welcoming different models of participation.

Lack of diversity hurts OSM’s ability to grow and thrive. The OSMF board is responsible for supporting the mapping project, and ensuring diverse participation is an important path toward avoiding organizational irrelevance.

As a board member, I will support research into a complete picture of OSM participation. We need to draw attention to many forms of mapping activity, and to show that all have a home in OpenStreetMap. With the appearance of humanitarian mapping on the OSM landscape over the past decade, we need to appeal to global communities disproportionately affected by crises and disasters so they understand they are welcome within OSM’s core. We know from other open source communities such as PyCon and OSMUS that today’s potential diverse participants often look for a code of conduct (CoC) before deciding to pursue participation, and OSM badly needs to understand whether this is a limiting factor for our own community growth.

A04 Allan Mustard

> Three remaining board members are men and only one of the twelve candidates is a woman. Is this indicative of a gender diversity problem within OpenStreetMap?

I would imagine it is.

> If so: Can you describe the problem as you understand it?

Not enough women are interested in running for the OSMF Board. I suspect an analysis of OSM membership would reveal that there are more male mappers than female mappers.

> What is the role of the board to help fix this?

Recruit more female mappers and then urge some of them to run for the board.

> What will you do in particular?

Urge female mappers who come to my attention and who impress me to run for the board. At this year's NACIS conference, about half the audience was female, so perhaps it is a recruitment problem. It bears examination.

A04 Guillaume Rischard

We currently have two women on the board. I’m wary of using anecdotal evidence to guess trends. On a board of seven, you’ll always find underrepresented blocks, no matter how you cut it. The question suggests that there is a simple problem; reality is often a bit more complicated.

The focus on the board, in its limited time, must be on the OpenStreetMap project itself. We must balance risk of losing track of that with the the vital need of making everyone feel welcome and represented. We can’t be too focused on other issues, no matter how noble they are, no matter how much we personally care about them - I do. We should improve diversity not just because it is inherently a good thing, but because it helps us create a better map.

Primarily, we should react to feedback and complaints. I wouldn’t hesitate to act against acts of discrimination in whatever shape it would take.

Gender diversity and the board are just one facet of the greater picture. Our candidates and members are, for example, mostly white Westerners. I regret that we have no candidate from the Southern hemisphere this year.

I have personally asked a few competent people to join me in running for the board. The women I asked all gave the same reason for not wanting to run. It wasn’t sexism or a gender issue - and I am sure that it would have come up. “I’d rather have a board of men than alibi women”, one wrote. What they all mentioned was something the Board can’t do much about: a lack of time.

I know how to encourage communities to get involved: the proportionally large numbers of OSMF members who have joined in France, Luxembourg and Kosovo speak for themselves.

I believe that we should base our reflection on facts, not the personal impressions of a few. If we survey mappers and members, I would like to ask if they see barriers to participation. There is no acceptable level of discrimination, but I want to know if we’re dealing with trends or isolated impressions.

A04 Dietmar Seifert

> Can you describe the problem as you understand it?

I suppose, in the past, board members built informal coalitions. This could be one reason, that women don't feel comfortable in such situations. I think, they don't want to invest their energy for such political aspects.

> What is the role of the board to help fix this?

All board members must have more respect for each other. Political aspects must be reduced and lastly be eliminated.

> What will you do in particular?

I will try to invest my energy, that the board members will act respectful together and that politically motivated acitivities will not get a place on board. I will bring respect myself to other board members, of course.

A04 Clifford Snow

My belief is that OSM needs to attract and keep new contributors. That’s one of the main reasons I welcome new mappers in my area. The goal of OSMF should be to support efforts to to building communities. Those communities need to be inclusive. Highly effective organizations have learned to embrace empowerment, inclusiveness, and respect for for all. It is a goal that OSMF should adopt. We can do this by insuring that the Board, its advisory groups, the Working Groups and encouraging the community as a whole embrace these principles.

A04 Eugene Alvin Villar

There is a gender diversity problem in OSM and in the OSM Board in particular. My view is that this reflects the gender diversity issue found in the wider technology communities such as numerous open-source projects and even open-knowledge communities like the Wikimedia movement. This is a complicated issue to tackle and the Board's role is to try implementing ideas and solutions that have worked in other communities such as aiming to reach out to more contributors, fostering a more welcoming community that discourages harassment and uncivil behavior, and supporting women-led initiatives such as GeoChicas and GeoLadies. (We could perhaps encourage them to become OSMF chapters.)

And as I mentioned in my answer to question #2, OSM is also lacking in geographic and ethnic diversity. I think we can help improve this type of diversity by further encouraging even more mappers to join the Foundation. I therefore welcome the upcoming AGM vote to update the Membership Fee Waiver program to accept users who have made sizeable contributions to OSM. If elected to the Board, I would like to participate in the Board discussions with MWG to work out implementation details if this proposal is approved during the AGM.

I would also like to propose a further change to allow more people to become regular members (the Membership Fee Waiver program only confers associate membership). For many developing countries, the membership fee of ₤15 is prohibitively expensive so I would like to revive an idea I proposed over 10 years ago to adjust the membership fee so that it is prorated to the member's country's purchasing power parity (PPP) or some other objective measure such as the World Bank's classification of economies as either high-income, upper-middle-income, lower-middle-income, or low-income. Because of the corporate membership scheme and donations drives, the OSMF does not have rely on membership fees to fund its operations so I would like to make it more affordable for OSM mappers to become regular members. This in turn allows more members to become eligible to run for the Board and hopefully improve both gender and geographic diversity.

Your time

If you are currently a member of a working group, do you plan to continue your role in that working group while on the board? Do you have enough time to commit to multiple roles?

A05 Nuno Caldeira

If needed, i can be member of the board and keep my impartial LWG membership. This is something i do on my spare time, as i believe OSMF must be impartial and not steered by corporate interests that can drift OSM spirit, not to mention as we are unaware if their dedication to OSMF is part of their daily job and are indirectly being payed to do so.

A05 Steve Coast

Not currently a working group member.

A05 Jinal Foflia

I’m currently a member of the Communications Working Group and I will continue participating and contributing to the working group

A05 Gregory Marler

I'm a member of the State of the Map organising committee, and I've tried to focus my time on the ways I can best help rather than trying to help with everything. I think my participation will stay the same in that regard. As many people end up knowing me at the conference, I think it will become stronger that they will also be meeting with the OSMF board.

In July I stepped down from the board of the OSM UK local chapter, mainly because there were newer people wanting to stand for the board and I was happy to encourage them. I also had in mind that I might run for the OSMF board, and wanted to make sure enough of my time was available to give to OSMF.

A05 Mikel Maron

I'm currently on the State of the Map working group and Foundation Board. On average, I spend a couple days per month focused on OSMF (and more time distracted by OSMF), but that can vary widely. I do have enough time to continue.

A05 Rory McCann

Yes I plan to continue the CWG swag programme. Yes I think I have time for that, it doesn't take much.

A05 Michal Migurski

I am not currently a member of a working group.

A05 Allan Mustard

I am not a member of a WG.

A05 Guillaume Rischard

I am currently a member of MWG and DWG. Yes, I will continue.

Communication between the Board and WGs can be made easier by having board members on groups. I think board members would gain a better understanding of WGs if they participated in them, and should be encouraged by fellow members to do so.

Being a board member is quite a commitment. I have been critical of current board members who can’t find enough time to participate. Read the answers carefully, and be wary of candidates with no obvious current commitment to the project - if they have no skin in the game, why are they running, how will they know what’s going on and who do they represent?

A05 Dietmar Seifert

I'm not a member of a working group. I invest a part of my leisure time to maintain and enhance my OSM evaluation system. I suppose, i can act in these two roles, if i would be a board member.

A05 Clifford Snow

I am a member of the LCCWG (formerly LCWG) and plan to continue working in the group. I’m strong supporter of building communities. I see this team helping others build their local community with tools and support. I would also like to see local chapters have more influence shaping OSM.

A05 Eugene Alvin Villar

Yes. If elected to the Board, I plan to continue my participation in the LCCWG (but would have to step down as chair). I do currently do not foresee a problem committing enough time since I currently work as a freelancer.

Transparency: Conflicts of interest

Is your main source of income related to mapping or GIS work in some way, (whether OSM-related or not)?

What, if any, conflicts of interest do you have that would affect you if you were on the board?

Specifically, are you an employee of, member of, or otherwise affiliated with (paid or non-paid) a company, government organization or non-profit that does work in the OSM ecosystem or might compete with it? Do you have any contracts (employment or otherwise) which would limit what you can say in public that are relevant to OSM? eg a non-disparaging clause with a company/org in the OSM ecosystem? Or an employment contract which commits you to "always work in the company's best interest"?

A06 Nuno Caldeira

I’m a geographer at the department of Civil Protection of a municipality. It is GIS related, but we do not use OSM.

As it’s public, i’m a Mapillary embassador since 2016. I was never payed to do so, neither will. I like the project, see the benefits of using crowd sourced ground level imagery for OSM mapping. If ever a Mapillary issue comes if i get elected to the board, i will not vote and stick out of the discussion. I’m not running to the board to defend any company interests, but to represent the community as i fear OSMF is being becoming more orientated into corporate interests than the community that we have built over the years.

A06 Steve Coast

I’ve worked in mapping for my entire career, and it’s enhanced by, not limited or conflicted by OSM.

A06 Jinal Foflia

As mentioned previously, other than the volunteer activities that are related to OpenStreetMap I have been employed by the corporates who have been one of the contributors to OpenStreetMap. My role leads to primarily interact and communicate with the different communities across the globe. Previously, I was the Open Data Community Manager at Mapbox, and currently I’m the Senior Outreach and Community Manager at Grab, whose work is to build and support communities but does not limit to just OpenStreetMap.

Considering a huge part of my role is closely working and supporting local communities and communicating different project across, there are lesser chances of conflict between the two as both, their goals are, to grow, support and collaborate with the local communities. My employer has the highest regards for and understands the importance and the role that the communities play in OpenStreetMap. I will keep my work and board separate, and when it comes down to a scenario of a possible conflict of interest, I will uphold OSMF in high regards and step back on discussions that require conflict of interests to be flagged

A06 Gregory Marler

My main job is not related to mapping or GIS, and unfortunately OpenStreetMap is not relevant for me to use work time. If I need to be available during UK business hours(e.g. for a call/meeting), it would be possile to do this and make up the time with a longer work day. I have made myself available for consultancy OpenStreetMap work, I would not actively seek this while on the board unless it supported my OSMF duties and was in agreement with the rest of the board.

It's important to make fellow directors aware of potential conflicts-of-interest as it can be easier for others to see where the conflicts can lie. Should any directors request me to be excluded from specific discussions or decisions then I am more than happy to do this. I would ensure I explain nuances to the board as my employer is part of a group that may have OSM interests, although I do not have any direct dealings with that part or influence from them.

A06 Mikel Maron

I work for Mapbox, which most people probably already know, uses OpenStreetMap in its products, makes edits in OSM, supports software development in OSM, is a Corporate Member and sponsor of OSM events small and large. My role is Community team lead -- we focus on supporting non-profits, educators, and others to use Mapbox for everything from endangered species conservation to indigenous land rights to public health emergencies.

I do not have a non-disparagement clause in my employment contract. The only limitation in my contract about what I can say has to do with non-disclosure of confidential information. I speak my mind and the interests of OpenStreetMap are central in my role as Board Member. I do not "represent Mapbox" to OSMF, but I will try to be helpful if explanations are warranted, etc.

Other relevant affiliations I hold are Board Member and Technical Advisor to Map Kibera Trust, which works with OpenStreetMap in communities across Kenya. I am a Voting Member of HOT, but hold no governance role there presently. I'm also a member of OSM US.

A06 Rory McCann

> Is your main source of income related to mapping or GIS work in some way, (whether OSM-related or not)? What, if any, conflicts of interest do you have that would affect you if you were on the board?

Yes, I'm a full time employee of Geofabrik GmbH, as a sysadmin. My boss & friend Frederik Ramm is an outgoing board member, so nearly all CoIs he would have, would also apply to me, with the caveat that I'm just an employee of Geofabrik GmbH.

Geofabrik sells OSM based data, and provides OSM based services (tiles, geocoding, routing, etc) as a service, as well as provides OSM based consultancy, and services. Anything that makes OSM harder to use, or the software harder to install or use is good for the business of my employer.

If OSM ceases to exist, or gets rubbish, then my employer, who sells OSM bases services, would lose business. The more popular OSM is, the more business opportunities there are for my employer. So business interests are aligned. I don't have any shares or ownership, but I do like having a job.

> Specifically, are you an employee of, member of, or otherwise affiliated with (paid or non-paid) a company, government organization or non-profit that does work in the OSM ecosystem or might compete with it? Do you have any contracts (employment or otherwise) which would limit what you can say in public that are relevant to OSM? eg a non-disparaging clause with a company/org in the OSM ecosystem? Or an employment contract which commits you to "always work in the company's best interest"?

Geofabrik doesn't compete with OSM, in fact requires OSM. My employment contract has no such requirement on what I can say or if I must do things in my spare time.

A06 Michal Migurski

I am employed full-time as an engineering manager on Facebook’s Spatial Computing team, where I interact regularly with mapping-related activities undertaken by the company, such as our map editing efforts and our long-running AI and machine learning experiments.

My Facebook (FB) obligations encourage me to work in the best interests of the OSM project. Facebook has been a consistent supporter of the OSM community, growth of the project, and OSM’s ODbL license strategy. FB is a major user of OSM data in public-facing display maps throughout our many products. My candidacy for the OSMF board has been vetted by communications and legal representatives at Facebook.

A06 Allan Mustard

> Is your main source of income related to mapping or GIS work in some way, (whether OSM-related or not)?

No. I am retired and draw a Federal pension.

> What, if any, conflicts of interest do you have that would affect you if you were on the board?

None. I will serve on some advisory boards that have nothing to do with cartography, mapmaking, or geography.

> Specifically, are you an employee of, member of, or otherwise affiliated with (paid or non-paid) a company, government organization or non-profit that does work in the OSM ecosystem or might compete with it?

No.

> Do you have any contracts (employment or otherwise) which would limit what you can say in public that are relevant to OSM? e.g., a non-disparaging clause with a company/org in the OSM ecosystem?

No.

> Or an employment contract which commits you to "always work in the company's best interest"?

No. I am retired.

A06 Guillaume Rischard

My main source of income is not related to GIS or mapping. I’ve had one relatively small client where I’ve used OpenStreetMap data. I don’t think they care about the Foundation one way or the other.

Conflicts of interest can always happen; it’s how you deal with them that matters. Over the years, I’ve been on various boards and commissions for the city of Luxembourg. When the meeting concerns you, your client or employer or a competitor or your relatives, or anything that could cause concern on the outside, you physically leave the meeting. I think that’s one of the many possible good practices we need to adopt in a Board code of conduct.

I have no links with GlobalLogic. I am concerned that some candidates work for GlobalLogic clients or have personal links.

Regulatory capture of the OSMF is a danger. GlobalLogic isn’t an isolated case, and corporations aren’t the only special interests out there. If I get elected, I will represent the OSMF’s goals, all its members, and no external agendas or actors.

I want to strengthen our protections against entryism. To guard against conflicts of interest, we should require active interest in OpenStreetMap to get elected, less of it to vote. This could be active mapping or another significant commitment. We should have rules that forbid vote recommendations by employers, vote coercion, vote buying, turnout buying and/or voter impersonation.

At the same time, we should be careful not to strengthen the anti-corporate voices in our community. The only worth of OpenStreetMap data is in its reuses, and corporations remain important contributors and sponsors of our ecosystem.

A06 Dietmar Seifert

> Is your main source of income related to mapping or GIS work in some way, (whether OSM-related or not)?

In my actual employee position, we use OSM data for routing and use OSM data to create backround maps. Until now, we only use OSM data, we don't contribute data. This will be changed in next year, when we will visit all public transport stops in a greater area and want to give the results to OSM community or put the data in OSM by ourself. We will discuss this process with the OSM community.

> What, if any, conflicts of interest do you have that would affect you if you were on the board?

If i would be a board member, i would strictly act for the interests of casual, private OSM mappers. If the company, i work for, would get in conflict with OSM, i first would try to solve the conflict within the company. If i would fail, i would suspend my vote at board decisions to this conflict.

> 'Specifically, are you an employee of, member of, or otherwise affiliated with (paid or non-paid) a company, government organization or non-profit that does work in the OSM ecosystem or might compete with it? Do you have any contracts (employment or otherwise) which would limit what you can say in public that are relevant to OSM? eg a non-disparaging clause with a company/org in the OSM ecosystem? Or an employment contract which commits you to "always work in the company's best interest"?

No, I don't have a business limitation to act on the OSMF Board. I didn't get any hints or directions to act in the company interests. I work for a private company, which belongs to 100 percent to the ministry for public transport. Any direction or influence from my company or the ministry would be unlawful. Up to my decision to be a candidate for OSMF Board, no business person was informed about my decision. After my decision, i informed my direct chief, that i decided to candidate and that i only candidate for the private interests of OSM members.

A06 Clifford Snow

I have no conflicts of interest. My income comes from other sources. I did get paid for teaching JOSM to a local corporation in 2018 but do not expect to do so again. BTW - That income was spent traveling to attend the SoTM in Milano which was well worth the time and money.

A06 Eugene Alvin Villar

I am currently a freelance software developer and have never been employed by any company or organization that is part of or in conflict with the OSM ecosystem. The closest was when I worked as a contracted software developer for Cadasta Foundation from 2016 to 2018, which only used OSM as a base map for its cloud-based web application but is otherwise completely unrelated to OSM. (Disclosure: Kate Chapman, the outgoing OSMF Board chairperson, previously was employed as a CTO of Cadasta and I reported under her, but our working relationship is not at all related to OSM.) For further information, here is my LinkedIn profile.

Of course, it is possible in the future that I may possibly enter into a contract with OSM-related companies. If elected, I of course have to disclose such working relationships with the Board or alternatively, I may need to decline such opportunities if it would result in a problematic conflict of interest on my part.

Aside from my day job, I have done some paid consultancy work related to OSM and these have all been in the form of compensation for conducting trainings to teach people how to contribute and/or make use of OSM. Some of the funders for such training include the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation, Map the Philippines, and Grab Philippines. For such paid work, I have been given wide latitude to conduct the trainings as I see fit and have not been instructed to work against OSM's best interest. (I would have refused the work if that was the case.) I would like to state that such compensation is the exception and I am very much happy to give presentations or conduct training on OSM on a voluntary basis and I have done so numerous times over the past decade. If elected, I will also disclose such compensatory work with the Board as well.

We are looking for a new Treasurer

Would you be willing to volunteer?

A07 Nuno Caldeira

Not really, not my beach.

A07 Steve Coast

Yes.

A07 Jinal Foflia

No, I would not be the right fit for this role of a Treasurer

A07 Gregory Marler

I feel the duties of the treasurer and skills would not be my strongest points. It is great that Frederick has been keen to mentor and assist anyone who is interested in this.

A07 Mikel Maron

No, I do not intend to take on the Treasurer role. I'd be willing to be Secretary, if no one else is interested.

A07 Rory McCann

I don't think that's a good idea. I've never been a treasurer, and I would be a first time OSMF board member, so I wouldn't know the ropes. Treasurer is a role with a lot of responsibility. I don't think I'd be able to give up the time for that, so I wouldn't like to make such a commitment. But if we are legally required to have a treasurer, and no-one is stepping then the new board would have to make a decision.

A07 Michal Migurski

I would not be willing to volunteer since I don’t have meaningful experience in this area.

A07 Allan Mustard

No, this would not be the best use of my skills.

A07 Guillaume Rischard

Yes, if there are no better qualified candidates. Maybe the workload can be split with another board members, even if it is maybe legally required that only one person has the actual title.

A07 Dietmar Seifert

No, i'm not intereted to get this role. I never had the role as a treasurer for a non profit organization, so i don't have any know how for this.

A07 Clifford Snow

Yes with the qualification that the Board needs to determine who is best qualified for the position, not just that someone volunteers. The Treasurer is not only an import position but critical to our success. On the other hand, a Treasurer is not an accountant, but responsible to OSMF for the financial management of the organization. Having a paid accountant managing the day to day financial transactions makes more sense than having a board member doing that role.

A07 Eugene Alvin Villar

Sadly, no. If requested and time-permitting, I may be willing to become the Board chairperson or secretary. However, even though Frederik says that "being in the UK or at least in Europe isn't strictly necessary", it does seem that my being a person from a third-world country would make the role of Treasurer even more difficult given that Frederik himself has already encountered a few hiccups even as a person based in Germany. So my view is that the position is best given to a person based in Europe.

Are you willing to attend a Board face to face meeting?

The Board has a tradition to do an expenses-paid two day face-to-face meeting soon after the election, with a focus on agenda-setting for the rest of the year. Since there will be many new members, it also offers a chance to get to know each other better.

Do you think this is a good idea?
Are you willing/able to attend such a meeting?

A08 Nuno Caldeira

I am, if possible.

A08 Steve Coast

Yes – it’s a great idea.

A08 Jinal Foflia

I believe that meeting people face-to-face has a higher impact versus having internet/online conversations. It’s a great way to know an individual and build connections. If I’m elected, I would be willing to be a part of the face to face meeting.

A08 Gregory Marler

Meeting face-to-face is really important and I'm pleased the previous boards have decided to have a specific meeting for this. Previously it relied on the board meeting at SotM, but it is not always the case that they can all attend and it takes their time away from being present and accesible to others at the conference. I may have to arrange some out-of-office work or use unpaid holiday to give travel time, but I would be keen to make it happen with us present. The professional facilitator is also a good use of finance to ensure benefit of the meeting is maximised. I would try to help communicate to the community what takes place at the face-to-face meeting, I know Joost has worked on that and I'm open to suggestions on what else can be done. Listening the the most recent board meeting, it seems that a face-to-face meeeting would have given more benefit the earlier it is after elections so I will aim to assist in that being possible.

A08 Mikel Maron

Yes for sure. The face to face is very important for the Board to function well and move an agenda forward. It's been a part of the Board for the four years I've been on the Board this term, and during most of my prior terms. It's been most effective with the participation of an external facilitator -- whether in person or guiding closely in preparation.

And yes, OSMF rightly offers to cover the travel expenses for Board members to attend. I have personally drawn on my work travel budget for this, rather than asking the OSMF to do so.

A08 Rory McCann

Yes, I think face-to-face meeting can be very useful. Humans are often social animals, and when you can put a voice & a face to a name, you tend to work better with them. Text & email is great in many ways, but there's so much that can be lost, and that can result in miscommunication. If you have talked to people, you can read their emails (&etc) much better, you can hear their voice. But one must be aware that some charismatic, skilled people could steamroll over less confident, or neurodivergent, people. Text has an advantage of revealing less personal information about yourself, whereas in person talking can reveal if you're a member of marginalized groups, and many people have unconscience biases which could then affect you. So tis complicated, but overall a face-to-face meeting sounds like a great idea.

I'd be willing & able to attend, but it depends on how much money, or days off work I'd need. If the foundation pays travel & accommodation costs, I'd be able to do it. I'm willing to take a few days off work as annual leave for it.

A08 Michal Migurski

Face-to-face meetings should be an absolute requirement for an international organization such as OpenStreetMap. Spending time in the same space, sharing conversations and meals are vital ways to find trust with other board members so that hard organizational work can be done. I would eagerly attend in-person meetings of the board.

A08 Allan Mustard

Yes, if I can find an affordable airline ticket. > The Board has a tradition to do an expenses-paid two day face-to-face meeting soon after the election, with a focus on agenda-setting for the rest of the year. Since there will be many new members, it also offers a chance to get to know each other better. Do you think this is a good idea?

Yes.

> Are you willing/able to attend such a meeting?

Yes, and if OSMF will pay for the airline ticket, all the better.

A08 Guillaume Rischard

Yes, absolutely. I already enjoy discussing Board business with its current members. Meeting other humans face to face makes it easier to understand each other and reach consensus.

I’m not sure what the board uses in day-to-day communication. Mailing lists can be stiff, IRC channels difficult to use. Maybe other options can be explored.

It would be productive if some working groups, for example the deadlocked OWG (https://github.com/openstreetmap/operations/issues/237), could also meet face to face, and this is something that the Board should support.

A08 Dietmar Seifert

I try to absolutely minimize flights, for private and for business purposes. This is my personal approach to minimize my climate finger print.

On the other hand, i read in the last years, that new board members found this face-to-face meetings very useful to get in deeper contact together and therefore i would try to take part on suche a face-to-face meeting.

A08 Clifford Snow

Face to face meeting are important and am happy to attend.

A08 Eugene Alvin Villar

Yes. I have read many past Board members' thoughts about the necessity of having a face-to-face meeting and there is broad agreement that this leads to better working relationships and understanding among the Board members so I definitely think that having a face-to-face meeting is worth it.

As an aside, my view that the Board needs more geographic diversity is manifested in the logistics of these face-to-face meetings. It is relatively easy for people from Europe and Canada/United States to attend such meetings because travel visas are usually not an issue but this may become a problem for Board members from non-Western countries where applying for visas may take a few to several months. This means that having face-to-face meetings "soon after the election" might be unrealistic and had not been considered an issue due to a lack of diverse perspectives in the Board.

The Board and Working Groups

Please give us your view on the current overall structure and health of OSMF working groups using at least SOME of the following questions to help you. How do you feel about the current structure of the OSMF, and the divisions of responsibility between the Board and the Working Groups? Are those divisions clear to you? Are there responsibilities of the OSMF that are not currently under the remit of any working group? Is this a good thing? Do you think the working groups are fulfilling their responsibilities? Are each of the working groups healthy? How do you think the board should support the working groups?

It seems that working groups are not growing in participation. Some of the groups are over-tasked. Others are maintained by the same people year over year. While this contribution is wonderful, part of community health is engaging new volunteers/leaders. If the majority of big decisions about OSMF/ OSM are to be done by the working groups, how can we be sure that they get more support? What is your role as a potential board member to assist on the sustainability of working groups?

A09 Nuno Caldeira

From my perspective the board needs to take decisions which have already been discussed and are well documented. Delaying decisions about bad citizens of OSMF that are corporate members, just because they are corporate members is wrong. Companies should respect the articles of OSMF, hiding the attribution does not promote geospatial open data as in Object 3 (2) of OSMF articles.

A09 Steve Coast

It’s important to note that OSM is “working”. The map keeps getting better, the conferences more lively and more people use OSM every day. That is remarkable for such a tightly funded and small organization. We need to keep the best parts of that – the small core, the frugality, volunteer and mapper-led community. But, we also need to fix a few things here and there. Clearly the relationship between the board and some working groups has broken down and we can repair that in a few ways. One of them is to supply clear leadership on outstanding and old questions, another is to have more clear funding for at least some of the groups, and another is to create better incentives to be on a working group (such as funding for travel, meetups, and other bottom-up activity).

A09 Jinal Foflia

In an ideal scenario, board and working groups need to work hand in hand to govern and run the organisation. It’s complex and hard to understand how each of them function and who should be approached in which scenario.

There is a strong need of defining the structure as well as making the participation for anyone easy. In the past few State of the Maps, we have has working group sessions where the groups have met and discussed about different things that could be done. It often gets hard to follow up because of the following factors:

We do not have all the members present during the monthly meetings as it gets harder to incorporate everyone’s schedule
To make the most of the meetings and have stronger participation, one of the things that could be suggested is to have short video calls and for those who do not make it, we can always follow up via mailing list emails or the IRC groups
The board and the working groups should work together on resolving issues regularly

A09 Gregory Marler

It has been made clear that each of the working groups are different in their own ways, and certain rules or structures don't work for all of them. There are a few things that have not worked in the past, and it's important to learn from them. For example a healthy working group is helped by having an informal board-group relationship where there is discussion between them and this is not due to mandated presence. The board can help these groups by being aware of how each one works and it's unique aspects. As we will each have our interests in different groups it would be wise to share our knowledge of them, as a group could easily become forgotten when board members change. Recently a survey was circulated to working groups, but it was unclear who in the group should or can answer and that were a lot of questions so it led to few replies especiallly to those groups that feel overworked. Ideally the board should be able to answer a lot of questions by the knowledge they have anyway.

I would like to thank all people who are in the working groups, and the many hours they put in to help the foundation and the OSM project run. While the board/directors do have a legal responsibility on OSMF activity, it is critical that we attempt to respect decisions made by the working groups and prevent having to overrule them after public decisions have been made. The SotM conference has done some good things in the last 3 years to fix understanding of both the OSMF membership and it's working groups. We could learn from this, but it would also be wise to carry some of those acitivties further than the conference so more people become both members and participants in working groups.

A09 Mikel Maron

In short, I think each working group has unique needs, and the common thread is that the Board needs to have a better system to listen to working groups in order to know how to support them.

The overall structure and delineation of responsibilities is ok, but needs better documentation, particularly guiding communication between the Board and the Working Groups. I say this as a member of the Board, where we’ve seen misinterpretations of our intentions, clumsy communication, disagreements spiral, and confusion over the opaque process and sometimes slow timelines of Board decisions. Just like the Board has rules of order for its own meetings and discussions, we should draw up rules of order which guide the process of Board and Working Groups, well, working together.

The health of working groups varies widely. Some working groups are doing well, like the State of the Map working group which attracts many volunteers (having the advantage of taking place in a particular location), and has clear expectations of the Board to help with finances. Others have lost members and struggled to grow, yet diligently keep up with their responsibilities, like the Operations Working Group and the related System Administrators. The Legal Working Group is lean and could use more help, but has a very deliberate process of engagement with the Board. The Data Working Group has little interaction with the Board, and shoulders an outsized workload well. The Communication Working Group has seemed to lose steam, despite on the face of it being an ideal place for new volunteers. The Membership Working Group looks after memberships well, but we’re still healing the rifts from how the GlobalLogic incident went down. It’s great to see new energy in the Local Chapters Working Group, and I will be voting to accept its new scope.

The Board has started to ask working groups directly -- what’s working, what’s not and what can the Board do to help? There was also a good but far from conclusive discussion at the State of the Map. We’ve gotten some very helpful input from the working groups survey, but not from every group, and the lack of response is concerning, particularly from operations. Are they too busy to answer, or not interested to engage with the Board on this? I’d love to know. As I wrote about in the question on pressing issues, this may need a broader discussion.

A09 Rory McCann

> How do you feel about the current structure of the OSMF, and the divisions of responsibility between the Board and the Working Groups? Are those divisions clear to you? Are there responsibilities of the OSMF that are not currently under the remit of any working group? Is this a good thing? Do you think the working groups are fulfilling their responsibilities? Are each of the working groups healthy? How do you think the board should support the working groups?

I think the remit is relatively clear, with the caveat, that many things happen and are done outside of WGs. I do like the relative non-hierarchical nature of the OSM project. I would be less keen on a centrally managed, top down OSMF which told WGs what to do. Likewise I like local chapters having a certain level of independence, while recognising that the foundation must protect the OSM copyright & trademarks.

> It seems that working groups are not growing in participation. Some of the groups are over-tasked. Others are maintained by the same people year over year. While this contribution is wonderful, part of community health is engaging new volunteers/leaders. If the majority of big decisions about OSMF/ OSM are to be done by the working groups, how can we be sure that they get more support? What is your role as a potential board member to assist on the sustainability of working groups?

I agree that nearly every group needs new members, and needs “turnover” of people. A group cannot just have the same people for years. Part of the responsibility for that is with each WG, not the Foundation or Board. The Foundation shouldn't tell everyone what to do, and probably shouldn't be able to say “this person is now on your WG”. We're not paying WG members, so we (the foundation) aren't their bosses. We can't order volunteers around. Conversely, some engineering groups require stability and consistancy. Replacing sysadmins every year, who then want to completely replace everything with the new current shiney thing is a reciepe for downtime and instability which will only hurt the project. Likewise experienced, knowlegeable members can help a WG work well so shouldn't be turfed out for the sake of it.

I think the board can help, by telling the wider OSM community about what vacancies there are. I'm sure there are many people who could help, but think they aren't allowed (or think they are too under-skilled), I have spoken to people who said something like ”Oh I didn't know I could do that”. If board members approach people, and talk to them, and try to convince them to take part, that might help.

A09 Michal Migurski

I’ve been most familiar with the work of the Operations and License Working Groups, so I’ll answer from that perspective. Working group activities appear to have slowed tremendously in recent years. A healthy organization should have active groups promoting and implementing new initiatives but ours seem to be stalled.

The OSMF board has interpreted its scope too narrowly and has allowed core working group functions to atrophy dangerously. For example, OSM technical operations and system administration are performed by a shrinking number of longstanding volunteers. Volunteers have heroically kept our services stable and running for many years but we don’t have a plan for resiliency or for creating new services that the community wants.

The OSMF Board should accept a wider mandate to actively assist working groups. Each group’s goals should include visible progress, new participants, and ability to balance maintenance of existing responsibilities with exciting new work. OSMF’s board has tools to help such as funds for hiring short-term staff and contractors, connections with members of organizations and companies who can offer time or experience, and legitimacy from an election process to direct attention and interest of the wider community of mappers and data users.

A09 Allan Mustard

> How do you feel about the current structure of the OSMF, and the divisions of responsibility between the Board and the Working Groups? Are those divisions clear to you?

Yes.

> Are there responsibilities of the OSMF that are not currently under the remit of any working group?

Not that I am aware.

> Is this a good thing?

I think major bases are covered.

> Do you think the working groups are fulfilling their responsibilities?

In my experience, primarily with the DWG, yes.

> Are each of the working groups healthy?

I believe so.

> How do you think the board should support the working groups?

The board exists to facilitate the work of the organization, to support the mappers and the working groups. The Board should think strategically, and not immerse itself in the day-to-day functioning of the organization. If a working group wants the Board to rule on an issue, that's fine, but I am a big practitioner of delegation of both responsibility and authority, and was so throughout my government career.

> It seems that working groups are not growing in participation. Some of the groups are over-tasked. Others are maintained by the same people year over year. While this contribution is wonderful, part of community health is engaging new volunteers/leaders. If the majority of big decisions about OSMF/ OSM are to be done by the working groups, how can we be sure that they get more support? What is your role as a potential board member to assist on the sustainability of working groups?

That in fact is the single most important role of the Board, to focus on sustainability of the organization as a whole and in particular on the role of volunteers. My role as a board member would include recruiting not only new mappers but identifying prospective working group members and recruiting them to help out with those working groups, too.

A09 Guillaume Rischard

Working groups are the backbone of the OSMF. I think it’s more useful to talk about a union of responsibilities than a division. Some WGs are healthier than others, and few are in great shape. Recruiting and keeping volunteers is a permanent issue.

Even if a lot of the work is delegated, the Board does have the democratic legitimacy to take big decisions, for example to adopt official Organised Editing guidelines or exclude members.

I have mentioned the risk of regulatory capture above. DWG excludes potential “clients” or their competitors, which I think is very good. LWG, which is currently working on the attribution guidelines, has a majority of members from corporations, and no board members.

I’ve been on the receiving end of Board members bossing MWG or DWG, and understand that other WGs have experienced this too. This is how you disgruntle volunteers, and must be prevented. The survey done last year is a very food first step to have a map of where work is required to reestablish and consolidate trust. The Board and WGs should work out guidelines on how the interaction between them should take place. It’s sometimes hard to get an answer at all.

A09 Dietmar Seifert

I got only one time a year in contact with the work of the working groups, when their work was showed and discussed on SOTM meetings. The results of most working groups are unvisible, but good (Operations, StateoftheMap Organizing, Data Working), others are mostly invisible. I was very surprised, that i actually found Minutes and Reports for some Working Groups. I didn't know, that there are such information available.

A09 Clifford Snow

I believe the Working Groups are vital to the success of OSM and want to see them grow in not with inclusive participation but in the responsibilities they assume. Hypothetically I do feel that if an existing Working Group is unable to take on a responsibility the Board has determined as strategic to our success, then the Board has no other choice but to look for alternatives.

A09 Eugene Alvin Villar

As a member of the proto LCCWG, I attended the Board + Working Groups meeting at State of the Map 2019 and saw that the relationship between the Board and the Working Groups is not as clear as it can be. While I am not completely aware of the full history of how the Working Groups came to be (including the unsuccessful Management Team), my view is that WGs are created in an ad-hoc manner, and a lot of the day-to-day work of the Foundation is done autonomously by the WGs (like the OWG running and maintaining the servers) with the Board only providing oversight and minimal supervision. The most recent controversial problems between the Board and the WGs is the Board overriding the DWG's 2018 decision on Crimea. My view is that the Board was not wrong in overriding a WG's action because of the Board's oversight function over the WGs but I think this could have been better handled (although the urgency of the issue did not help make matters easier).

I have tried to search for any official policy or guidelines that documents the relationship between the Board and the WGs and I could not find any, except for a small rule in the Board Rules of Order that Board members can participate in but not chair WGs, and a proposed procedure for proposing a new WG. My view is that there should be a guideline document (similar to the Board Rules of Order) describing in detail how WGs should be created, managed, dissolved, including Board escalation procedures for disputed WG actions. I think having such a document would provide much-needed clarity and improve relationships between the Board and WGs. If I am elected to the Board, I would like to lead a Board effort to create such a document in consultation with the WGs.

The Board and the community: communication

There a lots of communication methods amongst the OSM community and OSM project. How do you personally keep track of everything being said/discussed/agreed?

A10 Nuno Caldeira

I subscribed to the mailing lists of my interest, I read the board minutes and have active conversations about OSM/OSMF on the unofficial International Telegram group. it is difficult to keep up with everything and we should have a common platform for communication with the corporate members of OSMF, as they usually ignore emails and neither publicly reply to subjects where they are mentioned.

A10 Steve Coast

I tend to follow a little bit of all the communication channels.

A10 Jinal Foflia

OpenStreetMap has multiple forum and channels of communication and it is hard to keep a tab on each of them. This was something which I gave a talk about in the State of the Map Global conference, 2018. In the past and currently, I personally set up filters, notifications and regularly follow-up on emails to make sure that I read and keep a track of things happening in OpenStreetMap.

A10 Gregory Marler

It was me that asked this question, but I'll admit I do struggle with this. I'm ever grateful to the WeeklyOSM compilation but I ensure I go to the original sources of stories even though I may be late to the discussion by the time I see it through WeeklyOSM. I'm aware that each communication platform is only a part of the community, and I'm sure this will also be the case for those that e-mail the board directly. I will ensure I try to keep dipping into the platforms I don't naturally use myself so that I can check claimed-consensus is inclusive of everyone. I'm also grateful to those that help others communicate and share stories of those who are less confident in sharing their experiences.

A10 Mikel Maron

I'm subscribed and read most everything on osmf-talk@, talk@, and hot@ mailing lists, and also subscribed and skim threads for important topics on osm-dev@, diversity-talk@, talk-us@, tagging@, and imports@. I'm present on the OSM US and HOT Slack orgs. I follow many OSM related Twitter accounts, and keep a standing search on "openstreetmap" that I review frequently. I've started hanging in IRC again recently, after SotM WG started holding meetings there. Joined several active Telegram groups (particularly OSM LatAm and OSM Asia), but honestly it's been too much for me to track. On Whatsapp, I'm in the OSM Africa and OSM Kenya groups, and actually read those pretty closely. And I read WeeklyOSM every week. I also read Working Group minutes, and look forward to the compilation of OSMF activities that Dorothea does every quarter or two.

Even with all that, I can not remotely keep track of everything. Nor do I at all recommend that Board members, or others, try to keep up on this level of communications. We need to find a better structure to track major issues of importance to the Board, and the rest of the community.

A10 Rory McCann

How to do I keep track? Probably by spending a lot of time on the internet! OSM is a large community and even keeping track of the English language communication is hard. If you want to let me know about something, please directly send/mention it to me.

A10 Michal Migurski

I use OSM US Slack, individual participants’ Twitter presence, diary posts, direct conversation with other OSM people, Github issues for technical topics, and periodically I follow the conversation in OSM-Talk and OSMF-Talk in case there’s something interesting being discussed. I look for references to official announcements and posts from board members and working groups in these forums.

A10 Allan Mustard

I'm not sure I actually do keep track of everything--there is a lot out there! I follow e-mail lists, read Twitter feeds, and so on. Now that I am retired, I will have a bit more time to devote to this (particularly once I finish unpacking all the boxes we shipped back from Ashgabat). Personally I have e-mail, Twitter, and Facebook accounts, and also use Signal and Facebook Messenger, so am easy to find and reach.

A10 Guillaume Rischard

I hang out in IRC and Telegram channels, attend OSM events both local and abroad, read the Weekly and sometimes contribute to it, and read and participate on Twitter and on various mailing lists.

A10 Dietmar Seifert

I read some mailing lists, the OSM forum, visiting the local monthly OSM social meetings. I read the weekly OSM roundup news.

A10 Clifford Snow

I follow the diversity, talk and tagging mailing lists and active on the US Slack community. While I keep IRC and Telegram open, I do not follow them. I keep IRC and Telegram open so people can contact me directly. Because I’m a member of the LCCWG I also follow our Telegram channel. To the other part of the question, how do I personally keep track of everything being said. I don’t. I try to keep track of issues I’m concerned with and issue that I believe are critical to OSM.

A10 Eugene Alvin Villar

It is impossible to keep track of everything that is happening in a worldwide project such as OSM, but as a passionate supporter of the project, I try my best to keep track by being a subscriber or a member of various communication channels. This includes subscribing to several mailing lists (talk, talk-ph, osmf-talk, tagging, osm-dev, legal-talk, etc.), being a member of the unofficial OSM, OSM Asia, OSM PH, and OSM-community-building Telegram groups, reading some OSM user diary entries, attending OSMF Board meetings, and (most especially) following the WeeklyOSM newsletter (they definitely deserved become the first winner of the Influential Writing OSM Award). It also helps to have good skimming/reading skills so that you can quickly filter out topics that are not interesting or irrelevant.

The Board and the community: What would you do? ...

Being a board member requires you to carefully discuss, assess issues and either reject or follow through on a solution and actually "make it happen". With this in mind, here is a selection of potentially tough or controversial issues that concern individual OSMF members. Please think through ONE in detail and let us know your views. Time permitting, feel free to comment more briefly on other issues - there will be at least one voter interested in your answer!

What is your POV on multilingual maps in openstreetmap.org' ? In India, most of Indians are not comfortable with English language. Should the board initiate a project to provide maps in different languages on our main website? How?

Do you believe in the ground-truth based rulings of the Data Working Group? What is your stance on the overruling of the DWG by the board on the Ukrainian border last year? How would you decide in the future on such issues?

Gender pronouns. Some other online community rules/codes of conducts require the use of a person's stated pronouns (aka “preferred pronouns”), e.g. the correct pronouns for transgender people, including the use of “gender neutral singular they” or neo-pronouns (e.g. ”xe”). Do you think this is a reasonable rule that OSM(F) should adopt? Or a completely intolerable ridiculous rule?

Prominent projects like Facebook, MAPS.ME or Moovit are using OSM data but are allegedly missing proper attribution. This is unchanged despite multiple requests from various mappers. What would you do as a board member?

What are your thoughts about employees of companies (that use OSM data) becoming Board or Working Group members of OSMF? What is your solution to ensure transparency, equity and impartiality of OSMF in cases like this?

The European Union has enacted new tough rules on personal data protect, "GDPR". These came into force in May 2018. According to the License Working Group, OSM needs to make some server API changes to comply fully and these are not yet done. If elected, what will you do to clarify the situation? Do you think the OSMF is currently potentially at risk of not being GDPR-compliant?

As a board member, what steps would you take to ensure that the OSM front page and its components such as editor is further developed in a manner supported by the mapping community? Consider 3 things: 1) There is specific controversy about the iD editor. iD maintainers are alleged to disregard community input and have stated that they not care what the community wants - a community-vetted fork has been suggested; 2) How will you encourage existing developers of the software that powers OpenStreetMap to continue participating and be motivated? - they are all volunteers and put in huge amounts of time, surely that deserves a high degree of autonomy and decision making?; 3) How will you encourage new developers to join and participate in our community?

A11 Nuno Caldeira

I’m ok with multilanguage, we might need a couple of volunteers o translate.

Regarding the Ukraine border, OSM must be bias and not picking sides of international politic, just download the data and pick the border you agree on and host it.

Regarding the attribution, those that follow the mailing lists are aware of the long battle in the last year. This should be avoiable by the companies as they are corporate members of OSMF and have been asked (privately and publicly) to fix it. Sadly they seem to be ashamed of using OSM and decide to not atttribute or hide it under an “i”. Corporate members should proudly state they use OSM, not hide it, use wrong interpretations of the license or the guidelines or even trying to get behind excuses like fair use or due to having multiple sources of data.

The developers of editors, especially those that are being payed by companies that are corporate members of OSMF, must not dictated what tags are better or more suitable to the company interests that reflect in OSM.

A11 Steve Coast

What is your POV on multilingual maps in openstreetmap.org' ? In India, most of Indians are not comfortable with English language. Should the board initiate a project to provide maps in different languages on our main website? How?

Yes, we should do this: By asking the OWG what it would take and for a plan, and, by freeing up resources by not being the worlds free tile server and restricting tiles to OSM-related projects.

A11 Jinal Foflia

OpenStreetMap has recently seen a huge influx of corporate attention, which in a way is a great as it showcases how important this project is. As prominent projects use this data, it is vital and important that they abide and work towards the required guidelines to attribute this data. We cannot ignore that there is a lot of work that has been put by the LWG around this in the recent times.

Until the time that the draft is converted into actual guidelines, if I were on the board, I would have reached out to the mappers as well as the concerned projects leads and work along with them to sort this issue out. My first step would be make these guidelines available and then keep the community as well as the project leads informed that we are working on a solution to resolve this issue.

>Some rules/codes of conducts require the use of a person's stated pronouns (aka “preferred pronouns”), e.g. the correct pronouns for transgender people, including the

use of “gender neutral singular they” or neo-pronouns (e.g. ”xe”). Do you think this is a reasonable rule? Or a completely intolerable ridiculus rule. (NB: Another question about community conflicts refers to the recent StackExchange conflict, which involved this topic

Everyone has a right to choose his/her/their pronoun and if that’s something that they want to use explicitly , it’s a fair ask. The 2019’s State of the Map already had badges that stated what one would like to be called as. It should be a part of Code of Conducts as it’ll only lead to making the community more inclusive and respectful towards one’s choices.

A11 Gregory Marler

I would like to see more maps on openstreetmap.org, but I understand the need to meet the policy that has been set, such as being able to handle large load. For regions/languages and topics that want more presence I would like to point them to assistance in running an appropriate tile server. Local chapter websites are doing well in presenting local-lanuage maps and some provide good examples. Vector tiles and on-demand styles could mitigate some issues, but I would need to know from the Operations & Engineering working groups before I claim that the OSMF should provide those.

The ground-truth has been a strong policy of OSM and often stops newbie suggestions that their might be opinionitive edit-wars. The Ukranian border issue in OSMF was not the most ideal outcome, and I've already talked about how the board should be upholding our working groups wherever possible. I was not on the board or in the DWG so I'm aware I do that have the full picture. There are differing needs and pushes in the world, and it is another reason why we should push and celebrate the ability to create different maps from the same brilliant data.

My pronoun is "he". You are welcome to call me "Gregory" or "Greg", and I don't mind if you have to refer to me by descriptions when you forget my name. Learning and respecting what people prefer to be called is a simple way to be a welcoming community. We can make mistakes, and I would only find it a problem if someone is intentionally refering to a person with unpreferred pronouns or names. For anyone feeling uncomfortable from issues such as this, they are welcome to approach me as often a mediator is required to solve issues.

Facebook gave some view into the struggle of this despite their attempts and desires for good attribution. The board should support the work of LWG on missing attribution cases, but the board should also decide what can and should be done with repeat offenders and those that are OSMF corporate members.

It is great when the board represents many stakeholders of OpenStreetMap. I have been grateful and specifically asked one member for their view on how a SotM sponsor might feel with certain decisions. For wider OSMF matters I've also been grateful that the board had a small business owner and the insights he gave. We should value that people have paid jobs and know about each-others work. As previously stated, I think there are times it would then be appropriate for board members to be excluded from votes and possible from the final discussion before a vote.

GDPR is an important but tricky legal matter. We should be taking profesional advice on this, some of which we do get from volunteers in LWG. This is a place where I would not hold back from spending appropriate money, either for advice or for implementing changes needed to be compliant and safe for our users.

A11 Mikel Maron

I'll pick DWG, "on the ground rule", and Ukraine. First background. I created the "On the Ground Rule" in 2007 when I arbitrated one of the first OpenStreetMap edit wars in Cyprus. That involved the language used for default names of street level features, not administrative boundaries. And I was part of the decision to overrule the DWG decision on Crimea, and it was done as part of a proper appeal process to the Board. The Board decision, which I supported, to go back to the status quo that had stood for years was based on community harmony, and I would say in this individual exception that has held up.

My opinion is that the "On the Ground Rule" serves us well, but also is a difficult fit for disputed boundaries, and difficult for the DWG to handle in many situations. In reality, if you somehow were on the ground in Crimea, it's not quite Ukraine or Russia, it would clearly be a disputed place. We should do two things in the future. First, there was good work on better defining representation of disputed boundaries during the heat of the Crimea issue. I think it's important for that to continue, and then be implemented in editing tools and the main tile rendering. Second, we should document clearly what happens in appeals of working group decisions (DWG or otherwise), and make sure it includes a structure for healthy dialog between the working group and Board.

Now I'll briefly comment on the rest.

I'd love to see multi-lingual maps, but that's a long way off. First we need to build support structures for software development.

I think using someone's preferred pronouns is part of treating someone's gender with respect. I'm not sure if that level of detail needs to be part of our Code of Conduct or not, but open to it.

Attribution controversies are going to be greatly helped by finalization and adoption of guidelines under development by the LWG.

Obviously I have no general issue with company employees in the OSMF. Professionals have always been a central part of OpenStreetMap from the beginning, and they should certainly contribute time to OSMF. These conflicts of interest are managed now, but I think we can document further how we handle them. That’s not to say that there are not issues with corporate presence in OSM and OSMF, and would welcome a space to have a more nuanced discussion about it.

We should finish implementation of our GDPR compliance plan. Non-compliance is a small risk, but compliance is also simply the right thing to do. We need to do more solicitation of proposals directly in the Rails development community.

I've stated my thoughts on software development in the second question on Board priorities. I don't agree with everything the iD maintainers have said or did, but I do believe they have been unfairly maligned and targeted, and quotes by them are cherry picked to support those attacks (I don't believe that the iD maintainers do not care about the community, just as I don't believe Frederik truly thinks iD is akin to domestic violence). Making a rash decision is not going to solve anything. We need to step back and look at better support for our technology.

A11 Rory McCann

> What is your POV on multilingual maps in openstreetmap.org' ? In India, most of Indians are not comfortable with English language. Should the board initiate a project to provide maps in different languages on our main website? How?

Multilingual maps would be brilliant to have. Years ago one of my first OSM projects was to make a map rendering server that showed Irish language names (name:ga). The ability to add and store any and all languages is a great benefit. And we must not forget the colonial history of the spread of the English language.

From a technical stand point, adding multilingual maps on OSM.org is actually not very easy. Which is one reason it hasn't been done. If we were to switch to 'vector tiles on OSM.org' then it could be done much easier. (I have some experience with setting up tile servers & vector tiles). I think OSM.org should have such feature, but I'm not sure what the next steps are. Maybe if some project shows promise it can be encouraged.

> Do you believe in the ground-truth based rulings of the Data Working Group? What is your stance on the overruling of the DWG by the board on the Ukrainian border last year? How would you decide in the future on such issues?

I do support the long standing OSM rule of “on the ground”, it's one of the most neutral ways we have of solving debates. I think that rule would require the borders of Ukraine to not include Crimea. However there was a lot of bad press with that decision, so I support making a once off exception to get rid of bad flak. I probably would have voted the same way.

I am aware that the decision, and how it was communicated, was sub-par and took a long time to communicate to the members, but it was not a nice position for board members to be in, so I'm quite sympathetic. I think that no matter what the board members had said, they'd have been critized, so I can understand why there was a lot of thought put into it.

> Gender pronouns. Some other online community rules/codes of conducts require the use of a person's stated pronouns (aka “preferred pronouns”), e.g. the correct pronouns for transgender people, including the use of “gender neutral singular they” or neo-pronouns (e.g. ”xe”). Do you think this is a reasonable rule that OSM(F) should adopt? Or a completely intolerable ridiculous rule?

(I submitted this question). It's a perfectly reasonable, and basic, rule. The bare minimum. Refusal to use someone pronouns is nearly always basically transphobia, and has no place in OSM or modern society.

> Prominent projects like Facebook, MAPS.ME or Moovit are using OSM data but are allegedly missing proper attribution. This is unchanged despite multiple requests from various mappers. What would you do as a board member?

Facebook attribution has improved, and to me, the website attribution is sufficient. (One click on the (i) and you see “(c) OpenStreetMap”). I've seen suggestions to “revoke their licence”, I'm not sure if that's possible, and I don't think using the nuclear option straight away is clever in the short or long term. Let's be realistic.

“Speak softly and carry a big stick” is a useful adage. Often people & companies want to do the right thing, and can be communicated with, and they can improve. The Foundation does have a duty to protect the project's IP like this, and we must ensure the community is not rode rough shed over by scummy companies with a history of lying.

> What are your thoughts about employees of companies (that use OSM data) becoming Board or Working Group members of OSMF? What is your solution to ensure transparency, equity and impartiality of OSMF in cases like this?

I am currently an employee of such a company, so I'm not opposed!

The OSMF needs to formulate rules about 'conflicts of interest' which should be able to handle cases where someone with an obvious CoI brazenly states “Nope, I have no CoI”.

CoI rules help board members who are employees. If a CoI rule forces someone to not take part in a vote, then your employer can't disciple you for it! They cannot blame you for not doing what they want, since you were forced not to.

> The European Union has enacted new tough rules on personal data protect, "GDPR". These came into force in May 2018. According to the License Working Group, OSM needs to make some server API changes to comply fully and these are not yet done. If elected, what will you do to clarify the situation? Do you think the OSMF is currently potentially at risk of not being GDPR-compliant?

I think GDPR & data privacy are very important. I think OSM is still too small to get into trouble, so we aren't quite at the “emergency” stage. We're already offering money to make this change, and I think that's where the solution lies. Maybe we need to ask for more money. Perhaps the tech companies who want to offer tech help could be encouraged to send a patch.

> As a board member, what steps would you take to ensure that the OSM front page and its components such as editor is further developed in a manner supported by the mapping community? Consider 3 things: 1) There is specific controversy about the iD editor. iD maintainers are alleged to disregard community input and have stated that they not care what the community wants - a community-vetted fork has been suggested; 2) How will you encourage existing developers of the software that powers OpenStreetMap to continue participating and be motivated? - they are all volunteers and put in huge amounts of time, surely that deserves a high degree of autonomy and decision making?; 3) How will you encourage new developers to join and participate in our community?

I'm aware of the arguments about the iD editor and I think there are a lot of good points.

We must be careful using the term "community" because there are many communities in OSM. The iD devs have claimed they are following an OSM community, and claimed other OSM communities should be ignored. And they are right that they are following a community! Running an open source project is hard because many randos on the Internet think you owe them.

While referring to the iD developers as “abusive” is a little too far, and demanding they never lock an issue ever is silly, I do think there are problems with how the iD software is managed & is heading.

iD is an open source software project. They can do what they want. “Benevolent Dictator”/company paid development is certainly a popular model, and they seem to be following that. (AFAIK both main iD developers are paid, not volunteers). Let them do what they want. Demanding the obey you when you're not paying them is silly. Conversely, being so disrespectful to large chunks of the OSM community is not very smart when you're making software that can only be used with OSM. People who don't use OSM mailing lists are part of the OSM community. People who do use OSM mailing lists are part of the OSM community.

The iD project belongs to the maintainers. But OpenStreetMap.org doesn't. We, the OSM community, are fully right to think about what sort of software we want to put on osm.org. iD is a great piece of software, which is provides the vitally important role of an easy to use web editor, and is critical to the OSM project. Maybe iD project wants a certain feature, and the wider OSM community doesn't. Sometimes people disagree, and that's fine. So maybe we configure & patch iD to deploy on OSM.org. There are different trade offs between data protection and easy to recognize brand logos, and maybe some people decide one way, and others another. That's fine.

A11 Michal Migurski

I’ll answer the attribution question since it most directly addresses my employer, Facebook.

At Facebook, we have over a hundred teams working on maps. All have their own use cases, backends and assortment of data sources, many of which are not OSM. Each team decides which combination of map sources they will draw from and how to design the product to meet their business goals and their legal obligations. This large number of teams doing their own thing is the reason why attribution has been inconsistent in the past. Facebook is moving quickly to change that.

As we grow our mapping services, we’re working to reduce technical debt across the groups whose products serve and use maps and we’re moving toward a consolidated approach to maps at Facebook. Thus, you will soon see us take a more uniform approach to the way we handle attribution across all map surfaces across the company. It’s important for us to honor the attribution requirements across all of our data sources, including those governed by the ODbL (like OSM) while also meeting obligations to privacy and user safety that may interact with some of the potential attribution requirements now being discussed by the License Working Group (LWG).

As a board member, I would share best practices and open channels of communications directly with Facebook and other large companies on how to use OSM at scale. I would also create a venue for one-to-one conversations with designated representatives of relevant working groups. Mailing list discussions often have a large and diverse array of conflicting views that could benefit from the synthesis and consolidation of views that the LWG is working on. I hope to see more of this explicit, assertive communication about what the OSM sees as good attribution. I want to see companies become beneficial and enthusiastic participants in OSM and I will push for more direct points of interaction between companies and the OSMF to better integrate some of the OSM’s largest users into the foundation.

A11 Allan Mustard

> What is your POV on multilingual maps in openstreetmap.org? In India, most of Indians are not comfortable with English language. Should the board initiate a project to provide maps in different languages on our main website? How?

I think the technical challenges for this, speaking as someone who speaks fluent Russian and a bit of German, Turkish, and Turkmen, are beyond the scope of the OSM standard layer on the main servers. In India alone dozens of languages are spoken, so this is a task in my view that belongs with local chapters. I dealt with this issue in Turkmenistan by using Maperitive (freeware, by the way) and its ability to draw multilingual names from the OSM XML database to draw maps in foreign languages. My instructions and rendering rules for how to do this are in the OSM wiki, and links to them are on my wiki user page. That said, if a local OSM chapter wants to create and maintain a mirror of the OSM database with a local language shown in the standard layer, by all means, have at it! If data entered through that mirror can then be cross-loaded into the main OSM database, great!

> Do you believe in the ground-truth based rulings of the Data Working Group?

Yes.

> What is your stance on the overruling of the DWG by the board on the Ukrainian border last year?

I do not believe the Board should meddle in day-to-day decisions of that nature. The Board should focus on strategic issues, and leave quality of data to the DWG.

> How would you decide in the future on such issues?

I would defer to the working groups unless there was a compelling strategic reason, essentially existential to the organization, to intervene. Unfortunately border and boundary disputes are a fact of life, and one that I as a diplomat had to contend with. The solution in this case should be for the Board to adopt a policy applicable to all DWG decisions on borders and boundaries, not each case in isolation (e.g., the question of Kashmir's "line of control" as well as Russia's forcible annexation of Crimea).

> Gender pronouns. Some other online community rules/codes of conduct require the use of a person's stated pronouns (aka “preferred pronouns”), e.g., the correct pronouns for transgender people, including the use of “gender neutral singular they” or neo-pronouns (e.g. ”xe”). Do you think this is a reasonable rule that OSM(F) should adopt? Or a completely intolerable ridiculous rule?

I am not a big fan of political correctness, and think it is often a distraction from our core functions. OSM should focus on making maps and collecting geodata, not on social engineering. My rulebook as a retired U.S. government employee is the U.S. Government Printing Office Style Manual. If any mappers want to use "they" or "xe" or some other neologism, they are welcome to style themselves however they wish, but OSM should focus on mapping, mutual respect, and common courtesy, not pandering to special interests. Just be polite, tolerant, and welcoming! Prominent projects like Facebook, MAPS.ME or Moovit are using OSM data but are allegedly missing proper attribution. This is unchanged despite multiple requests from various mappers. What would you do as a board member? I would be an intolerable nag until OSM and its contributors got the credit they deserve.

> What are your thoughts about employees of companies (that use OSM data) becoming Board or Working Group members of OSMF?

If they are bona fide members, they can run and be elected, if that is what the membership wants.

> What is your solution to ensure transparency, equity and impartiality of OSMF in cases like this?

Require answers to questions like those posed here prior to voting.

>The European Union has enacted new tough rules on personal data protection, "GDPR". These came into force in May 2018. According to the License Working Group, OSM needs to make some server API changes to comply fully and these are not yet done. If elected, what will you do to clarify the situation?

Hire somebody to do it.

> Do you think the OSMF is currently potentially at risk of not being GDPR-compliant?

I'm not a lawyer but I'll take your word for it that it is, and that the issue needs to be addressed. Reasons like these are why financial health of the organization is important.

> As a board member, what steps would you take to ensure that the OSM front page and its components such as editor is further developed in a manner supported by the mapping community? Consider 3 things: 1) There is specific controversy about the iD editor. iD maintainers are alleged to disregard community input and have stated that they don't care what the community wants - a community-vetted fork has been suggested; 2) How will you encourage existing developers of the software that powers OpenStreetMap to continue participating and be motivated? - they are all volunteers and put in huge amounts of time, surely that deserves a high degree of autonomy and decision making?; 3) How will you encourage new developers to join and participate in our community?

1) I am a big fan of iD--use it more than any other editor--and would love to see this resolved. The editors have a particular point of view, that too many cooks spoil the broth, so this is perhaps something best addressed ultimately by creating a beneficial dialog between the developers and the DWG.

2) Volunteers (and I have been a volunteer at many things over the decades) never get all the credit they deserve, so the key here is recognition of their contributions and ensuring that the community knows and appreciates them.

3) This probably requires going out and recruiting from colleges and universities with both IT and geography departments, from government agencies that use and appreciate OSM, because they are the most likely to contribute. Private firms will only pitch in, as a rule, if they see a direct benefit to their bottom lines.

A11 Guillaume Rischard

> What is your POV on multilingual maps in openstreetmap.org' ? In India, most of Indians are not comfortable with English language. Should the board initiate a project to provide maps in different languages on our main website? How?

Most people I’ve met in India were fluent English speakers.

That aside, it’s not just language that we would like to be able to represent differently sometimes: we would like to show different borders, different map styles, adapt for accessibility, etc. We should support efforts to move to vector tiles.

> Do you believe in the ground-truth based rulings of the Data Working Group? What is your stance on the overruling of the DWG by the board on the Ukrainian border last year? How would you decide in the future on such issues?

Predictable rule and their application - rule of law, in short - encourages a free map.

It is important that decisions like this are taken transparently. The detailed reasoning behind the Crimea decision was invented after the fact, and was significantly different from what DWG heard from the Board at first.

The lobbying from the Ukrainian community was heavy. However, the on-the-ground rule is one of the very core values that we have built OSM and the OSMF on.

https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Mission_Statement says that OSM favours objective ‘Ground Truth’ over all other sources. The ‘Scope of the OSMF’ section says that it does not decide what to map or how to map.

The on-the-ground rule has served us well on disputed borders: there is no other reasonable and possible alternative. Creating an exception in Crimea, without any justification, opens Pandora’s box. Would the OSMF react similarly to an appeal concerning other disputed borders? There should never be an arbitrary decision on these issues but only well-defined and established policies. Since the Crimea decision, DWG has received other letters from embassies of different countries.

You could claim that we haven’t followed the on-the-ground rule in Crimea for the last four years. I know that the Data Working Group has, before I was on it, treated Crimea with kid gloves after the Russian invasion. We act more as firefighters than as gardeners, work more reactively than proactively, and always have enough new issues to prevent us from reexamining old ones.

I really think it is now time to apply the on-the-ground rule. We should use the opportunity to reaffirm our core values, review with the community’s support where we have taken decisions on disputed territories, and make sure that we apply the same rules in the same way everywhere.

> Gender pronouns. Some other online community rules/codes of conducts require the use of a person's stated pronouns (aka “preferred pronouns”), e.g. the correct pronouns for transgender people, including the use of “gender neutral singular they” or neo-pronouns (e.g. ”xe”). Do you think this is a reasonable rule that OSM(F) should adopt? Or a completely intolerable ridiculous rule?

See my answer on discrimination on the question on the number of women candidates this year.

It’s basic politeness to call someone by how they want to be called.

> Prominent projects like Facebook, MAPS.ME or Moovit are using OSM data but are allegedly missing proper attribution. This is unchanged despite multiple requests from various mappers. What would you do as a board member?

It’s not ‘alleged’, I have seen this myself. If the current attribution guidelines are understood by some reusers to mean that the lack of proper attribution is acceptable, we must review their wording so that the expectations of data contributors can be met. The board must remember and remind reusers that attribution is an essential condition to maximise the amount of data that OSM collects.

We must find something that satisfies them without strangling reuse. It’s also something that’s been hanging around the OSMF’s neck for too long.

It’s important that data users can’t regulate themselves and write their own attribution guidelines through their participation in LWG.

> What are your thoughts about employees of companies (that use OSM data) becoming Board or Working Group members of OSMF? What is your solution to ensure transparency, equity and impartiality of OSMF in cases like this?

It’s not inherently problematic, as long as the conflict of interest that comes with it is dealt with properly. Too often, it isn’t.

> The European Union has enacted new tough rules on personal data protect, "GDPR". These came into force in May 2018. According to the License Working Group, OSM needs to make some server API changes to comply fully and these are not yet done. If elected, what will you do to clarify the situation? Do you think the OSMF is currently potentially at risk of not being GDPR-compliant?

Of course the OSMF should comply with the law! We haven’t had volunteers to change the API, so we should look at hiring someone, preferably with the necessary community experience.

> As a board member, what steps would you take to ensure that the OSM front page and its components such as editor is further developed in a manner supported by the mapping community? Consider 3 things: 1) There is specific controversy about the iD editor. iD maintainers are alleged to disregard community input and have stated that they not care what the community wants - a community-vetted fork has been suggested; 2) How will you encourage existing developers of the software that powers OpenStreetMap to continue participating and be motivated? - they are all volunteers and put in huge amounts of time, surely that deserves a high degree of autonomy and decision making?; 3) How will you encourage new developers to join and participate in our community?

The OSMF and its board has traditionally adopted a “support, not control” approach to the OSM project. A lot of how the project moves is p to the community. OWG and the website developers have also wisely stayed away from editor disputes.

At SotM, Andy Allan suggested using liquid democracy and vote delegation tools to solve tagging issues. I find the idea very interesting, and wonder whether it could be used for this kind of issues too.

OSM has a history of lynching the linchpins, creating a vicious circle of disagreements causing crucial people to be perceived as gatekeepers and retracting from the community, which creates frustration. Today it’s the iD developers, but in the past it was Nominatim, maps.me, Potlatch developers or OWG.

The Board should usually avoid taking sides in the actual dispute, but support the search for consensus in the community, which would alleviate tension. It should act as a catalyst for solutions and a moderator for tension. Part of the Board’s mission should be that the community has the capacity to discuss and take decisions. Only once there is community consensus should there be enforcement.

A11 Dietmar Seifert

> Prominent projects like Facebook, MAPS.ME or Moovit are using OSM data but are allegedly missing proper attribution. This is unchanged despite multiple requests from various mappers. What would you do as a board member?

This is not acceptable. This is our condition to use OSM data. It they don't attribute it correctly, we must make this public, for example. Public pressure, i hope, will force to change the responsible persons of the projects. If they want to be active part of a SOTM, they should be not allowed to present the company, nor be a sponsor, nor be allowed to hold a presentation.

> What are your thoughts about employees of companies (that use OSM data) becoming Board or Working Group members of OSMF? What is your solution to ensure transparency, equity and impartiality of OSMF in cases like this?

The employees must make public, for which company they work and if they want to act for the community only and that not chief or supervisor was involved to force the employee to be a board member nor they make any influence to the employee during his/her board member time. In situations, where a issue for board members involve the company, the employee is not to allowed to vote with the other board members.

> The European Union has enacted new tough rules on personal data protect, "GDPR". These came into force in May 2018. According to the License Working Group, OSM needs to make some server API changes to comply fully and these are not yet done. If elected, what will you do to clarify the situation? Do you think the OSMF is currently potentially at risk of not being GDPR-compliant?

If we need to make changes to fully comply the GDPR law, we must make the neccessary changes.

> As a board member, what steps would you take to ensure that the OSM front page and its components such as editor is further developed in a manner supported by the mapping community? Consider 3 things: 1) There is specific controversy about the iD editor. iD maintainers are alleged to disregard community input and have stated that they not care what the community wants - a community-vetted fork has been suggested; 2) How will you encourage existing developers of the software that powers OpenStreetMap to continue participating and be motivated? - they are all volunteers and put in huge amounts of time, surely that deserves a high degree of autonomy and decision making?; 3) How will you encourage new developers to join and participate in our community?

For point 1), ID controversy, see my point of view in my manifesto.

For point 2), support developers to stay active, i would try to build a communication bridge, if the community and the developers have problems to communicate together directly. If the developer don't want to stay in direct contact to the community, i would try to find other OSM members, who are willing to take a moderator rule. Server costs could be supported by OSMF, but no money for the time, a developer needs for a solution That means, the main time must come from a point of motivation by himself/herself, not by getting money.

For point 3), new developers, a mentor system could be help to support the first steps to develop a OSM related project. It takes a lot of time to understand the OSM toolchain, base applications/tools and the community, how they think and work.

A11 Clifford Snow

> What is your POV on multilingual maps in openstreetmap.org' ? In India, most of Indians are not comfortable with English language. Should the board initiate a project to provide maps in different languages on our main website? How?

One of my goals is to get Native American tribes to contribute using their native language. The major tribes around me all have dedicated staff working on ensuring their native language survives. They do that by teaching the language in schools and publishing articles in their language. Paul Norman and I have both discussed how we can get tribes to contribute to OSM in their native language. It’s a work in progress.

I do believe we need multilingual maps. But we need your help to make that happen. Just like I can not add translations for the Salish language, we need their help.

> What are your thoughts about employees of companies (that use OSM data) becoming Board or Working Group members of OSMF? What is your solution to ensure transparency, equity and impartiality of OSMF in cases like this?

I encourage everyone to get involved with every aspect of OSM. I would encourage Working Groups to have rules in place that insures transparency and inclusiveness. OSM is not a hobby, it is a serious project that impacts lives. We need the best people to help run the project with appropriate guidelines to insure our continued success. We should not limit ourselves by excluding people who earn a living from OSM.

> The European Union has enacted new tough rules on personal data protect, "GDPR". These came into force in May 2018. According to the License Working Group, OSM needs to make some server API changes to comply fully and these are not yet done. If elected, what will you do to clarify the situation? Do you think the OSMF is currently potentially at risk of not being GDPR-compliant?

OSM must follow the law. I applaud the License Working Group for addressing this issue. The Boards responsibility is to insure that we do. The Board needs work with the Operations Working Group to remove any roadblocks to implementing an updated API including the use of paid developers if workload is an issue.

A11 Eugene Alvin Villar

Multilingual maps on openstreetmap.org

I do not believe that the OSM website should aim to become a replacement for services like Google Maps. That said, I think that the main OSM website should try provide a nice showcase of the many mapping possibilities that people can achieve because the data is free, open, and available. And providing basic multilingual maps is definitely one good way to do this. This can be relatively easily achieved if we provide a vector-based tile layer on the website in addition to the usual raster layers. I would like to note that localized maps is already one of the Top Ten Tasks identified by the EWG so this idea is not new. (Using vector tile layers can also potentially solve another of the ten tasks: "Clickable POIs".) In short, I would support any effort towards bringing vector tile layer technology to the main OSM website. How to achieve this needs more discussion because although we cannot force volunteer developers to work on enhancements to the website, we also should not aim to hire developers especially for non-urgent features (unlike, say, GDPR compliance).

Board vs. DWG re Crimea

The on-the-ground principle is a longstanding rule in OSM and is also enshrined in the Foundation's Disputed Territories policy. Therefore, I think the DWG did not err on their decision regarding Crimea in 2018. However, as I mentioned above (question #9), the Board has oversight on the actions of the WGs and can overrule any such action. Given the facts currently available to me, if I were a Board member at that time, I would not vote to overrule the DWG's decision since it is based on policy. That said, the Board may have received additional non-public information and that was ultimately why they decided to overrule DWG. I would like to see such information before I can firmly decide what my final vote would have been. Also, because the Board overruled DWG's policy-based action, the Board then has the obligation to revisit the Disputed Territories policy and decide under which circumstances the on-the-ground principle no longer applies.

Gender pronouns

I broadly agree with the principle of using a person's preferred pronouns. Regarding the Stack Exchange controversy, I do not think that any user who reformulates their messages to avoid mentioning any pronouns should be punished. However, if that user is demonstrably avoiding pronouns to refer to some group of people while using pronouns for others, I think that is indirectly discriminatory and merits some sort of sanction (but probably not as extreme as banning that user).

Lacking or improper attribution

For cases where attribution is completely missing, I would support the Board or LWG contacting the website/project to request proper attribution. But in cases where there is attribution but it is not visible by default (maybe only seen when a user click's on an 'i' button or placed in an 'About' page), I would like to wait until the LWG completes their task to finalize the Attribution Guideline and for the Board to approve it before taking any action.

On a personal note, my opinion is that OSM attribution ("© OpenStreetMap contributors") should be visible by default, and can be shortened to "© OpenStreetMap" if space is lacking. If space is *truly* small (e.g., smart watches) or if the map is derived using multiple sources (and I currently don't have a definite opinion on what proportion is from OSM or how that proportion is to be measured), only then is attribution allowed to be hidden behind active user interaction.

Corporate employees' involvement in the Board and WGs

I do not think that there is a huge issue with employees of companies becoming Board members or participating in WGs. When one is a Board member, one has the fiduciary responsibility to act in OSMF's best interest and I would like to assume good faith that such employees voluntarily ran for the Board and are not directed to do so by their employers. I also do not think we need to institute a rule limiting the number of people affiliated with a single company or organization in becoming Board members. Instead, I would like for the members themselves to decide if that is acceptable through their votes on Board elections, and to strive to expand the membership base (see question #4) to make hostile takeovers less likely.

However, we should have better guidance with respect to conflicts of interest. Currently, the Board Rules of Order only has the following rule (Section 6.8): "When a board member would be influenced by a conflict of interest with respect to a decision, they will recuse themselves from voting." I don't think this is clear enough and I would therefore support the Foundation having an actual Conflict of Interest policy (like how the Wikimedia Foundation already has one(link)). The Board has actually discussed possibly having such a policy back in September 2017 but this apparently did not lead anywhere (see the "Done" action item during the January 18, 2018 Board meeting regarding asking a legal counsel if he was available for consultation). I would like for the incoming Board to revisit this idea and talk with the past Board members involved.

GDPR compliance

There is certainly a risk that OSMF is not compliant but I do not think that this risk is so great that we should make GDPR compliance the Board's top priority. IANAL, but it seems our biggest risk is that the OSM metadata can be potentially statistically analyzed to derive personal data of a supposedly anonymous contributor, which is not on the same level as OSMF actually exposing explicit personal data such as email addresses. Also, based on the Board meeting minutes, the RFQ to solicit a developer to implement the API changes is already out and therefore we just have to wait for a developer to take the offer. In addition, Frederik has mentioned in the April 2019 Board meeting that he is already making some changes so there is already some ongoing work. Perhaps now that Frederik is stepping down from the Board, he could devote more time for this?

Community support for core OSM website components (the iD issue)

This is a thorny issue. In my view, I resonate most with Richard Fairhurst's comments on this diary entry: https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/woodpeck/diary/391175

To reiterate, I do think that some of the behavior exhibited by one of the iD developers is unacceptable. On the other hand, there are some instances wherein the developers have listened to community feedback and have rolled back some controversial changes, and I applaud efforts to engage community feedback such as by deploying a test instance for the community to try, and initiating a long-term goal to split iD into generic and OSM-specific components. It is a good thing that Board members have talked to one of the developers during State of the Map to try to resolve problems and I would like for the Board together with the OWG to keep communication lines open with the iD developers. If needed, I think it may be necessary for the Board to also talk with Mapbox's management to try to achieve mediation, as uncomfortable as it may sound.

OpenStreetMap 2030 Vision

OpenStreetMap is 15 years old.

What do you think will be different in another 15 years?
For you personally, what do you want to see happen?

A12 Nuno Caldeira

I believe we will need to have certain editing approval of certain older elements or certain elements. The NYC jew issue last year is an example that anyone with bad intentions can jeopardize OSM reputation as a trusted and quality data source. This will obviously generate a lot of discussion on what elements and who approves, but i believe this will need to happen in the near future as a result of vandalism or mapping for their own interest, as Pokemon Go users that add every garden as park.

A12 Steve Coast

By 2030 OSM should be “complete”. The map will always change, but today there is a massive gap between OSM and reality: address data. OSM is perhaps the best “display” map of the world, it’s great to look at. It’s reasonable for routing from A to B, especially if you have GPS data to enhance it. But for addresses we’re far behind – users expect to type an address and be shown the location on the map. In the end, OSM must provide that data – let’s make it happen!

A12 Jinal Foflia

OpenStreetMap has changes tremendously over the past 4 years, it has grown from a hobby project to a solution to all the mapping needs and effecting multiple sectors of the industry such as humanitarian, location, and much more. In the next 15 years I envision OpenStreetMap to be:

An open source project with rich and diverse community and contributors across the globe
It being an example for the other projects that can draw inspiration from it
It being used by Governments and agencies as it would be the most updated map in the world with huge community of active mappers and developers
It can be a role model for the other open source projects in terms of building sustainable communities

A12 Gregory Marler

I liked the original question that asked for a news article to be written. "You'll never believe these 15 things OpenStreetMap used to do" might be a headline. It's a struggle to think if our news will be consumed in the same way, let alone speculate on where the project is.

I see OpenStreetMap being known more, and I'd like that to be the case. Already lots of people choose to use our data because it's better than other options rather than just the price. I think as we continue to grow we really need to find how we promote ourselves more and ensure peoplee know that. Attribution will never be enough, as people only focus on the style of the map as a different source (and struggle to switch). OSMF can be more proactive and better in telling people that they already use OpenStreetMap, telling them the differences, and reaffirming why that's better.

Thankfully the question got adjusted, as it would not be the best use of candidate time to write a speculative article. I did however write a press release announcing new OMSF board members being elected. It includes short bios for those candidates I could easily write about, but it should be easily adapted as needed. I have e-mailed a copy to Michael but will make it available for the new board after the election, and it will be their choice to use it or not.

A12 Mikel Maron

Well 15 years is a OpenStreetMap 2034 Vision :P. By then I hope OSM is seen as kinda boring :). It will still be fun, but will also be seen widely as the default global infrastructure for mapping data. Most of the world will be pretty well mapped, so the challenge and fun will be keeping OSM freshly representing change in the world. And we will see more and more change as urbanization and climate change accelerate. What I most hope is that OSM remains central to understanding and addressing the immense challenges we're going to see in 2034.

A12 Rory McCann

What can happen in 15 years? Who knows! The world can change a lot. Maybe we won't have tackled the climate break down and it won't matter what we do. Presuming modern industrialized society is still around, I hope OSM keeps doing the things that make it cool now.

A12 Michal Migurski

OpenStreetMap is one of just a handful of worldwide, street-scale maps, and the only one with free and open usage built into its core. After three decades OSM has outlasted numerous commercial datasets and is the acknowledged leader in complete, easy-to-use maps of the entire world. It’s the yardstick against which all other maps are measured thanks to ongoing participation from a community of volunteer, academic, humanitarian, government, and commercial map users. OSM’s basic data has excellent global coverage and the trust of several government mapping agencies, and its contributors continual experiments with new technical approaches and forms of tagging provide a regular stream of new activity.

A12 Allan Mustard

The big trends in IT are shifts to handheld devices and movement away from desktop PCs. This will be a challenge since most heavy-duty editing of OSM is done on desktops. We need to look at how to edit using smart phones, tablets, and future platforms. MAPS.ME is good for some things but is scarcely a panacea. In terms of what I want to see, I'd like to see OSM integrated into the curriculum of public schools. This could serve not only to promote geography as a subject of study but also as a recruitment mechanism for local mappers and ultimately future WG and Board members.

A12 Guillaume Rischard

2030 is actually only in 10 years. I’ve been participating for 8 years, so that’s roughly the same kind of timescale. I think we will see some trends that are currently very local generalise.

In many places, we will have won. Open data producers will evolve to update and publish OSM directly as part of their public service mission, and it will become the geographical database of reference in many places.

How we will map will change a lot. There will be less major mapping and exploring to be done, and a lot more gardening and maintenance.

We will have more, stronger local communities, and more dialogue between them.

There will be more pre-processed ways of using data, and it will be easier to make sense of the data. Using OSM will be profitable for a strong and diverse ecosystem of data users.

OSM will unavoidably become part of the standard toolbox of middle-income countries, where people have smartphones but the big commercial actors can’t earn enough ad income to make competing with OSM there profitable.

Maybe we’ll be ready to start work on API 0.7.

A12 Dietmar Seifert

I hope, big company players will have left OSM as contributors. The only way, i would tolerate, is, when companies use data, their employees got on site, like Amazon employees, who realized, an address is correctly and where it was, when delivered post boxes and letters. In the opposite, the use of artifical intelligence to identify, should be no more used in the future.

A world wide, locally active OSM community, still contributing just in recreational time is the best base to stay alive and vital.

I hope, the OSM data is good enough in 15 years, that it will be used world wide.

I hope, we find ways to improve the motivation for OSM mappers to check and to update existing data in OSM.

A12 Clifford Snow

My hope is for a large influx of new mappers in every part of the world. I hope for a inclusive, respectful and empowered community. And vector tiles.

A12 Eugene Alvin Villar

In 2030, I believe that AI/ML will become much more commonplace than it is now and I hope that this means that a lot of the tedious and boring work we mappers do in trying to keep OSM complete and up-to-date would be lessened such that our time is freed up to work on tasks and projects that only humans can do. We already see glimpses of this when Facebook launched their ML/RapiD initiative: with thoughtful application of ML techniques—and always with the consent and coordination of local mapping communities!—we already see benefits in that mappers no longer have to spend time tracing roads and streets and can simply click to approve or disapprove the machine's proposed changes and additions.

On a broader view, my personal hope is that by 2030, OSM is the already the default or go-to source for majority of the world's mapping needs and applications. Whether these be for self-driving cars or a largely complete address database, I hope that OSM will function as *the* world's free and open geodata commons.

Manifestos

Nuno Caldeira

OSM community first.

Steve Coast

I have five simple goals:

Implement term limits for board members. We need to bring fresh voices on to the board and ensure the board doesn’t become sclerotic. If possible, I’d ask the LWG, or perhaps another or a new working group, to figure out what those limits should be.
Have more private board time. The public board meetings are painful to listen to, are mostly formal and don’t allow people to speak freely.
Ask the OWG to only serve tiles to OSM-related projects. Today we are the worlds free tile server and it’s unsustainable. You may not be aware, but the tiles are unusable in some places in the world today due to a large extent to abuse of resources by third parties. Like building more roads to ease traffic jams, throwing more money on the bonfire won’t solve the problem. I’d ask the OWG to figure out the details and the best way forward but it looks simple to, as a start, only serve tiles which have an osm.org referrer, or related projects (such as maproulette). Scraping will still be possible, it’s not a perfect solution, but it will cut out most of the abuse. Either the board should decide this, or if unable, it should be put to a membership vote.
Double (or more) the OWG budget. There are many ways the OWG could push OSM forward, let’s give them more budget to figure it out.
Get addresses done. Give priority to any funding or projects which help OSM get “completed”. OSM is already an awesome map to look at, and good for routing. But it’s far behind in address data

Jinal Foflia

Get to know me a little better…

Background

While pursuing my undergraduate course, I was drawn towards open source and the impact that it came with. This led me to run clubs and groups which taught my peers about its importance and capabilities. My biggest win was when I convinced the department to switch to some of the open-source tools that were essential for our course.

Maps have always been fascinating to me and when I heard about OpenStreetMap in early 2015, it was natural for me to be drawn towards it. It was so amazing to see the possibilities that the map came with, not just with the map data or mapping but also the technology and the impact it was making in the lives of the people. All of this was done by people like you and me. As they say, it holds up-to the saying “a map by the people, for the people”. I can see the pride that comes with individuals being able to map their vicinity. I still remember the excitement I had post making my first edit and seeing it live on the map. (I admit, I was scared if it was a bad edit). As the time passes by, we get a hold of mapping and understand it well such that whenever I came across a complex junction in real life, my immediate thought would be to check for how is it mapped on OSM. As they say, once a mapper, always a mapper!

Contributing to WeeklyOSM and being a part of CWG

As I was understanding the community I also started contributed to weeklyOSM, one of the prominent OSM newsletters. I’m still startled as to how everyone collaborates in publishing this on weekly basis for the community. Difference of opinion is bound to happen as all of us belong to different geographies and cultures. The key is to learn to co-exist and embrace all these different opinions and finding common ground acceptable to the majority This experience taught me the intricacies of working with the community, how to handle sensitive issues with empathy and consideration. Community plays a vital role and here are few steps we took to encourage community participation in the newsletter:

With the help of TheFive, we developed a guest mode for community participation
How-to documents that help everyone kickstart with their contributions

I joined the Communications Working Group to understand how the working groups function in OpenStreetMap Foundation. Working with Harry Wood and others, who are community champions, who have mentored me in sharing relevant work, news, information with the community through multiple OSM channels. I see that there is so much more potential for us to do different things. I have always looked up to leaders like Kate Chapman and Heather Leson, who have previously been on the board and have been amazing OSM leaders. Their work and contributions have been an inspiration to all of us

Mapbox and Grab

Maps have always been fascinating for me. I was priviledged that my first job involved maps and made this a bigger part of my life. While at Mapbox I found amazing people and pioneers like Arun (@planemad), Mikel (@mikelmaron), Sajjad (@geohacker), and so many others whose work continue to inspire all of us. As I spent time understanding and working along with the OpenStreetMap community across the globe, my sentiment and passion for the community grew stronger. It further inspired me to take a path that would lead to working closely with the different global communities, which is something that Mapbox and Grab, has enabled me to pursue ahead.

OSMF elections and the board

Why do I think I can be a good addition to the board and what is the difference that I can make?

As I contest for the elections, here are the major goals that I have in mind that I’dwant to support and work around:

Representing minorities and providing a platform to Asian communities
- Increasing diversity and representation on the board is one of my main objectives.
- Diversity not only in terms of gender but one of my goals will be to increase representation and provide a platform to Asian communities.
- This community has huge potential and giving them a voice and a better platform to express will drastically increase engagement and retention which in turn will improve the map tremendously in this region
- For instance, there’s MAP BEKS, a mapping community in the Philippines, they advocate for diversity, inclusion and representation focused specifically for Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, Transgendered, Queer, Inter-sexed, etc. (LGBTQI+) on OpenStreetMap and many more such activities that can be an inspiration and worth sharing globally

Device programs to build sustainable communities

Communities are the essence of OpenStreetMap. Over the past quarter we have, for the first time, sustained an editing rate of over 100,000,000 edits per month! This only emphasises on the fact that we are driving towards an active community across the globe. As a community manager working on building stronger communities, there’s a lot of ideas that I’d love to bring in, some of them are:

A platform where communities can talk and learn from each other — as most of the times, they are facing similar issues or have already experienced them.
Work towards OpenStreetMap being more welcoming, inclusive and diverse place for the community

Things that I’d still take up, irrespective being a part of the board

Even if I don’t be a part of the board, I’d love to work towards the following goals:

Building and supporting the local communities
Sharing and communicating the efforts of the Asian communities at global level

Gregory Marler

Serving OpenStreetMap as a board member of the OSMF should be an honour and carry a sense of duty to those that are dedicated to the project. I'm running for election to the board as this hobby has become a passion of mine and I get excited supporting and telling people about the projects. From conversations with a friend naming a location that causes me to tell of the relevant mapping activity, to seeing how the community troubleshoots the changing needs of geospatial data and welcomes more people in to solve the problem.

I've had my own mapping projects, and events I've led, but I've also joined with others in setting up the UK local chapter and running the SotM conference for a number of years. There's a lot that keeps running or gets dealt with thanks to the OSMF working groups, and although I'm not contributing to every working group I feel I am part of them as an OSMF member. You'll find out lots about me in the answers, but if serving on the board you'll hear me talk about the many people that make OpenStreetMap happen.

Whether you're new to the project and foundation, or you've been here since the beginning, you're important to the project. Cast your vote for the board elections but also don't forget to use your voice and join in with what's happening throughout the year. Hopefully you find me approachable and maybe you know me already as the over-enthusiastic shouter of "Maps!" at SotM, but if not then I hope to meet you in person or online soon.

From the North of England,

Gregory Marler.

Mikel Maron

I am running to serve again on the OpenStreetMap Foundation Board. Serving this organization and community is a responsibility I take very seriously. And if you choose me again, I will work hard for this amazing project. My focus areas will be developing OSMF support structures for software development and infrastructure, improving OSMF organizational operations through better documentation and processes, and evolving our governance structure for the massive growth of the project and foundation.

First, a note on continuity. We have large turnover this year. Kate, Frederik and Heather are definitely leaving, and we are losing their experience. Our former Board members are not evaporating into the ether, so we can draw on their input (especially hope that Frederik helps to mentor our next Treasurer!) but we can only ask so much of them. Yes we are lucky to have Paul continuing with his deep understanding of our processes and obligations. And Joost and Tobias have quickly shown themselves to be deliberate, fair, and hardworking, but they only joined that Board one year ago. Add in 3 or 4 new Board members, and it will be a challenge to continue our momentum. You would be surprised how much it helps to have another person who might remember what an acronym stood for or even just help the new members troubleshoot loomio. I want to make sure the next Board continues to improve operating effectively. In my mind I hear many scoffing at the idea that the Board is effective! But in all seriousness, the Board's ability to work through issues, find consensus, and develop tangible outcomes has improved greatly. That's due to the collective effort of all Board members over this time! I simply want to do my part to continue that direction.

On software and infrastructure development, I detail some ideas in the question on our most pressing issue as a Board. In short, software development and infrastructure are naturally way more complicated than 15 years ago, and we need to have a clear idea of where we’re going and how we want to work together to get there. This mirrors my own development, from jumping in and building the first slippy map on osm.org to more recent coordination roles, like shepherding Tasking Manager version 2, lining up volunteers from Ruby for Good to update osm.org’s permissions model, and more recently coordinating OSMCha. I see the Board’s role as synthesizing the various needs and ideas of software development and infrastructure, developing a plan for feedback, and then ensuring that plan has the resources it needs to succeed. To be clear, I don’t believe the Board should take over software management or get into the details of technology choices, but rather make sure OSMF as an organization is supporting technical work well.

Foundation operations need clarity. We have always seen a lot of turbulence in the Foundation. I believe that is often due to misunderstandings of who does what, how we communicate, and expectations. This goes within the Board itself, in Working Groups, the Members, Local Chapters, Corporate Members, our communities, etc. I think this has improved with more thorough processes and better documentation (such as this very election process that I’ve helped specify); guidance and policy developed with thorough consultation processes; better communication externally and surveying of views (regular community surveying has been a focus for me this year); especially transparency measures; and the amazing help of Dorothea. But there is a lot left to do to better document OSMF process, and I particularly want to develop rules of order on how the Board works with Working Groups, and undertake more surveys to see trends over time and support policy consultation.

Finally, I want us to look at how to evolve OSMF governance. We do unbelievable and incredible work in OpenStreetMap -- cooperating on the map, in our local communities, and our software. Yet I think we as a community would like to do more, and the Board has a role to facilitate that. As the project has grown, so much more is happening, and it becomes harder for us to connect together as individuals. I believe that our needs for cooperation has outgrown our structures. I am not proposing governance solutions (except one right now -- we should dissolve the Advisory Board into two groups, one for Local Chapters, another for Corporate Members). I’d like to look more into how we interconnecting our ecosystem of institutions -- particularly local chapters -- in more federated and collaborative structures. There were many good discussions at State of the Map this year, on the role of local chapters and the functioning of the working groups. I want to support those discussions to develop into productive work.

In closing, I'll say that running again has not been an easy decision. Serving on the Board takes up a lot of time and especially energy, and seeing things through is very hard. I've been on the Board for four years, and several years before that, making me the longest cumulative OSMF Board member. As can be expected going through so much, I've earned my share of critics. I don't want to do this forever, there's so much else to do -- for this project and elsewhere in the world. But considering everything, I feel a duty to contribute and make sure the Foundation rightfully supports OpenStreetMap.

Rory McCann

“Steady as she goes, let's change everything” -- My campaign motto

Hello all. I'm Rory McCann ( Rorym (᚛ᚏᚒᚐᚔᚏᚔᚋ᚜ 🏳️‍🌈 on osm, edits, contrib, heatmap, chngset com.) )

I'm originally from Dublin, Ireland, but live in Karlsruhe, Germany and work in Geofabrik GmbH. I'm a craft mapper and social justice hacker, and I'd like you to vote #1 for me to be your board member.

I'm a craft mapper. OSM is great when it's a project of people to map their world, when ordinary people feel empowered to collect information about areas or topics that matter to them, when they feel empowered to use that information to make things, to have fun, or to make the world a better place. (People have this power and ability, they might not know it yet) I am a skeptical when giant global corporations starts acting friendly and offers “help”. They're not doing it out of their kindness of their hearts! But a passionate OSMer I can trust!

I'm a hacker. I like Free Software/Open Source, and in an ideal world everything should be FLOSS. But I'm practical and do use propritary software when there are benefits. OSM should strive to support free software. I'm wary of heirachies. OSM & OSMF is better when it's passionate people, rather than dozens of paid employees who are just punching a clock and an elite execute/management/leadership “team” who can talk the talk.

Many would call me a social justice warrior (in a derogatory stance), but fuck it, I'll take it. I admin the diversity-talk@ mailing list, I think OSM needs more Codes of Coduct (although which CoC is a big topic I can write/rant about). I think OSM is missing people. There aren't enough mappers from marginalized communities, they either don't know about us, or think they wouldn't be welcome. I think we're missing people from the Global South, women, older people, working class people etc etc. The OSM community must try to change that. We must not have bigotry in our community, and we should increase representation by raising up other voices. People from marginalized communities are the greated untapped resource for more OSM hobby mappers!

Although I have some strong opinions on things, I'd like to think I'm relatively practical, and willing to compromise. You often have to balance the ends and the means. Not all hills are worth dying on.

I'd like to be your board member because I think we have a need for the hobbyist mappers to be represented, many of them are cis het dudes, so there's a need for someone who hopefully understands what we mean by “diversity”. And I think we should remember there's things more important than shareholder value, and not everything should be about profit.

Please read the my answers to the questions to find out more detail. Please vote #1 for me. Please keep mapping.

Michal Migurski

I’ve made OpenStreetMap a major part of my life and work since 2005. I love the sparkling audacity of a complete, freely-licensed, street-scale map of the world built from the ground up by a community motivated to share work for collective benefit. Living in the United States I know firsthand the benefits of high-quality free public data like we get from the US Geological Survey and Census, and OSM promises to extend this benefit to the whole planet.

OSM for me has always been a story of global impact through work: at Stamen Design I led our participation in open mapping with a mix of early San Francisco mapping parties, paid clients, and experimental projects. Some, like Field Papers (presented as “Walking Papers” at SOTM 2009 in Amsterdam) helped OSM become a force in humanitarian mapping and have since matured into useful infrastructure. I’ve helped OSM US since its first conference in Atlanta in 2010 and served a term on the US Foundation board in 2012. In 2016, I coined the term “craft mapping” in a widely-read and commented-upon blog post to tell a story about the contrast between OSM’s hand-made history and its potential utility future. OSM’s greatest strengths are its worldwide reach, open contribution model, and free license. I have recently grown so excited by the large-scale use and expansion of OSM that I joined the Facebook mapping team last year to contribute to our OSM efforts.

OSM Today

Tension in the community today reflects a turning point for OSM, much of it focused on corporations like my employer. The OSM organization must be flexible and dynamic enough to allow emerging experiments with new tags, community prototypes, and technologies to flourish while also treating established layers of street network information as a stable platform for regular use. I am inspired by OpenStreetMap in action, seeing it being used by people, businesses, and organizations to locate themselves and connect with one another in the world. OSM is the world’s first global spatial data source developed entirely through an open process, as though a small community set out to build a railroad and ended up with a fully-functioning international freight-hauling network! How do we keep the trains moving for all of our current and future users? How can we take advantage of the goodwill around OSM to update the organizational structures that our ambitions have outgrown?

I bring experience that includes 14 years of direct participation in the OSM community, 10 years of putting OSM data to work, and now one year at a major technology company making substantial investments and contributions toward the future of OSM. Joost Schouppe's recent diary points out that OSM is hoping to improve its relationship with corporate users, while researchers like Jennings Anderson show that corporations account for a growing proportion of map edits. As an OSMF board member and a corporate employee, I can help bridge this divide: I’ll be required to work in the best interests of the OSM project, and I’ll be able to represent and influence the mapping plans of a major commercial OSM user. Past efforts like the corporate advisory board have mostly failed to encourage communication, and formal representation in the OSMF will have better results for the OSM community.

Priorities for OSMF Board

OSM can succeed at technological experimentation, crisis response, community engagement, and commerce. I hope that my presence on the board will improve these areas. I will focus on three goals during my term:

Fix our critical bus factor problem. Today, OSM technical operations and system administration are performed by a shrinking number of longstanding volunteers who’ve heroically kept our services stable and running for many years. We are running in place and we don’t have a plan for resiliency or for creating new technical services that the community wants. OSM’s community is full of eager developers who’d like to help but the Operations Working Group has lacked capacity to delegate work. We need to raise our capacity so that OSM can thrive for another 15 years, by paying contractors with OSMF funds to take on technical tasks, guiding corporate contributions of time or effort, and easing pressure on core OWG volunteers so that they can plan the future instead of continually fighting fires.
Guide corporate participation in OSM with more explicit, assertive communication about the license and its requirements. I love the suggested improvements from Simon Poole and the License Working Group for attribution guidelines, and Facebook is eagerly participating in these drafts. Companies can be enthusiastic participants in OSM but they need to learn the ropes of open data governance. We can help them by making complex issues like license compliance easy to understand.
Attract diverse new volunteers and participants by fixing widespread public perception that OSM is an abrasive and regressive community. Lack of diversity hurts OSM’s ability to grow and thrive. The OSMF board is responsible for supporting the mapping project, and fostering participation is an important path toward avoiding organizational irrelevance. With the appearance of humanitarian mapping on the OSM landscape over the past decade, we need to appeal to global communities disproportionately affected by crises and disasters so they understand they are welcome within OSM’s core. We know from other open source communities such as PyCon and OSMUS that today’s potentially diverse participants often look for a CoC before deciding to pursue participation, and OSM is badly behind the times in this regard. We can address the perception of our community as a difficult, un-constructive, and male-dominated “do-ocracy” by writing, ratifying, and adopting a code of conduct that will apply to all OSM-hosted conversation venues.

OpenStreetMap is one of just a handful of worldwide, street-scale maps, and the only one with free and open usage built into its core. OSM can succeed over commercial datasets and become the acknowledged leader in complete, easy-to-use maps of the entire world. It should be the yardstick against which all other maps are measured with ongoing participation from a community of volunteer, academic, humanitarian, government, and commercial map users.

Allan Mustard

I bring to the table over three decades of experience in management, 19 of them in senior management and leadership, and in cross-cultural diplomacy, though only about 5 years of mapping using OSM. I speak fluent Russian as well as native English, and enough German and Spanish to order food. My formal education is in Russian language and literature, political science, agricultural economics, plus leadership and management.

Recruiting new members, and especially outreach to schools and universities to leverage geography classes, is something we should explore. OSM offers a learn-by-doing opportunity for youth to learn more about geography by pitching in with contributions of local data. This could be a wonderful recruitment tool for future mappers, working group members, and even future Board members. We need to be more welcoming of new mappers, tolerant of their errors, for this to succeed.

I began contributing to OSM and joined OSMF because the organization gave me something valuable in return--the ability to navigate in a country that was essentially devoid of up-to-date, usable maps. There is a lesson here! To recruit more people, we need to ensure that tools are available that make OSM useful to more than a narrow population of professional cartographers, and that requires collaboration and a welcoming approach to innovation. I have stuck with OSM in part because the community appreciated my contributions, tolerated my periodic mistakes, and welcomed my regular newbie questions.

OSM is English-language-centric, and that is a barrier to much of the world, as I learned at first hand in Turkmenistan. We need to brainstorm over how to overcome the language barrier and to recruit new mappers from outside the Anglophone world.

Maintenance of the physical infrastructure (servers, software, etc.) is paramount, for without this, there is no OSM. This implies that financial security (fiscal responsibility) of the organization is critically important.

I firmly believe that a light heart and sense of humor are called for in most endeavors, including mapping the world.

As a retired employee of a large organization (the U.S. government) I have no philosophical objection to either corporate sponsorship or Board membership by employees of corporations, but believe firmly that OSM should remain true to its roots as a crowd-sourced, "craft-mapping" project. Local knowledge is a powerful thing, especially in locales with weak governance. That said, having both collected ground truth that was painstakingly hand-entered using ID and collated geoname data from public sources for identification of geographic features, I have no problem with contributions by local governments of mass data dumps that short-circuit more laborious hand editing. There is room in this project for both approaches. I proudly wear my brown "craft mapper" T-shirt, and my edit history speaks for itself, but there were definitely times I would have appreciated a data dump from the local government.

My user pages are here: https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/apm-wa and https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/User:Apm-wa

Guillaume Rischard

A lot of topics are covered in the questions above, so it's a shorter manifesto, or really what's left on my mind after answering everything. For ease of reading, I'll gather all my answers on one page

If you've made it down this far, you obviously enjoy reading. Here is my 2018 and my 2016 manifesto (Link)

We are now the best map in many places, which changes the dynamic, brings attention and brings new challenges for governance. This election is therefore more important than ever.

An independent foundation

As the GlobalLogic entryism attempt has underlined, OpenStreetMap is no longer an obscure hobby project but something that could be very interesting to control. It is naive to believe that GlobalLogic was isolated - it has happened before on a smaller scale, and it will happen again.

I can reveal that seven persons linked to GlobalLogic have become members shortly before the deadline this year. In echoes of last year’s incident, they took steps to avoid getting noticed, and the Board failed to reject the applications, missing the point of principles and trust.

At least two board candidates have or have had ties with GlobalLogic that, as far as I’m aware, they haven’t disclosed to the community yet. Some of their employers have, at least in the past, paid for the memberships of employees. There is a “conflict of interest” question to the candidates. Read the answers carefully and be wary of candidates with few edits over the past year and no other obvious skin in the game. even if you don’t put me at the top of your ballot, it is important that your first choices are candidates who, if elected, will represent the map and the mapping community in all its facets, and not just their particular employer, community or constituency.

The proposed AoA changes go in the right direction, but we need more. The Document Foundation’s AoAs require skin in the game to take part in the decision-making process, and I believe we should go in the same direction. I also made several suggestions at the end of the Membership Working Group’s report on the GlobalLogic incident.

The OSMF should have a big membership drive. It should advertise itself better on one hand, and make membership more worthwhile on the other by giving members a voice in the decision-making process.

Microgrants

The microgrants programme is going in the right direction. I’ve seen how small amounts can have a big impact. We should make it trivial for local mappers everywhere to get financial support to bootstrap a local community - call it the pizza grant.

Dietmar Seifert

Contribution of big company players

OSM is not a playground for big company players, like Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, etc.

Their contributions shouldn't prevent, hat voluntary mappers will not add or edit things in OSM. It can be good (for HOT) to get easier a lot of buildings. But for OSM generally, this is not very useful. And its bad, if mappers will not edit in this case, because they could think, all necessary has been done.

Massive, professional work in OSM should be controlled intensively.

OSM base approach

The manual, local contributions are the base for OSM and this is the biggest issue, we must hold this for now and the future.

New working group for tagging?

Actually, the problems with ID and its maintainers, are not only because of our easygoing tagging, but it's one important reason.

Another sight: a new OSM mapper in this days, who wants to get information, how to tag, comes in trouble, when searching at OSM wiki. There are drafts, abandoned proposals, informal pages and so on. Its time, to define some pages as formal or official pages for themes and these page should be found primarly. Elder pages, proposals, which are not up-to-date, should be moved to another wiki naming space, to hide them in standard search mode. If a user looks for a tag, he/she should find one page, where the consense for this tag will be displayed.

That doesn't mean, it should not be allowed for future changes, or to add tags dynamically. But main features should come in a formal stage.

Tags, which are used differently accross countries or continents, should also get formal pages, but on this lower level. A local chapter or a bigger group of active mappers could ask to set the state for such a regional standard page to a formal stage.

The necessary work, to define the content for most used tags, could be made by a new working group.

Regulations for core Editors and core Application on official OSM-Websites

Applications, which are part of official OSM websites, like openstreetmap.org, must follow rules by OSMF.

The editors, josm and ID, must be reviewed by qualified OSM members (or a OSMF working group), both in functionality and content, which includes preferred tagging.

The same review mode is necessary for other tools, like nominatim (searching) and routing tools on the official website.

Applications, or specific updates, which are not previewed successfully, can't be updated on openstreetmap.org. If the application maintainners don't try to follow the rules, the application must be removed.

The preview check includes law issues, like for example GDPR for European Union. If a working group defines other requirements, what must be present or what must be absent, would be another preview section. If these requirements are only defined by the group, they must be confirmed by OSMF board.

Role of local chapters for OSM board

The role of local chapters must be more significant. The representants should be invited to take part of OSMF Board meetings. Perhaps they could get two votes in sum (only one vote for every participant at the meeting). This is just an idea, how the importance of local chapters could be increased.

OSMF Advisory board

I didn't found any information, when and how often the advisary board met in past. OSMF Board must revise the rules for advisary board, to make sure, that transparency works. There should be no informal communication between parts of advisary board. The private base of the advisary board must be discussed at OSMF board.

Regional SOTMs versus global SOTM

I find it very good, that in the last one or two years, a lot of regional or country wide SOTMs were held. This can help to integrate local OSM mappers. Global SOTMs seems not to integrate local OSM mappers and groups enough.

Interested OSM users could still travel to regional SOTMs to be part of the great OSM family.

Transparency membership and donations

Don't allow memberships of associations, when they don't want to be named public.

Don't get donations from 100$ up anonymously.

Don't get digital coins from 1000$ up.

At least, discuss this on OSMF board and with OSM community. Transparency must be more important than getting money.

Transparency at OSMF board

The level of transparency work at OSMF board has been growed in last years. It should be improved more. The number of issues, discussed in private parts of a board meeting, should be minimized. I would find it very good, if in such private parts, the local chapters represents could be add the private meeting, in guest mode. Think of it as a little bit of control mechanism.

Recreational/professional work at OSMF board

The work as a OSM board member should be continued in non-professional mode. The professional work of a board secretary was successfully and can be continued.

Board meetings should be held on different times at a meeting day, to allow guest to contribute.

This should even done, if a majority of board members should live in close together time zones. That allows OSM mappers or audience to listen the online board meetings.

Clifford Snow

About Me

I've been a contributor since 2011. I discovered OSM while attending a linux event, I dropped in on an OSM talk by Hurricane Coast. Ever since I've been hooked. My background is telcom and arts. Telcom taught me to embrace change and how to support teams. The arts taught me how to work in teams. In case you are wondering, I spent a number of years attempting to become a glass artist. I worked in teams to produce blown glass art objects as well as teaching glassblowing which gave me my user name, Glassman

Along with Chase Stephens we assumed the responsibility of the Seattle-OSM Meetup group. At the time we had about 60 members. Today it has over 1000. I am no longer an active host of the Meetup since moving north of Seattle. In 2016, on our second attempt, won the right to host the 2016 State of the Map US in Seattle. As local hosts, we were responsible to the venue, lodging, signage, and local events. Our goal was to create an event that would be appealing to OSM contributors. From the feedback we felt like we met our goal.

The first big project OSM Seattle I contributed to was the import of Seattle addresses and buildings. We had a team of over 20 mappers contributing to the import. The success of building a community through imports has stuck with me. Our current imports have been smaller in team size but it is still a team effort.

I also contribute to helping others map the US by creating a US Forest Service Basemap that can be used in JOSM to map forest service roads. I also have a Washington State roads basemap available in JOSM.

Every day, I welcome all new mappers in Washington State. Since 2014 I've been welcoming new mappers in the state. By my rough count, I've sent over 2500 welcoming messages. My purpose is to give new mappers a friendly message with some information about OSM and where they might find a local group to join. Research has found that a friendly welcome message helps grow the active mapper community. It may have even contributed to the Seattle Meetup group growing to over 1000 members.

Full disclosure - I am not on anyone's payroll. I did a contract with Microsoft to teach JOSM editing to their editors for a short time in 2018 and had a great time teaching not just JOSM, but how to be a good community member.

As a Board member I want to:

Update our Core Values to include "embrace empowerment, inclusiveness, and respect for for all"
Move the Board to be more strategic and less operational by relying more on Working Groups and paid employees. Support and build Working Groups as the operational arm of OSMF. Explore ways to involve Local Chapters as we more to a more strategic focus.
Building a strong working relation with our corporation partners. Corporation have discovered and embraced OSM. Over 1000 paid mappers are at work every day contributing to OSM. From my perspective it's a good thing. As an example, I not into mapping turn lanes. Because of the corporation editors I don't have too. Yet I rarely see them adding parks, benches streams, or glaciers. They map what their paying customers want. I map sidewalks to help people with limited mobility safely find their way around town, something no one is going to pay them to do. Here is what I expect from corporations:
- proudly attribute OSM
- contribute to building a strong infrastructure
- be a part of the global and local community
Our infrastructure is vital to OSM. We need to build a network that not only handles the millions of daily transactions but is secure from hacking and is powered by green energy. I want to support the existing Working Groups building that network. I'd also like to see OSM host more quality tools to make them easier to find.
See input from the entire community using various forums and in multiple languages

Eugene Alvin Villar

Note: I have tried to be comprehensive with my answers to the offical set of questions, and so I would like to keep my manifesto short, especially since my answers to the first two questions already serves as a manifesto introduction of sorts.

Here are the specific items I would like to focus on in my first year If I am elected:

First, I think the Foundation in general and the Board in particular should aim to become more diverse or at least more representative of the global mapping community. Therefore I would like to support efforts to expand the membership base, for example, the upcoming vote to update the Membership Fee Waiver program to allow productive mappers and developers to more easily become associate Foundation members. I would also like to further reduce barriers to becoming regular members by making the membership fee more affordable to mappers from developing countries.

Second, I would like for the Foundation to be more active in supporting local communities (and this is why I joined the LCCWG). To that end, I would like to help Joost Schouppe in finally implementing the Microgrants program because I believe this will greatly benefit local communities. Furthermore, I would like for the Board to support the work of the LCCWG and CWG in reaching out to more people to join the project and encouraging mappers to build their local communities.

Finally, I would like for the Board to further improve internal processes by (1) creating a guideline document that describes the relationship between the Board and the working groups, (2) having better clarity on handling conflicts of interest by creating a policy on such, and (3) improving the transparency of the Board's work a bit more (for instance, it seems that circular resolutions are only disclosed to the members after they have been voted on by being included in the next Board meeting minutes).

osmfoundation.org AGM details and agenda

Foundation/AGM19/Election to Board/Answers and manifestos

Answers to the official questions

Tell us a little about your OSM activities

Tell us a little about why you want to be a board member

Being a board member

Board diversity

Your time

Transparency: Conflicts of interest

We are looking for a new Treasurer

Are you willing to attend a Board face to face meeting?

The Board and Working Groups

The Board and the community: communication

The Board and the community: What would you do? ...

OpenStreetMap 2030 Vision

Manifestos

Nuno Caldeira

Steve Coast

Jinal Foflia

Background

OSMF elections and the board

Gregory Marler

Mikel Maron

Rory McCann

Michal Migurski

OSM Today

Priorities for OSMF Board

Allan Mustard

Guillaume Rischard

An independent foundation

Microgrants

Dietmar Seifert

Contribution of big company players

OSM base approach

New working group for tagging?

Regulations for core Editors and core Application on official OSM-Websites

Role of local chapters for OSM board

OSMF Advisory board

Regional SOTMs versus global SOTM

Transparency membership and donations

Transparency at OSMF board

Recreational/professional work at OSMF board

Clifford Snow

About Me

As a Board member I want to:

Eugene Alvin Villar

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