OSMF employees and contractors

See the official list on the OSMF website.

As of December 2021, most of the work of the Board, the Working Groups, the SOTM Organising Committee and the Special Committees is performed by volunteers.

The OpenStreetMap Foundation does not have any people with a legal status of an employee but has some contractors.

For example to perform some administrative functions and for the software development for the iD editor.

There is a move, as yet uncompleted, to add a further contractor to manage some of the IT aspects of providing the OSM data (sysadmin).

Legal

The definition of employee and contractor used here are based on British law, as the OSMF is incorporated within the United Kingdom. In British law an "employee" is well-defined as a person with certain rights and obligations, and a "contractor" is also well-defined with a different set of rights and obligations.

Due to the global nature of the OSMF, with extensive remote working, it is legally simpler to use contracting than it is to meet the employment rules of multiple jurisdictions and ensure equity in service conditions between employees located and subject to different jurisdictions.