Talk:Foundation/AGM2023/Election to Board
| Official and community questions below. The answers to the official questions and the manifestos are linked from this page. |
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Official set of questions
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Timeline:
Candidates: Please submit your answers and your manifestos before 2023-11-14 (NEW DATE) at 23:59 UTC- directly to Dorothea Kazazi, as OSMF administrative assistant, and cc the facilitator Chisom Ejeh (dorothea@osmfoundation.org, chisomejeh@gmail.com) as per the instructions that you received via email and on the wiki - please note the requested format, it makes collation far easier! Please answer as many questions as you can. Our suggestion is to answer all of them - we are a global organisation, so many voters won't know you and this will help them make a decision. An approximate estimate of how much time that you spend on your answers and manifestos would be appreciated; this will help us in future years. |
Strategic Plan
- What are your long-term visions and goals for the further development of OpenStreetMap? How does that align with the recently updated OSMF Strategic Plan? How do you plan to implement these plans as a Board member?
On Imagery Sources
- OSMF is currently almost completely dependent upon corporations to either pay for or otherwise supply it with imagery for mapping (Maxar imagery for example). Do you see this as a risk and threat? If yes, how do you propose mitigating this? If not, why not?
On Diversity and Inclusion
- In light of evolving perspectives on Diversity and Inclusion, what do you envision as the ideal end-state of OpenStreetMap's Diversity and Inclusion Statements? Do you have any Key Performance Indicators you would advocate for?
On Fundraising
- What is your position on transparency both with respect to the identity of donors and to disclosing any terms attached to fundings to OSMF?
On appointive board-adjacent positions
- The board recently proposed introducing an appointed position to act as a liaison between the board and the advisory board. As an elected board member, would you support creating this role?
OSMF and Overture Maps Foundation
- How do you view Overture in relation to the OSM community? How will you ensure that OpenStreetMap data remains equitable and fair in its usage, especially with the potential influence of large-scale corporations like Overture?
OSM Data - protection, legal threats and vandalism (3 questions)
- What measures do you recommend implementing to guarantee the appropriate safeguarding and adherence to ethical standards in the utilization of OpenStreetMap data? This pertains notably to the enforcement of proper attribution practices and the regulation of two-way data exchange with data-consuming corporations and/or governments.
- OpenStreetMap Foundation sometimes receives protests, demands, legal threats (or documents claiming to be legal threats) regarding disputed territories. Claiming that data in OpenStreetMap is harmful/evil/illegal. Are you OK with dealing with such things? Are you OK with potential limitations on travel?
- What would you do to discourage vandalism of OSM databases whilst ensuring genuine contributors are not caught in the crossfire?
- How would you make sure the Data Working Group is adequately resourced at times of high vandalism?
- Do you believe that the OpenStreetMap Foundation should prioritize and allocate more funds towards software maintenance, developer bounties, and other technological incentives? Please elaborate your answer.
Community questions to OSMF board candidates, upon which the official set will be based
Submission of community questions to the board candidates closed on the 29th of October at 23:59 UTC.
Here will be the questions from the OSM community to the candidates for the OpenStreetMap Foundation (OSMF) board elections. An official set of questions -based on the questions below- will be published on November 5.
Asking questions? You are kindly asked to be respectful in your tone and try to phrase questions in an open way without already implying a certain answer or trick questions which are superficially about something else than what you want to know. Also you should give enough context to your questions, possibly with links, so they can be understood by any interested community member and not just insiders familiar with the specific subject and by any candidate so both long term active members and newcomers have an equal chance of giving you an accurate and honest answer.
The questions from 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016 etc. might still be relevant for inspiration.
Questions from non English speaking community members
- We invite local communities to get together, discuss and add their questions. If you do not feel comfortable in asking your questions in English, feel free to add them in your native language.
- We invite other community members who can help, to add translations above of the non-EN questions. In case no-one reading this page can help, the Communication Working Group (CWG) will try to find people to translate the questions.
- Please note that -depending on the language and date- the CWG cannot guarantee translation of all non-EN questions. So, we kindly ask you to add any non-EN questions as soon as possible.
Are you a candidate? In advance thanks to all candidates for standing for election. You are kindly asked to wait for the official set of questions, which will be published on November 5th, on this page. Submit your answers to the official questions and your manifestos directly to the facilitator and cc our administrative assistant. Please view the official questions as a possibility to articulate your views on matters that might be important for OSM community members. State freely if you have not formed an opinion on a question or are unable to answer it based on your current knowledge. Please also feel encouraged to state if your position on a question is a firm conviction or if what you say is just an opinion. If English is not your native language and you feel you cannot properly express your ideas on a certain question in English, feel free to answer in your native language.
Thank you all for participating in this process.
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Please sign and date your questions by typing four tildes ~~~~ at the end of your messages. Thanks :)
Vision and Goals of OpenStreetMap
What are your long-term visions and goals for the further development of OpenStreetMap, and how do you plan to implement them as a board member? Mcliquid (talk) 09:13, 13 October 2023 (UTC)
Community Engagement
How do you intend to promote and strengthen the OSM community participation and engagement at a global level? Are you planning collaborations with other organizations to jointly increase participation or specific marketing campaigns to attract more contributors? Mcliquid (talk) 09:13, 13 October 2023 (UTC)
Data Protection and Compliance Measures
What measures do you recommend implementing to guarantee the appropriate safeguarding and adherence to ethical standards in the utilization of OpenStreetMap data? This pertains notably to the enforcement of proper attribution practices and the regulation of two-way data exchange with data-consuming corporations. Mcliquid (talk) 09:13, 13 October 2023 (UTC)
Data Compatibility and Licensing
The compatibility of OpenStreetMap with government-published data often faces challenges, primarily due to the licensing constraints imposed, such as CC BY 4.0. How would you propose addressing this incompatibility in the future, considering the broader implications for data integration and open geospatial collaboration? Mcliquid (talk) 09:13, 13 October 2023 (UTC)
Data Release Requests and Advocacy
There is a recurrent issue where individual requests for data release to governmental authorities are often dismissed or not treated seriously. Do you have any strategic plans to aggregate these individual 'data requests' and advocate for them more vigorously as a unified effort under the umbrella of the OpenStreetMap Foundation, in order to enhance the collective influence of the community and its capacity to access valuable data sources? Mcliquid (talk) 09:13, 13 October 2023 (UTC)
Solutions to and prevention of mass automated vandalism
During September 2023, there were several weeks of ongoing creation of twink accounts. Those accounts were used during multiple acts of vandalism on osm data. Manual blocks bu DWG turned out to be not fast enough together with manual reverts being slower than automated acts of vandalism.
What are the steps you are suggesting to limit capabilities of bad actors to vandalize OSM data? Ksetdekov (talk) 18:59, 15 October 2023 (UTC)
2023 Board election
Can someone who is banned run for the OSMF board? Beautifulplaces (talk) 07:51, 19 October 2023 (UTC)
Role of Local Chapters
What do you see as the role of local chapters, and how do you think the board should interact with them? Where do you draw the line between what the OSMF is responsible for versus local chapter activities? ZeLonewolf (talk) 16:07, 19 October 2023 (UTC)
Map layers featured on the OSM website
There have been complaints about which tags the OSM-Carto layer supports. How much dialogue with the community about tagging standards should be expected of map layers featured on the OSM website? Andrew (talk) 18:59, 19 October 2023 (UTC)
Freedom and Open Source Philosophy
Recently, a closed-source featured layer was added to openstreetmap.org. Additionally, the OSMF uses some non-free software in its day-to-day operations, for example using Google products for OSMF email services. Do you consider it acceptable to use non-free software if it advances the project goal of creating and providing free map data? --ZeLonewolf (talk) 07:14, 20 October 2023 (UTC)
Development of osm.org
What directions of osm.org development do you see? What problems do you want to help solve and how? TrickyFoxy (talk) 23:00, 21 October 2023 (UTC)
Strategy for combating persistent vandalism
In light of the increasing sophistication of vandalism incidents on OSM over the past year, what proactive measures, technologies, or strategies would you advocate for or implement to protect the integrity of the map data, while still upholding the principles of open collaboration and community contribution? Additionally, how would you balance the need for rapid response to vandalism with the potential risk of alienating genuine contributors? --ZeLonewolf (talk) 00:39, 23 October 2023 (UTC)
Agency over imagery sources
We recently lost Maxar imagery with (afaik) no clear way to regain access to it. This loss affects mapping for a lot of people and in many places where no reasonably good alternative source is available. We are currently almost completely dependent upon corporations to either pay for or otherwise supply us with imagery for mapping. Do you see this as a threat? If not, why not? If yes, how do you propose we mitigate? Martijn van Exel (talk) 17:13, 23 October 2023 (UTC)
On appointive board-adjacent positions
The board recently proposed introducing an appointive position to act as a liaison between the board and the advisory board. As an elected board member, would you support creating this role? If not, by whom should this role be performed, if at all? If yes, how would you ensure transparency and accountability? Are you concerned about a precedent being set for outsourcing work to unelected individuals? Martijn van Exel (talk) 17:18, 23 October 2023 (UTC)
Investment in Software Maintenance, Developer Bounties, and Technological Incentives
Do you believe that the OpenStreetMap Foundation should prioritize and allocate more funds towards software maintenance, developer bounties, and other technological incentives? If yes, could you elaborate on the specific strategies or initiatives you would advocate for to improve the platform's technology stack and ecosystem? If not, why? 268ecdcd (talk) 00:23, 24 October 2023 (UTC)
Strategic Plan
The current Board has provided an updated Strategic Plan in consultation with the community. Which of the sections/goals are you most interested in pursuing and how do you plan on helping the Foundation or OSM achieve it? --seav (talk) 00:43, 24 October 2023 (UTC)
Transparency with respect to received funds
For the 1st time in its history the OSMF is actively looking for larger non-earmarked donations to fund its operations. In the past receiving large donations has been controversial, not necessarily due to any fault on the behalf of the OSMF, but because what funds on which terms actually flow to the foundation has been obscured. Historically one such case was the MapQuest "donation" and another a larger "anonymous" donation by a well known company.
What is your position on transparency both with respect to the identity of donors and to disclosing any terms attached to funding?
SimonPoole (talk) 09:07, 26 October 2023 (UTC)
Resourcing the DWG
How would you make sure the Data Working Group is adequately resourced at times of high vandalism? Andrew (talk) 12:00, 26 October 2023 (UTC)
Views on Overture Maps Foundation
How do you view the recent cooperation of US tech companies, collectively known as Overture, in relation to the OSM community? Do you believe this new alliance, which plans to share their data largely under open licenses, aligns with the values and goals of the OpenStreetMap Foundation and its mappers? Additionally, how do you envision ensuring that OpenStreetMap data remains equitable and fair in its usage, especially with the potential infulence of large-scale cooperations like Overture? --ZeLonewolf (talk) 20:37, 26 October 2023 (UTC)
Legal threats
OpenStreetMap Foundation sometimes receives protests, demands, legal threats (or documents claiming to be legal threats) regarding disputed territories. Claiming that data in OpenStreetMap is harmful/evil/illegal. Are you OK with dealing with such things? Are you OK with potential limitations on travel to countries like China or India? Mateusz Konieczny (talk) 10:26, 27 October 2023 (UTC)
Discouraging cyberattacks on OSM
What would you do to discourage politically motivated cyberattackers from wanting to vandalise the database? Andrew (talk) 14:06, 29 October 2023 (UTC)
Strategic Approaches to Enhancing Diversity and Inclusion
In light of evolving perspectives on Diversity and Inclusion, how do you envision the ideal end-state of OpenStreetMap's Diversity and Inclusion Statements?
Specifically, what Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) would you advocate for that accurately reflect inclusivity without risking unintended consequences from improperly chosen metrics?
Given that some groups may be less vocal but equally or more in need of support, how would you ensure that resources and focus are allocated not merely to the loudest minority but to those who truly require assistance?
How can future OSM diversity reforms be framed in a way that encourages the currently dominant groups to not perceive these initiatives as counter to their interests, but as a win-win scenario benefiting everyone?
If the Foundation had a specific annual budget allocated for Diversity and Inclusion efforts, how would you distribute these funds to maximize impact? Do you have any innovative initiatives you'd allocate resources to?
Feel free to indicate if this question is too complex for you, but if you do have a strong opinion or idea on OSM's approach to diversity, please share it.
Links:
- KPI = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Performance_indicator#Examples
- https://osmfoundation.org/wiki/Diversity_Statement
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unintended_consequences
--ImreSamu (talk) 23:57, 29 October 2023 (UTC)
General Election to Board Wiki-Discussion
This space is for discussing the page in a normal wiki talk page like style. For substantial election discussions the osmf-talk mailing list is probably a more suitable place. Subscription to osmf-talk is available to members of the Foundation, using the same email-address they have registered as OSMF members. You can join the OpenStreetMap Foundation at https://supporting.openstreetmap.org/#Membership-Categories You can view all emails here.