Advisory Board/Communication

From OpenStreetMap Foundation

Advisory Board members communicate via a dedicated mailing list. Unless and until the Advisory Board itself determines otherwise, discussions in the Advisory Board are private.

However, to ensure transparency, the OSMF Board of Directors will publicly minute, in their board meeting minutes, any communication sent to, or received from, the Advisory Board members. You can find an overview below.

To be updated.

2025

Year-Month Communication initiated by Topics
2025-01-27 at 1600 UTC Mikel Maron (Advisory Board coordinator) Meeting agenda:
  • Updates on 2025 infrastructure development plans.
  • Microsoft has been making engineering contributions and has plans for more. Kirill Fedotov will share some details on what's been happening.
  • Opportunity to chat with new OSMF Board members.
  • Maurizio Napolitanohistoric (new board member) is working out an idea on "Mappers in Residence" that it would be good to get feedback on.
  • State of the Map 2025 is in Manila.

2024

Year-Month Communication initiated by Topics
2024-08-27 New Microsoft representative: Kirill Fedotov
2024-08-07 Meeting agenda:
  • OSM Birthday
  • OSMF Elections
  • Policy Process
2024-08-02 New Bolt representative: Akos Nagy
2024-08-01 Added calimoto representative: Luca Osten
2024-04-18 Added Interline representative: Drew Dara-Abrams
2024-04-16 Meeting agenda:
  • Annual General Meeting Timing Update -- October 19
  • Communication Working Group
    • 20th OSM Birthday
    • offer to raise stories
    • request for support
  • Engineering Working Group / Tech Support
    • TomTom and MapRoulette
    • Meta and JOSM
    • Microsoft and OSM Website
  • 2024 Event Plans
  • Sustainable Imagery Access
2024-03-10 Removed BTCmap, as they changed from Bronze to the Supporter tier
2024-02-14 Added QGIS representative: Marco Bernasocchi
2024-01-30 Added Mailmaps representative: Ignat Anikeev
2024-01-28 Added Regrid. No representative selected yet.
2024-01-17 Added Verso representative: Julien Coupey

2023

Year-Month Communication initiated by Topics
2023-12-11 Added ioki representative: Christian Bäuerlein

Added HOT representative: Paul Uithol

2023-12-04 Added komoot representative: Christoph Lingg
2023-11-14 Meeting agenda:
  • Hearing from Silver and Bronze Corporate Members about their needs and ideas for OSMF
  • Key themes from recent local SotMs
  • Support to local and regional SotM events with fundraising, organizing etc
  • Check in on OSMF elections, getting the word out
  • State of finances and fundraising
  • Vandalism threat
2023-11-10 OpenStreetMap US: Added Diane Fritz after request, as she will be taking Maggie Cawley's place for some time.
2023-09-27 Added inDrive representative: Viktor Rudoy
2023-09-26 Added BTC Map representative: Nathan Day
2023-09-25 Added Bolt representative: Marina-Teodora Deac
2023-09-22 Added Stadia Maps representative: Ian Wagner
2023-08-10 New Microsoft representative: Den Raskovalov.
2023-08-09 Secretary Email from the Secretary notifying the Advisory Board about the launch1 of the 2023 fundraising campaign. Gratitude was expressed for the Advisory Board members' input and they were encouraged to spread the campaign's message to their communities, within their organisations and the people they engage with. Social media content, including key points and sample posts, was provided for sharing. The launch period extends over the upcoming week, and the Advisory Board members were encouraged to share their own posts or modified versions. There will be future promotional activity over the next few months, as the board will be working towards its fundraising goal.

1 See: https://blog.openstreetmap.org/2023/08/09/happy-birthday-openstreetmap-2/

2023-07-18 Preliminary agenda
  • Collection and distribution sponsorship for local State of the Map Events
  • Revision of how we structure Corporate Membership to reflect what we've learned since establishing the membership structure 6 years ago
Placeholder
2023-05-09 The board had an online meeting with representatives of 2 Local Chapters and 4 Platinum/Gold Corporate Members on the Advisory Board. The meeting was not open to observers. Topic:
2023-03-14 The board had an online meeting with representatives of 8 Local Chapters, 3 Platinum/Gold Corporate Members on the Advisory Board and the Fundraiser. The meeting was not open to observers. Topics:
2023-02-27 Local Chapters and Communities Working Group (LCCWG) The Local Chapters and Communities Working Group asked for feedback on the following: they are interested to help run a new Microgrants round and focus on stuff related to community building. To organize this, they propose to:
  • create a new subcommittee of the LCCWG
  • start by collecting some feedback and evaluation of the previous microgrants edition and
  • would look at the board to set a budget and decide on outlines of how they should do this.

(Note: the microgrants framework is here).

2023-02-24 New OSM-US representative: Maggie Cawley.
2023-02-23 Local Chapter representative Response to the email about a March Advisory Board meeting, suggesting to discuss during the meeting:
  • the implications of Overture maps
  • moving an updated and revamped version of welcome.osm.org, which was designed by members of this group to osm.org, and move the current osm.org page to osm.org/map and consulting about "who should OSM.org work for and in what order" and take it from there. The 2019 diary entry The OSM community deserves a better openstreetmap.org by Jeminet was mentioned and that nothing has fundamentally changed since then.
2023-02-21 New Grab representative Nick Preston.
2023-02-13 Secretary Email from the Secretary proposing an Advisory Board meeting on March 14.
2023-01-12 Secretary Email from the Secretary mentioning to Local Chapters that they can send their 2021 (or even 2022) annual activity and financial reports, as required under the local chapters' agreement.

2022

Year-Month Communication initiated by Topics
2022-12-22 OSMF Board of Directors The board emailed the Advisory Board mentioning that they welcome feedback, questions and discussions on the statement they released on Overture Maps
2022-04-26 Secretary/OSMF Board of Directors The board had an online meeting with representatives of 5 Local Chapters and 2 Gold Corporate Members on the Advisory Board. The meeting was open to observers (1 guest). Topics:

2021

Year-Month Communication initiated by Topics
2021-11-02 Secretary/OSMF Board of Directors The board had an online meeting with representatives of 7 Local Chapters and 2 Gold Corporate Members on the Advisory Board. The meeting was open to observers (16 guests, including ~5 from Microsoft). Topics:
2021-10 Secretary/OSMF Board of Directors
  • Notification that submission of self-nominations for candidates on the OSMF board of directors was open (the OSMF board of directors election will take place in December 2021). It resulted in a discussion mainly with Rob Nickerson (OSM UK Local Chapter representative) about whether OSMF could support or compensate the local chapters for local chapter administrative tasks. Five suggestions were made by Rob Nickerson: shared networking, paying, run systems like membership database, contractor for local chapter projects and more microgrant rounds.
2021-08-10 Secretary/OSMF Board of Directors The board had an online meeting with representatives of 7 Local Chapters and 2 Gold Corporate Members on the Advisory Board. The meeting was open to observers (6 guests). Topics:
2021-07
some replies were sent in August 		Secretary/OSMF Board of Directors
  • Board enquiry about copying Advisory Board communications to Local Chapter boards (e.g. board@[local chapter]), and not only to the Local Chapter representatives (each Local Chapter has a representative on the Advisory Board).
  • Email to AB asking opinions on publishing future archives of the Advisory Board mailing list, as "this would address the root cause of local chapter board members being on the list, because they could still see what is discussed here. It would also increase transparency of the AB with the wider OSMF membership. Given that this list is hardly used, it would dispel any conspiracy theories [..]."
    • OpenStreetMap Česká republika z.s. (Local Chapter) representative: in favour - closed meetings only for exceptional circumstances.
    • OSM UK (Local Chapter) representative: value of discussing some ideas in private - decisions could be made public and notes from the meetings are public. Discussing in the open could be personally stressful. Does not really matter as the mailing list is barely used and conversations happen elsewhere already.
2021-05-25 Secretary/OSMF Board of Directors

The board had an online meeting with representatives of Local Chapters and Gold Corporate Members on the Advisory Board. The meeting was open to observers. Topics:

2021-02-24 Chairperson/OSMF Board of Directors The board had an online meeting with representatives of 10 Local Chapters and 1 Gold Corporate Member on the Advisory Board. Topics:

2020

Year-Month Communication initiated by Topics
2020-10-09 Chairperson/OSMF Board of Directors
2020-10-05 Chairperson/OSMF Board of Directors
  • The board had an online meeting with 4 Local Chapter representatives of the Advisory Board. (one of the representatives was from a local chapter that had been accepted but not signed the agreement yet).
2020-06-22 Chairperson/OSMF Board of Directors
2020-05-25 Chairperson/OSMF Board of Directors
2020-05-13 OSMF Board of Directors
2020-05

Addition of Grab representative: Vinay Jayanthi.

2020-02 Tom Lee (Mapbox)
  • Introductory email by Tom Lee (new Mapbox representative)
2020-01 Chairperson
  • Chairperson has been holding consultations with several members of community, during the last 3.5 weeks - including talks with AB members - and will come back to the board with a digest. More information will be shared at the face-to-face board meeting.
2020-01

New Mapbox representative: Tom Lee.

2019

Year-Month Communication initiated by Topics
2019-11 OSMF Board of Directors
2019-10 OSMF Board of Directors
  • Heather Leson (OSMF Director and Secretary) forwarded emails from Open Source Initiative:
    • "Guest Speakers for OSI Affiliate Rensselaer Center for Open Source"
    • "Open Source Burnout" (Survey). Survey data will be available under a CC-BY license, with results published on the OSI web site.
    • "Help the OSI Define Open Source Education". "Research survey that will provide [OSI] with the open source community's perspectives to help [OSI] develop and deliver this new educational program for professionals working in and with open source software".
2019-10 OSM UK (Local Chapter)
2019-09 OSMF Board of Directors
  • Heather Leson (OSMF Director and Secretary) forwarded emails from Open Source Initiative:
    • "OSI Seeks Faculty (YOU!) to Teach New Open Source Management Courses".
    • "Help the OSI Define Open Source Education".
2019-08 OSM UK (Local Chapter)
  • Notification about possibility for Local Chapters to have a table in the foyer at SotM 2019.
  • OSM UK have received an offer from getmapping and would need support to cover this.
2019-07 OSMF Board of Directors
  • The board has asked the AB members for feedback on the draft design and questions of the upcoming survey that will be published before the State of the Map 2019 conference. # Feedback was provided by the Local Chapter representatives of Italy, Germany and UK.
2019-07 OSM UK (Local Chapter)
  • Rob Nickerson (OSM-UK representative) has informed the AB members that comma.ai was suggested at the OSM UK annual gathering as a potential source of more street level imagery and asked if anyone is interested. Comma.ai have hardware, some of which taps directly in to the cameras already being installed in some cars.
2019-06 OSM UK (Local Chapter)
  • Rob Nickerson (OSM-UK representative) updated the Advisory Board about UK's Geospatial Commission call for evidence, which is online and about the commission's 2019-2020 annual plan.
    • Heather Leson (OSMF Director and Secretary) commented that the annual plan mentions 'openmastermap' but not OSM and asked what are the next steps for the OSM community in UK.
    • Rob Nickerson replied that the focus is clearly on public bodies which control geospatial data. "They have identified 6, but the main one is Ordnance Survey. The plan seems to be to have the Ordnance Survey release their most detailed product (MasterMap) more openly. Seems like they are proposed free access up to a data allowance - so not real open data." OSMUK was "pleased to see a few respondents mentioning OpenStreetMap. We continue to push the aims of OSM UK balancing building the volunteer community and supporting the growing organisational (commercial, charity and public sector) interest".
    • Jóhannes Birgir Jensson (OpenStreetMap á Íslandi representative) thanked Rob for the e-mail, as in his non-OSM work he is involved in a similar commission in Iceland and this was useful to compare against.
2019-05 OSMF Board of Directors
  • The board has sent the AB members the link to the survey blogpost circulated to the community before the board face-to-face meeting in May.
2019-05 OSM UK (Local Chapter)
  • Rob Nickerson (OSM-UK representative) had a question about the use of LiDAR alongside RGB imagery to detect features, and informed the AB about the OSMUK annual general meeting that had been set at 29 June in central London.
2019-03 OSM UK (Local Chapter)
  • Rob Nickerson (OSM-UK representative) had questions about Getmapping imagery and London venues for the OSM-UK annual general meeting.
2019-01 OSMF Board of Directors
  • Mikel Maron (OSMF Director) asked the AB members what they think about more thorough reporting of the AB communications (Related osmf-talk message by Christoph Hormann - FOSSGIS).
    • BM1 asked about the desired role for the Advisory Board and presented their view about sharing information, regular discussions and maybe a regular call with agenda items, while maintaining the AB mailing list as a space for private discussion, if needed.
    • BM2 mentioned that the AB does not have an opinion as a group; it is a group of individuals whom the board or the working groups can ask for advice. Adding more privileges would make the admittance of corporate members based simply on how much they pay highly problematic.
    • BM1 responded that the OSMF Board needs information on a more reliable basis and the AB can be part of that.
    • Christoph Hormann (FOSSGIS) pointed out that his suggestion was a change in the way the AB works, by delivering advice after deliberation in a more specific fashion, to be published in full for transparency.
    • BM1 mentioned that in their view there should always be space for private discussion in the AB and it should not communicate separate from the Board. They also suggested the organisation of an open real time meeting, as not every company has a representative in the AB.
    • Local Chapter (LC) representative was interested in hearing the view of corporate members and presented their vision about the AB mailing list being a safe place for discussions to get constructive feedback. Also wondered whether the Chatham House Rules could be applied on the AB mailing list.
    • BM3 was interested in hearing the view of other AB members.

Colour key:

  • 2019-10 Dermot McNally was added to the AB mailing list as the OSM-IE representative.
  • 2019-03 Harsh Govind is the new Microsoft representative.

2018

Year-Month Communication initiated by Topics
2018-12 OSM UK (Local Chapter)
  • OSM UK has been asked by the Open Data Institute to review a document they have written that compares different map data licences under various use cases. AB members have been asked for their views on the following: if someone wants to share a neural network that has used datasets licenced under OdBL (e.g. OSM data) as a training set, are there any restrictions on sharing the Neural Network? Would the neural network be "Produced Work" or a "Derivative Database"?
2018-10 Facebook (Gold Corporate Member)
  • Enquiry about whether OSMF could help Corporate Members by receiving funds on behalf of the regional SotMs and transferring en masse. This would make sponsorship a whole lot easier, as it is currently difficult is getting funds to regional SotMs, because of procurement system requirements. A handling fee for the administrative overhead could be added.
2018-10 OSMF Board of Directors
2018-08 OSM UK (Local Chapter)
  • OSM UK informed the AB that they will respond to the UK Geospatial Commission's call for evidence, which "encourage(s) responses from the geospatial industry and beyond to help set the UK's future geospatial vision". The call for evidence closes on 24 October.
2018-07 State of the Map Working Group
2018-07-28 Apple (Gold Corporate Member)
2018-07 OSM UK (Local Chapter)
  • Shared some updates about their Annual General Meeting in Manchester, which was combined with a mapping party. This was a joint event with Open Data Manchester (an ODI Node).
2018-05 OSMF Board of Directors
2018-04 State of the Map Working Group
  • Supporting the first State of the Map (SotM) conference in Oceania, which will be a joint FOSS4G and SotM event. It is backed by a non profit spatial industry body (Surveying and Spatial Sciences Institute) and will be held in Melbourne, Australia, 21-24 November 2018.
2018-03 State of the Map Working Group
  • Call for venues for State of the Map 2019.
2018-02 State of the Map Working Group
2018-02 Licensing Working Group
  • Forwarded the General Data Protection Regulation draft - discussion.
2018-03 State of the Map Working Group
  • State of the Map 2018 updates.
2018-01 OSMF Board of Directors

2017

Year-Month Contacted by Topics
2017-12 State of the Map Working Group
2017-11 Data Working Group
2017-10 State of the Map Working Group
  • Discussion about sponsoring multiple SotM events.
2017-08 OSMF Board of Directors
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