Board/Minutes/2023-08

From OpenStreetMap Foundation
< Board‎ | Minutes

Meeting date and start time: Thursday 24 August 2023 at 15:00 UTC.
Minutes approved by the board on 2023-09-28.

Please note that the individual points mentioned below usually reflect the opinion of one or more board members and not necessarily of the whole board. Official board decisions are taken during the meetings or by voting using circulars, and votes are listed in the minutes.

The topics of the agenda get locked one week before the meeting.

Location: Video room https://osmvideo.cloud68.co/user/dor-2cd-qah-rim
using BigBlueButton.

Acronyms

Participants

Board members

["talk" time*] Name (role, notes)

  • [02'] Arnalie Vicario
  • [05'] Craig Allan
  • [27'] Guillaume Rischard (Chairing)
  • [07'] Mateusz Konieczny
  • [18'] Mikel Maron
  • [07'] Roland Olbricht (joined ~ 12' after start)
  • [05'] Sarah Hoffmann

*Includes time when the microphone was activated due to noise.

Officers and board
Biographies

Minutes by Dorothea Kazazi.

Not Present

Guests

  • 8 guests, including Louise Mathurin-Serieux (Presenter)

Open to all OSMF members.

You are welcome to ask questions or to comment (via voice or on the chat) at the end of the meeting.

  • Please mute your microphone when you join, and to preserve bandwidth, refrain from turning on your webcam.
  • If you are in a low-bandwidth environment, you may benefit from using BigBlueButton's low-bandwidth settings. To assess them, click on the 3 dots on the top right of the black video-window.

Administrative

Previous minutes

Circular Resolutions

2023/Res17 Approve active contributor membership application #2023071910000195

The Board currently decides on active contributor membership applications based on non-mapping contributions on a case-by-case basis.

Approved on 2023-08-05 with 5 votes in favour: Mikel Maron, Guillaume Rischard, Sarah Hoffmann, Arnalie Vicario, Roland Olbricht (Has substantial mapping activity, including 2023. And is also active at least in the Wiki in a productive way.)
2 did not vote: Craig Allan, Mateusz Konieczny.

Application initially processed by the Membership Working Group.

2023/Res18 State of the Map EU 2023 loan

The OSMF board,

Considering the exceptional circumstances that OpenStreetMap Belgium finds itself in,

Considering the long and stable relationship between the OSMF and OpenStreetMap Belgium,

Considering the cash flow problems that OpenStreetMap Belgium is experiencing due to external circumstances, and that OpenStreetMap Belgium has assured the OSMF that sufficient sponsorship has been promised to cover that cash flow issue,

Considering that the SotM EU 2023 conference would be in jeopardy if OpenStreetMap Belgium could not pay the venue deposit,

Having discussed the issue amongst itself on gitlab issue 4631, on the board chat, during the 2023-07 board meeting, and in private negotiations together with Ben Abelshausen,

Agrees to the loan contract attached2 to this circular.

Approved on 2023-08-07 with 6 votes in favour:
Mikel Maron
Roland Olbricht
Guillaume Rischard
Craig Allan
(Given that this is a limited period loan to cover a short time gap between placing a venue deposit and receiving sponsorship funds I regard this as bridge financing. The arrangements made to mitigate losses due to a variety of possible defaults by any party are reasonable and sufficient. I support this application.)
Mateusz Konieczny
(I am not fully sure what would be preferable decision here, after taking into account all what I know about the situation. I am aware of risks involved and nervous about things going badly - with either money ending lost and/or conference failing. On the other hand negative impact of blocking now would be also unfortunate and main decision was made already and I have no other suggestions for this specific version of document.)
Arnalie Vicario
(I would like to suggest to add "local chapter" term in the public description as it provides evidence of the "long and stable relationship" bet OSMF and OSM Belgium. (as it is mentioned in the Loan Agreement). Not mentioning OSM Belgium is a local chapter gives an impression that we're ok to loan to anyone as long as they have "long and stable relationship with OSMF" - which is very biased.)
1 against:
Sarah Hoffmann
(I still have my doubts about this. There is the unclear situation of the local chapter. The plan they provided don't convince me that OSM BE can shoulder the financial risk of the event, especially with the higher burden of a professional venue. Cancelling the event in a month or two after CfPs3 and ticket sales are done would be disastrous. This is why I don't believe that this would be a simple question of bridge financing.)

Circular by Guillaume Rischard.

Notes:
1 GitLab issue accessible to board members only.
2 The circular had a note that the contract is not intended to be published.
3 Call for proposals

2023/Res19 Hire designer to redo donation website

Retain Bushaw Creative to redesign the donation website for hosting via WordPress on join.osmfoundation.org/donate. Fee is $1000 USD, with completion by August 7 at 9am.

Guillaume3 is helping with getting the new design deployed..

Approved on 2023-08-07 with 6 votes in favour: Mikel Maron, Guillaume Rischard, Roland Olbricht, Mateusz Konieczny, Sarah Hoffmann, Craig Allan (A impressively short timeline to do it. Go Kevin, go! I support this decision.)
1 did not vote: Arnalie Vicario

Circular by Mikel Maron.

Notes:
3 Guillaume Rischard, OSMF Chairperson.

2023/Res20 Approve active contributor membership application #2023072710000214

The Board currently decides on active contributor membership applications based on non-mapping contributions on a case-by-case basis.

Approved on 2023-08-10 with 5 votes in favour:
Mikel Maron
Sarah Hoffmann
Arnalie Vicario
Mateusz Konieczny
(listed on https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/WeeklyOSM_editorial_team and https://weeklyosm.eu/pt/archives/[redacted number] ("Este semanárioOSM foi produzido por [Redacted name]"))
Craig Allan
(Translation is definitely work that supports the work of OSM. Plus the applicant has some mapping activity. I support this application. # A tradução é definitivamente um trabalho que apoia o trabalho do OSM. Além disso, o candidato tem alguma atividade cartográfica. Apoio esta candidatura. (Deepl)).
2 did not vote: Guillaume Rischard, Roland Olbricht.

Application initially processed by the Membership Working Group.

2023/Res21 Approve active contributor membership application #2023073110000073

The Board currently decides on active contributor membership applications based on non-mapping contributions on a case-by-case basis.

Rejected on 2023-08-10 with 4 votes in against:
Mikel Maron
(I'm not clear about their role in the campaign. Encourage them to reapply with more details on what they are particularly doing as an individual to support the campaign.)
Mateusz Konieczny
(https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Organised_Editing/Activities lists "[Redacted organised activity]" as completed in [Redacted year, more than 1 year ago])
Sarah Hoffmann
(Please tell us more about what you personally have been doing to support the OSM project and community.)
Craig Allan
(I would like to have seen some links to work where OSM was being promoted. Typically people provide photos of the mapathons, dates, times, venues, participant counts etc. I am not opposed to the applicant, and the initiative by the [redacted] Govenment is great, but I regret that the information provided at this time is insufficient to support a membership application. The candidate is not precluded from making an improved application.).
1 in favour: Arnalie Vicario
2 did not vote: Guillaume Rischard, Roland Olbricht.

Application initially processed by the Membership Working Group.

2023/Res22 Pay an additional $1000 for donation website designer

Work on new donation site1 has completed! It took more work than expected. We previously authorized $1000 (#2023/Res19_Hire_designer_to_redo_donation_website). Authorize an additional $1000 (for a total of $2000)

Approved on 2023-08-16' with 4 votes in favour: Mateusz Konieczny, Mikel Maron, Sarah Hoffmann, Guillaume Rischard (Kevin went above and beyond what we expected of him, and spent a huge amount of extra time on our project.)
1 against: Arnalie Vicario (Great work! But would like to see a contract before authorizing this additional payment. Thanks)
1 abstained: Roland Olbricht (I'm unable to check any details at the moment.)
1 did not vote: Craig Allan

Circular by Mikel Maron.

1 https://supporting.openstreetmap.org/

2023/Res23 Sign the sponsorship distribution agreement for local SotM with OSGeo Belgium for SotM EU 2023

Agreement text is at https://docs.google.com/document/d/1F3vJtd6I8JGnwKepttdxI2PgAp4kiBNjKsyhg2zZK9w/edit#heading=h.uilqznetzost 1

Approved on 2023-08-24 with 6 in favour: Arnalie Vicario, Mikel Maron, Guillaume Rischard, Mateusz Konieczny, Sarah Hoffmann, Roland Olbricht (Some of the conditions are though on the local team (5%) and sponsor (t-3 requirement). But if people accept that, the better for the Foundation.)
1 did not vote: Craig Allan

Circular by Mikel Maron.

1 agreement archived on the OSMF website.

Action item updates

Public board action items - About
Filter by assignee Arnalie Craig Guillaume Mateusz Mikel Roland Sarah Not assigned
Filter by milestone
2023 Q1
2023 Q2
2023 Q3
2023 Q4
Completion time not specified
Filter by label Example: any label # labels here (non-clickable)

Arnalie Vicario

Local Chapter related

Craig Allan

Executive Director

Issue 104. Related: 9

  • Did background work and prepared some documents.
  • Waiting to start work with Guillaume.

Action item: Craig to send the documents he prepared related to the Executive Director action item to Guillaume.

Guillaume Rischard

Fundraising

We now have a new website https://supporting.openstreetmap.org (Post-meeting note: it replaces join.osmfoundation.org and donate.openstreetmap.org)

Proposed changes to supporting.openstreetmap.org

  • Show where the money is going.
  • Option to donate, when you sign-up as a member.

In-person discussion with Grant Slater and Tom Hughes

Tom Hughes volunteers on the Operations Working Group (OWG) and Grant Slater is an OWG member and OSMF's Senior Site Reliability Engineer (previously also volunteering on the OWG).

  • Issue 32 On metrics for fail-over cases - a document will be prepared for the board.
  • Agreed on where we would invest Grant's energy in the coming months to increase site stability and reliability.

Mateusz Konieczny

  • Spent time on internal discussions on strategic plan and other topics.

Attribution

Mikel Maron

Supporting regional State of the Maps (SotMs)

  • Prepared a standard contract for providing financial intermediary support to regional State of the Maps and approved it for SotM EU 2023. (Post-meeting note: the template agreement is here).

HOT trademark agreement

  • Will work on HOT trademark with HOT Chairperson - already had some discussions.

Roland Olbricht

Monthly financial report

Sent to the board the monthly financial report.

Sarah Hoffmann

OSMF registration in the EU

  • Will set-up a meeting with British and Belgian lawyers on how we can move without spending a lot of money.
  • Tom Hummel from the Licensing Working Group will be present in the meeting.

Sovereign Tech Fund

  • We're waiting for feedback.

Action items to be closed

Secretary's report

Appeal to a moderation decision

  • The board is discussing how to handle an appeal they received regarding a moderation decision.

name:ru vandalism

See community discussions 1, 2 and GitHub issue.

OSM Kenya - Request for a letter of support

  • Received a request by OSM Kenya for a letter of support that would mention the importance of local communities and recognising that OSM Kenya have been working on behalf of the local community.
  • OSM Kenya are undertaking formal registration in Kenya.
  • Letter drafted and we're waiting for feedback.

MapBuilder

  • Conversations with Microsoft about restarting creation of automated accounts with MapBuilder, as:
    • stipulations legally acceptable from the LWG.
    • plan to enable the MapBuilder accounts to be full fledged OSM accounts.
  • Engineering work happening.
  • Pending: get feedback from the DWG.

Roland Olbricht joined 12 minutes after the start.

State of the Map EU 2023

  • Work on the financial intermediary agreement that was signed.
  • Started to go through the financial administration process to receive payments and then pass them on.

Maxar imagery withdrawal

Maxar no longer makes imagery available to OSM for mapping. See community discussion: https://community.openstreetmap.org/t/maxar-imagery-not-working-was-maxar-is-blurred-in-id-and-other-similar-topics/100524/15

  • Mikel and Guillaume attended a meeting organised by OSM US to figure out what can be done to increase availability of imagery.
  • Participants: wide variety, people from satellite companies to users.
  • No tangible things happening from the first meeting.
  • More regular meetings might follow.

Treasurer's report

Sent monthly expense update to the board.

Licensing Working Group

  • A little over budget.
  • There was an LWG expense for trademarks registration renewal. A trademark all over the world costs us some thousand euros.
  • Some trademark renewals have different runtimes than others.

Fundraising campaign update

Current status of fundraising

  • via PayPal: EUR 29952,73 from 845 donors.
    • Largest donation: EUR 750.
    • Average donation: a bit below EUR 40.
  • via bank transfer: EUR 1300.

Fundraising and Corporate Members

  • Counted for fundraising: new Corporate Member sign-ups and upgrades in the Corporate Membership levels.
  • Microsoft:
    • Will upgrade from Gold to Platinum Corporate Membership tier.
    • Might make a contribution to the overall campaign.
    • Details are being worked out.

Other points mentioned

  • Just got a EUR 500 donation by OSM user Geowizard.
  • Someone was interested in donating via Bitcoin.
  • Supporting.osm.org has been updated and now shows recent donations, including the name, if people choose to make it public, and also accompanying messages (e.g. "thank you for the maps", "I love OSM", "OSM to the moon")

Strategic Plan outline

Sarah and Mikel prepared a revision, which was distributed for feedback to:

  • the board
  • mailing list - not much input
  • community.osm.org - some discussion

Feedback

  • A comment regarding attribution enforcement.
  • Other small points.

Suggestions regarding content

  • Consider mentioning attribution enforcement, at the section where we're mentioning promoting knowledge that OpenStreetMap exists.
  • Change the wording of the phrase “In the near term we plan to hire one additional sysadmin”.
  • Make OSM data easier to use (improving : data model, wiki, data formats you can download, making it easier to mix data with other forms of data).
    • Nothing near production-ready or under discussion.
  • Find a way to resolve tagging deadlocks.

On “hiring one additional sysadmin"

  • Add that it will depend on the available funding.
  • Not make it time-bound.
  • Hiring will not happen this year and maybe not in 2024.

Suggestion related to ongoing/future fundraising

  • Explain fund allocation and include visual aids like graphs, reports, and spreadsheets.
  • Mention “hiring one additional sysadmin" as a motivation for the current fundraising.
  • Have a future fundraising just for hiring an additional sysadmin.

On attribution

  • Attribution is an important way and the biggest marketing tool we have to make people aware of OpenStreetMap's importance.
  • People have to attribute OSM.

On data model

  • The data model was kept out of the strategic plan, as the Engineering Working Group (EWG) is working on it and needs to resolve competing ideas on implementation.
  • Significant for the community, considering the Overture Maps Foundation.
  • If anyone has ideas, it is best to discuss them on community.osm.org
  • Suggestions:
    • Defer incorporation to the Strategic Plan for next year or an intermediate version.
    • Include in the strategic plan outline that we recognise the importance of the topic and plan to have discussions to come up with an idea for the next version of the outline.

Strategic plan dependencies

  • fund availability.
  • people availability.

Next steps

  • Guillaume to include wording (if there is no related wording already) on the Strategic Plan outline, about the importance of the data model topic. Add that we plan to have discussions to come up with an idea for the next version of the outline.
  • Guillaume to have a meeting with Roland.
  • To gather feedback for another week and then do revisions.
  • To vote via a circular or during the September board meeting.

Moderators' recommendation to the Board of Directors

Topic suggested by Guillaume Rischard and Arnalie Vicario.

Moderators' recommendation to the Board of Directors to suspend a user for one year from all OSM activities.
Sent to the board on 15th of August 2023.

  • The user has already been suspended from community.osm.org for multiple intimidating behaviors and harassment in violation of Etiquette guidelines.
  • The DWG has not blocked the OSMer or has enforced communication.
  • The moderators have discussed this issue with various groups, including the DWG.

Motion to accept the resolution on https://hackmd.io/mDaCwds9T-SpBA_BqAwqyQ

Concerns

  • We don't have proper processes and policies for suspending an OSMer from all OSM activities.
  • Setting a precedent.
  • Overruling wiki admins.
    • We are not overruling anyone.
  • Consultation process for e.g. OSM wiki admins and delaying the process.
  • Enforcement of the ban by moderators.

On implementation of the project-wide ban by moderators

  • “A global ban signifies a prohibition from all OpenStreetMap forums, mailing lists, wikis, and other communication channels, along with a restriction from editing the map.” seems to indicate a requirement and is ambiguous.
  • It is not clear that moderators can refrain from banning a user on their channel, even if the user has been banned by the board project-wide.
  • Implementation is in the discretion of the groups, in a manner that upholds the principles of fairness and transparency.

Suggestions on specific case

  • Refrain at the moment but advise the moderator that we will support them whenever they decide to block.
  • Vote now to stop the abuse and work on the process in parallel.
  • Proceed with the ban and then codify it to a draft policy on banning, working closely with the moderating group.
    • Codify it the second time this happens.
  • Rephrase the sentence “A global ban signifies a prohibition from all OpenStreetMap forums, mailing lists, wikis, and other communication channels, along with a restriction from editing the map.” . E.g change it to “They can consider to”.
  • The board to revise the draft taking into account Mateusz's comments regarding making clear that groups can refrain from following the board's suggestion and then do a circular.
  • This case is not as bad as some other cases.

On project-wide bans

  • Very rare to have a project-wide block, so rare that it will be always ad hoc.
  • Roland stated that he is against getting people banned from the project globally.

Other points mentioned during discussion

  • Rare incidents and will always be ad hoc.
  • We now have multiple methods of communications, while previously the main one was the mailing lists.
  • Some people get blocked from the Wiki forever and have very productive mapping lives.
  • Roland is against banning people from the project globally without even a formal request to the board (Note: formal request got lost due to GMail malfunction).
  • The board has the right to ban a user and the users should follow that policy.
  • The board respects the autonomy of the groups' operations.

Vote: OpenStreetMap Foundation board resolution on implementing a global ban on OSMer

Motion to accept the resolution at https://hackmd.io/mDaCwds9T-SpBA_BqAwqyQ as it is. If rejected, there will be further work on the resolution.

Approved on 2023-08-24 with 6 votes in favour: Arnalie Vicario, Craig Allan, Guillaume Rischard, Mateusz Konieczny, Mikel Maron, Sarah Hoffmann.
1 against: Roland Olbricht.

Craig to work on a process.

Monthly presentation - Map4SaintLucia and/or OSM community in the Caribbean

Presentation Saint Lucia's OSM Journey - 20230824 OSMF board meeting.pdf

Presentation by Louise Malthurin-Serieux (*.pdf, file size: 3.88 MB, 14 pages).

Comments by board members

  • Map of Saint Lucia looks very detailed.
  • The Wiki claims that Saint Lucia is one of the two sovereign states named after a woman.
    • It's the only one.
  • Love the enthusiasm and the very large numbers of women who are involved
  • Cooperating with local governments, with various government structures, and also with institutes of higher education, raises the issue of the production out of OSM of working maps for actual use by these governmental organisations.
  • Mikel will follow up regarding regional coordination, as he will relocate to the Dominican Republic.

Comments by presenter

> Would love to increase our membership across the countries and overcome the language barriers.
> Looking forward to any assistance.
> Open to engaging with countries like Haiti, Dominican Republic, Cuba, as we know there are more established open street mapping communities in places like Cuba.

Any other business

SotM 2024

The SotM organising committee announced that SotM 2024 will take place in Nairobi, Kenya.

  • The board asked the State of the Map organising committee (SotM WG) whether publishing a board letter of support to the SotM WG regarding the selection of the SotM 2024 host city would be helpful. The answer was positive.
  • Mikel emailed an LGBTQ activist in Kenya, who has a prominent role in a global NGO on diversity and inclusion efforts and looking not only at Kenya but everywhere in terms of the politics and practicalities.
  • Passed activist's comments to SotM WG and SotM 2024 local organisers.

Feedback by activist included:

  • Laws are not enforced.
  • Nairobi has a cosmopolitan nature.
  • Concern is driven by media and events in the region (e.g. in Uganda).

Feedback by Craig Allan, who lives in Nairobi

  • Nairobi is a pretty safe place.
  • If the conference will be held in the centre of the city (e.g. university), it will be fine.
  • Has some LGBTQ friends who don't seem to have a problem.

Suggestions

  • Incorporate activist's comments in board's letter of support.
  • Have guidance about travelling to Kenya or other SotM locations.

Other points mentioned during discussion

  • Important to support Working Groups.
  • Uganda is not safe for gays and lesbians.

Informal vote whether to make a board statement in support of the SotM WG's decision

The Chairperson asked the board members for an informal show of hands on whether the board should make a statement (in support of the SotM-WGs decision regarding the selection of the SotM 2024 host city).

There were at least 4 votes in favour: Craig Allan, Guillaume Rischard, Mikel Maron, Sarah Hoffmann.
2 did not vote in favour: Arnalie Vicario, Roland Olbricht 1: hand not visible on camera whether in agreement or not: Mateusz Konieczny.

Recent vandalism wave

Should we wait whether Tom will implement some security features related to these email sign ups or should we try to contract someone, go through Engineering Working group or through some other way?

> Tom is working on it, there is a pull request.

The board received an email enquiry from Russia regarding the recent vandalism. Can any of us respond directly in Russian?

> Suggestion for Mateusz to ask Allan Mustard or Kate Varfolomeyeva (Communication Working Group) to help.

Monthly spending report

To be published on community.osm.org.

Guest comments or questions

No comments or questions.

Next meetings

Open board meetings take place online monthly: currently on the last Thursday of the month.

See the Monthly Board meetings page to find out where board meetings are announced and for a subscription link to have future board meetings automatically added to your calendar. The dates of public board meetings are also added to https://osmcal.org/

Meeting adjourned 1 hour and 32 minutes after start.

Acronyms

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