OSMF updates/2018-07
The State of the Map (SotM) 2018 conference will take place on the 28-30 of July 2018 in Milan, Italy.
State of the Map is the annual, international conference of OpenStreetMap and is organised by the OSM Foundation.
See the program and join. Stay with other OSMers. Check the OSM wiki for more information.
Attend the Saturday session at 17:40 on how to "Get involved in the OSM Foundation!".
OSMF updates - July 2018
- Content: Highlighting updates related to the Foundation - mostly news from the volunteer Working Groups, the Board of Directors, the Local Chapters, the Advisory Board members and some project news.
- Details: For more details you are invited to read the minutes or reports of the Board and the Working Groups (links on each section).
- Accuracy: These reports do not go through a formal acceptance process, like the Board minutes are. This might change. The March 2018 OSMF report, and probably the following ones, will be made known to the Working Groups first, before being sent to the membership.
- Previous reports: here
Communication Working Group
| General info | Communication Working Group, Join as a volunteer |
| Meetings | |
|---|---|
| Regularity | Monthly, on the 2nd Thursday of the month at 19:00 London Time |
| Next meeting | August 9th, 19:00 London Time, on Mumble |
| Previous minutes | June |
Blog post about 14th anniversary of OSM: In August, we'll be 14! This year the project birthday will be celebrated on Sunday, 12th August 2018 in cities all around the world! Add your mapping and celebration parties to the OSM wiki!
Announcement about Bing Streetside imagery in iD: Now you can use Bing Streetside directly in iD to improve OSM! (Blog and Tweet).
Blog post about iD community channels. iD now provides links to forums, meetups, Slack groups, IRC channels, mailing lists.
Blog post about switching to OSM: published.
SotM2018 tweet ideas
Unofficial translation of board minutes on OSM wiki
State of the Map: Discussion about who's going to SotM 2018 in Milan and suggestion to organise a meeting there.
Re-use of OSMF Mediawiki skin: Discussion about a request to reuse the Mediawiki skin, by a user who found out that the logo is hard coded.
OSM official account on Mastodon: Mastodon is an open source, federated micro-blogging system, with more than a million users. It is similar to Twitter, but open source and spread across many servers. en.osm.town is a new instance/server (English language) focused on OpenStreetMap, set-up by community member Rory (there's already fr.osm.social for francophone OSMers). Like email, this server ("instance") talks to other servers, so anyone on the "fediverse" can follow and interact with anyone on this server & vice versa. The "local timeline" will only show toots (= tweets) from everyone on the server, so will be full of OSM related stuff. Advantages: open, under our control, no adverts, no analytics, no "algorithmic" promoted tweets, 500 characters, OSM stuff! Let's connect - follow us on https://en.osm.town/@openstreetmap
WG volunteers: We welcome Rory McCann, who has joined.
Data Working Group
| General info | Data Working Group, Join as a volunteer |
| Meetings | |
|---|---|
| Regularity | Bimonthly |
| Next meeting | September 13th, 20:00 UTC |
| Previous minutes | May, Mar |
Ongoing: Resolving issues in copyright violation, disputes, vandalism and detecting and stopping vandalism and imports that do not comply with guidelines. Discussion about various organised editing teams.
- DWG activity: In the first quarter of 2018, the DWG handled 216 cases, while in the second quarter it handled 194 cases. A new activity report will be published soon.
DMCA and general takedown procedure: There's discussion within the LWG (see these LWG minutes and links from there) about proposed changes to the DMCA procedure. Currently moderation requests come to the DWG only, with requests via the DMCA form (which is linked from the "Takedown procedure" page on the OSM website) going to both the DWG and the LWG. The technical removal work may require the moderator flag (i.e. only moderators or admins can actually deal with it). It was noted that majority of "DMCA requests" that we receive aren't for the USA where the DMCA applies (actually, the vast majority of mails that that address receives are spam). Discussion is ongoing.
Communications with sysadmins: There have been occasional misunderstandings where it was unclear to the sysadmins if a request came from the DWG or from a DWG member in a private capacity. Decision to try and send such requests from within OTRS tickets so it is clear that they are "official", and there's also an audit trail.
Removing GPS traces: The DWG discussed under what circumstances it might make sense to remove GPS traces (DMCA request, for e.g.) and what other actions might be needed.
Ticket handling: "How and when to respond" was discussed. Some tickets sit in the queue for a while. SomeoneElse to contact some of the newer less active members and see how we can help. Also discussed was the new "issues" functionality on the OSM website - what happens to different sorts of reports, who sees what comments etc. A common theme was that (except in the case of obvious spammers) in initial first reply was often "please try to talk to XYZ via changeset discussion comments".
Potential website technical changes: Currently "website issues" aren't integrated with either the rest of the ticket handling in OTRS or email, and changeset discussion comment integration with email is one-way only. There are some technical issues with this (see some of the links from here). There was also discussion about how block messages work and whether the user should see them every time they try to log in or just once.
State of the Map: Discussion about who's going to SotM 2018 in Milan, and who's asked to meet us there. Also, an attempt will be made to have another working session about the organised editing policy there.
Ongoing: Directed Editing Policy. See below.
| Directed Editing Policy - Background |
|---|
Organised mapping efforts are an integral part of today's OSM contribution landscape and, when done well, help make OSM better and more widely known. In order to maintain good communications between, and a level playing field for, individual community members and organised editing groups, the board had asked the Data_Working_Group Data Working Group (DWG) to work on a directed editing policy, in a manner that it has sufficient community input, and before anything is decided to come back to the board.
The Data Working Group:
Previous board discussions: Jan 2018, Jul 2017, Jun 2017, Apr 2017 |
Engineering Working Group
| General info | Engineering Working Group, Join as a volunteer |
| Meetings | |
|---|---|
| Regularity | Monthly or more frequent |
| Next meeting | |
| Previous minutes | April |
Completion of one of the Top Ten Tasks - moderation queue: A long-requested solution for the spam and abusive content in diaries, the map, user notes and other services. From the website user's perspective, this is basically a "Report" button next to everything. The goal is to offer moderators a queue of reports from every service on the OSM website, allowing them to ignore or act on a report.
Ongoing: Google Summer of Code 2018 mentoring. See the GSoC accepted projects.
Some updates from the projects:
- Support For Vector Tile Data For iD Editor (Diary entry)
- Implementing Openstreetmap API using Go language (Diary entries: 1, 2)
- Adding Notes to iD Editor (Diary entries: 1, 2, 3, 4)
Licensing Working Group
| General info | Licensing Working Group, Join as a volunteer |
| Meetings | |
|---|---|
| Regularity | Monthly on the 2nd Thursday of the month, at 20:00 UTC, on Mumble, unless rescheduled. |
| Next meeting | August 9th, 2018 at 20:00 UTC on Mumble |
| Previous minutes | June, May, April |
Privacy policy: The OpenStreetMap privacy policy for services formally operated and provided by the OpenStreetMap Foundation (OSMF) has been published. The document will be updated.
OSMF services terms of use: The LWG is working on a new draft document about the OSMF services' terms of use. Input will be requested soon from the Board and the Working Groups.
Non-disclosure Agreement: The LWG is working on a NDA template that will be used by the OSMF Working Groups.
Map Copyright Complaint Removal Policy: The LWG is working on a OSMF Copyright and DMCA policy (draft).
Licence approval requests: The LWG will prepare a short step by step guide of how to approach licencing considerations and add things to look out in the licences.
Other topics: Facebook attribution, “Validation” of OSM data
Trademark issues: OpenStreetAmenities, OpenCanalMap, Openstreetmap.cymru, Openlittermap, OpenIPMap, OpenStreetCab (we received a commitment that they will change their project name).
WG volunteers: We thank Christina Luu, who has left the LWG, for her help all this time, we welcome back Dr. Marlena Jankowska and we welcome Jim Vidano, who has joined.
| GDPR preparation |
|---|
| The General Data Protection Regulation came into effect May 25, 2018. The Licensing Working Group (LWG) published a document with a set of recommendations, a privacy statement and is working on other documents, such as the Terms of Use.
Related Board discussions: Jun 2018, May 2018, Apr 2018, Mar 2018, Feb 2018 |
Membership Working Group
| General info | Membership Working Group, Join as a volunteer |
| Meetings | |
|---|---|
| Regularity | As the needs arises |
| Next meeting | |
| Previous minutes | April |
Multiple requests for OSM accounts: The MWG has recently received many requests regarding OSM (instead of OSMF) accounts. These probably came from people accessing the OSMF contact page, which was subsequently updated.
CiviCRM mail problem: CiviCRM is an open source, internationalised suite of computer software which we use to manage our membership database, send emails to our members, as well as to manage registration to the State of the Map conference. Some renewal mailings currently are not reaching members (update: this has been fixed).
Ongoing: Member self service area
Ongoing: Membership waiver: See below.
| Membership Fee Waiver Program - Background |
|---|
| The MWG is working on the implementation of a membership fee waiver program. It is based on the board resolution from Oct. 14th 2014 and the subsequent vote at the Annual General Meeting. People will be able to apply through the fee waiver program for an associate membership, if paying the fee would constitute an unreasonable burden to the member because of lack of a suitable money transfer facility. The person applying would have have contributed something else of value to be deemed eligible. The MWG is working on finalising the form. The program has already been accepted by the Board, provided that the text modifications are minor. |
Operations Working Group
| General info | Operations Working Group, Join as a volunteer |
| Meetings | |
|---|---|
| Regularity | Occasional |
| Next meeting | |
| Previous minutes | December 2017 |
Ongoing: New data centre arrangements. Our hosting is mainly supported by Imperial College, University College London and Bytemark. We will move the servers from the Imperial College to a new location, as IC currently wants to reclaim the space for offices.
Ongoing: Ensuring the operation and smooth running of the XML editing API and data distribution services.
WG volunteers: We thank Matt Amos, who has left the OWG, for his help all this time.
State of the Map Organising Committee
| General info | State of the Map Working Group Join as a volunteer |
| Meetings | |
|---|---|
| Regularity | Every one or two weeks |
| Next meeting | |
| Previous minutes | July 2, June 25, June 11, May 27, May 14 |
State of the Map 2018 is less than a month away - it will take place on the 28-30 of July 2018 in Milan, Italy.
Schedule: See the updated program.
Join the conference!
Accommodation: We have rooms set aside at two major hotels just for State of the Map attendees (blogpost)
OSMF session: Attend the Saturday session at 17:40 on how to "Get involved in the OSM Foundation!
Check the OSM wiki for more information.
Local Chapters
New Local Chapter - Belgium
OpenStreetMap Belgium is our new Local Chapter for Belgium. Welcome!
Groups: Comm | Data | Eng | Legal | Memb | Ops | SotM | Chapters | AB | Board || ProjectAdvisory Board members
- The OSMF Board has consulted the Advisory Board members on the content of the Welcome Mat to organisations.
- You can now see why an individual has become a member of the Advisory Board.
- Ajay Bulusu has joined the AB as the representative of our new Gold Corporate Member, Grab.
Board of Directors
| General info | Officers and Board, Biographies, Rules of Order |
| Meetings | |
|---|---|
| Regularity | Monthly on the 3rd Thursday of the month, at 21:00 London time, unless rescheduled |
| Next meeting | July 19th, 2018 at 21:00 London time on Mumble |
| Previous minutes | June, May, list |
The Board Rules of Order have been updated ( Diff in blue)
Licence application: The first licence under our domain grandfathering scheme has been granted to OpenRailwayMap. You can read more about why one needs to licence the OSMF marks here (FAQ). The template application is here.
Volunteer auditor for 2017 finances: Thomas Barris, who has asked financial related questions on osmf-talk, has agreed to attempt a volunteer audit of the 2017 finances and possibly provide a report to the membership.
Criteria for becoming a Local Chapter: The current minimum criteria for becoming a Local Chapter are outlined here. Discussion will be initiated on the osmf-talk mailing list about refining the criteria and will likely continue during a Local Chapter gathering at the State of the Map 2018 conference in Milan.
FOSS Policy compliance: The OSMF Free and Open Source Software Policy requires us to re-evaluate the use of hosted or closed-source software every two years with a view to changing to a FOSS solution if practical. The policy was devised to guide, but not mandate, software choices for work within the OpenStreetMap Foundation Board, Working Groups, and other OSMF bodies. (June update)
Signing the savecodeshare.eu petition: The EU is in the process of revising its copyright directive. As essentially always when such things are discussed the lobbies of the rights owners tend to have a lot of influence. This has led to a fairly draconian proposal that if passed as is, could potential require us to pre-filter user contributions made to OSM for copyright violations. The board has signed the https://savecodeshare.eu petition, even if the subject matter is slightly different than what we are directly involved in.
Ongoing: Microgrants. As a start and as a first trial we want to make a time-bound program where you can apply for microgrants until a specific date. Discussed during the Board Face to Face meeting in April were many of the details like the budget, a rough timeline and the need for a committee to help on with the selection and to provide some kind of “supervision”. (June update)
Ongoing: GDPR preparation update: The General Data Protection Regulation came into effect May 25, 2018. The necessary steps for GDPR preparation have been discussed during the recent Face-to-Face board meeting (28-29 April). The board has authorised the Licensing Working Group to publish the current version of the privacy statement.
General news
Vote for the OSM awards 2018
These are community awards, as nominees and winners are chosen by the community. The Awards strive to be a worldwide event for all OpenStreetMap members, including developers, mappers, community leaders, blog writers and everyone else. The awards will be presented this July at the State of the Map 2018 conference in Milan. Voting closes on the 26th of July, but it's better to vote now!
OSM birthday celebrations - Aug 12th
In August, we'll be 14! This year, the project birthday will be celebrated on Sunday, 12th August 2018 in cities all around the world! Add your mapping and celebration parties to the OSM wiki!
Preparing for the General Data Protection Regulation
The OSMF board and working groups are preparing for upcoming legal changes regarding data protection rules (blogpost).
Bing Streetside imagery now available in iD editor
We are excited to announce that you can now use Bing Streetside photographs when you edit OpenStreetMap using the web-based editor iD! (blogpost)
Moderation queue
Spam and abusive content in diary entries and notes, as well as users with potentially problematic behaviour, can now be reported using a button in the browser.
New Gold Corporate Member
We have a new Gold Corporate Member, Grab.