Board/Minutes/2018-03-15

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Location: Mumble, Thursday 2018-03-15 at 21:00 London time

North Americans: Please note that this Board Meeting will take place one hour later than usual for you, as Europe is not on Daylight Saving Time yet. The April meeting will be at the usual time, unless rescheduled.

Participants

Board members

  • Kate Chapman (Chairperson)
  • Peter Barth
  • Martijn van Exel
  • Heather Leson (joined (enabled audio) at 23')
  • Mikel Maron
  • Paul Norman
  • Frederik Ramm

Guests

  • 10 guests

Open to all OSMF members.

Guests are welcome to speak at the end of the meeting on the topics that have been discussed. Please note that text messages sent on Mumble chat may not be seen by people who join using mobile apps.

Not Present

Administrative

Previous minutes

Circular Resolutions

2018/Res5 Approve Dorothea's new contract

2018/Res5 Approve Dorothea's new contract
Voting for signing a new 1 year contract with Dorothea, starting March 1 2018, ending Feb 28, 2019. Terms otherwise unchanged.
Accepted 2018-02-27 with ultimately 3 votes in favour: Frederik Ramm, Mikel Maron, Heather Leson

Disagreed 2: Peter Barth (non processed input from CWG), Paul Norman (non processed input from CWG)
Not voted 2: Martijn van Exel, Kate Chapman

More information: The voting had started while the board's answer to the CWG about their request for some of Dorothea's time for minutes was still pending. Peter Barth asked the board to stop the voting and start a new circular. In the end, the board accepted the CWG request and the new circular started with the terms of the contract unchanged.

2018/Res6 Approve Dorothea's new contract

2018/Res6 Approve Dorothea's new contract
Voting for signing a new 1 year contract with Dorothea, starting March 1 2018, ending Feb 28, 2019. Terms otherwise unchanged.
Unanimously accepted 2018-03-07

Previous action items

The list is sortable and collapsible and items that were assigned to two persons appear twice.

Name Date Action item and status
All 2018-02-15 SotM draft policy document clean-up
All 2018-01-25 Update board member biographies on the OSMF wiki
All 2017-11-16 In 2018 send an email to members, months in advance of the Annual General Meeting, encouraging them to discuss and perhaps propose their own resolutions.
Frederik 2018-02-15 to contact Liberapay mentioning that we appreciate their support and tell them that we would like them to stop soliciting money in our name. # Done - we have opted-out
Frederik/Paul 2016-05-28 to prepare transparency document from transparency session
Heather/Mikel 2018-02-15 to contact local communities and regional State of the Map organisers about the SotM policy and then provide feedback to the SotM-WG and the board.
# 20180315 Got feedback from some local and regional SotM organisers
Heather 2018-02-15 to follow up with LWG, OWG and CWG about GDPR
Heather 2018-01-25 to talk to Paul and get more details about the board representative on the trademark license subcommittee (# Done) and then contact the Licensing Working Group, if required.
Ilya 2016-08-19 to look at implementing means for members to view the membership register
# Got key from Tom for accessing the server. Administrative work done, programming not yet. 2018-03-15 update: This action item will be removed from the list.
# 20180315 Action item will be removed
Kate 2018-02-15 to notify the OWG that the new Data Center RFP has been accepted # Done
Kate 2018-02-15 to follow up with Grant about the technical workaround of having conference announcement banners on osm.org linked to landing pages on the website
Kate 2018-01-18 to initiate discussion about 2018 priorities over email.
Kate 2018-01-18 to update the etiquette and add a reporting plan
Kate 2018-01-18 to email F. Davey about Conflict of Interest advice and cc Paul
Kate 2017-08-24 to write to the Advisory Board list about microgrants
Kate 2017-08-24 to contact Michael about closing inactive mailing lists that she is an admin of
Kate/Martijn 2016-05-28 to draft diversity policy
# No progress to report. Low priority.
Martijn 2018-01-25 to review the submitted documents of the OSM Belgium Local Chapter application. # Done
Martijn 2018-01-25 to initiate the local community and membership consultations regarding the OSM Belgium Local Chapter application.
# 20180315 Asked questions and will continue with community consultation
Martijn 2017-11-16 to create the draft of the microgrants policy, separating it from the attempted combined draft with the updated travel policy
Martijn 2017-10-26 to raise the question to the Advisory Board about whether they would like to have an archive of the AB mailing list.
# Martijn will prepare a brief orientation document for the AB and will ask then.
Martijn 2017-07-18 to look at the process of regular reporting by the Local Chapters to the board and vice versa.
Martijn/Kate 2016-05-28 to draft diversity policy
# No progress to report. Low priority.
Mikel/Heather 2018-02-15 to contact local communities and regional State of the Map organisers about the SotM policy and then provide feedback to the SotM-WG and the board.
# 20180315 Got feedback from some local and regional SotM organisers
Mikel 2018-01-25 Mikel to work on potential updates on the circulars' procedure to vote on.
Mikel 2018-01-18 to make sure the osmf-announce read-only mailing list is restarted - with help from Martijn, Paul & the MWG.
# 20180315 Working on mechanics
Mikel 2017-08-24 to send email on the list to find businesses that would like to offer input on the Welcome Mat
Mikel 2016-08-19 to send round bullet points on diversity policy proposal
Paul 2017-02-21 to separate the State of the Map (SotM) net profit discussion items and start the follow-up discussions
Paul 2016-10-28 to create a page on the wiki, listing software products which are used by OSMF and are closed-source and/or are externally hosted
# Was Peter's
Paul/Frederik 2016-05-28 to prepare transparency document from transparency session
Peter 2017-04-18 to make a list of requirements for email self-hosting and discuss them with the Operations Working Group
Topics: OSMF engine | SotMs and membership | Etiquette | GDPR | Translations | AB | Diversity | AOB: Etiquette 2 | AB 2

Action item updates

Marked with blue font on the table above.
Additional updates: Mikel - Welcome Mat in progress

Topics: OSMF engine | SotMs and membership | Etiquette | GDPR | Translations | AB | Diversity | AOB: Etiquette 2 | AB 2

OSMF-owned engine for social surveys

An OSMF-owned engine for social surveys has been proposed in the recent past (1, 2). This topic was raised again as the SotM Working Group wanted to run a community survey about the SotM 2018 program. As the survey is currently open (until March 20th, 2018), this topic might be discussed at another meeting.

Some survey tool suggestions:

  • Umfrageplattform - tool developed by OSMer Harald Hartmann for surveys among OSM contributors. Users have to authenticate with OSM OAuth. (Source)
  • Emapic (not self hosting solution) - FLOSS survey engine focused on geolocation that uses OSM as base map. Alpha version. (Source)
  • LimeSurvey has been used by the SotM-WG and the DWG
Lead: Mikel
  • Topic was added before we got the limesurvey account for the SotM-WG survey.
  • Broader question about what services OSMF wants to support and process for and decide whether we support and how.
  • Urgency: none

Decision: to be discussed in the future.

Topics: OSMF engine | SotMs and membership | Etiquette | GDPR | Translations | AB | Diversity | AOB: Etiquette 2 | AB 2

SotMs as an opportunity to increase membership

The State of the Map (SotM) conference is the annual, international conference of OpenStreetMap, organised by the OpenStreetMap Foundation.

SotM-related suggestions to increase membership:

  • offering a GBP 15 discount for anyone who signs up the day they register
  • giving all SotM attendees 12 months OSMF membership and adding X EUR to the ticket price to cover this.

This topic was proposed during a recent Board discussion about the removal of the phrase "Enjoy discounts to OSM events" from join.osmfoundation.org - a proposal from the SotM-WG as this has not been done for several years.

Lead: Mikel

Discussion was both for how to increase membership, as well as for how to give discounted SotM tickets to OSMF members.

Providing SotM discounted tickets to OSMF members

  • Discount cannot be offered on the membership amount, just on the SotM tickets.
  • Mechanics of determining who is a member and making membership registration available at the SotM sign up process is complicated.
  • The SotM-WG is busy and might have not contacted the MWG about the issue.

Choice between offering the discount this year or removing the phrase which mentions that we provide such a discount.

Decision: Offering the SotM ticket discount this year.

Potential process for members-to-be

  • Sign-up as a member
  • Get discount code for SotM ticket
  • Register for SotM 2018 using the code

Members that have already purchased SotM 2018 tickets
Can be offered the choice between a partial refund or the conversion of the discounted amount to a donation.

Other points during discussion:

  • Concern was expressed about whether offering a combined SotM ticket and OSMF membership might decrease the percentage of mappers in the OSMF, while the OSMF's duty is to represent them.
    • OSMF is more than mappers - anyone that visits the OSM website can be considered as part of the community.
    • People coming to SotM are interested in becoming OSMF members.
  • Emailing discount codes: We may not be allowed to send emails related to the Conference due to spam issues.
    • Comment that the codes are related to the membership.

Increasing membership during the conference

There have been membership drives during SotM in the past.

Suggestions

  • Ten minute spot before the SotM opening talk to welcome people and suggest becoming a member.
  • Offering member sign-up at the OSMF booth, like in SotM 2016, but for two hours.

Decision

OSMF members will get a EUR 15 discount for SotM 2018 tickers. Members that have already purchased tickets will be contacted and offered the choice between a partial refund or the conversion of the discounted amount to a donation.

Action item: Mikel and Frederik to look at providing CiviCRM discount codes for SotM2018. Will also look at how many people have signed up already and offer partial refund or suggest donation.

Topics: OSMF engine | SotMs and membership | Etiquette | GDPR | Translations | AB | Diversity | AOB: Etiquette 2 | AB 2

Board reminder/communications about etiquette guidelines

Suggestion for:

  • a reminder about the etiquette guidelines via the OSMF blog, Facebook and mailing list, and possibly
  • a moderator reminder on other key mailing lists.
Lead: Paul (was: Heather) - More discussion at the AoB section

Discussion focused on mailing lists.

  • There are active mailing lists with no moderators.
  • There are active mailing lists with admins who might be inactive or unwilling to moderate.

Proposal to make sure that mailing lists have selected moderators and not discuss how we select moderators.

Heather joined (enabled audio) at 23'

Suggestions

  1. Moderators to subscribe to the moderators mailing list.
  2. Make sure that active mailing lists have moderators that feel they are able to take up cases of bad behaviour.
  3. Make sure mailing list users are aware of the etiquette.

Look at the ten most active mailing lists and see:

  • If people listed as list administrators are active in the moderator role.
  • What is in place.
  • How they manage the list.

Other point during discussion:
The CWG probably does not have the capacity to handle this.

Action item: Paul and Mikel to look at the ten most active mailing lists and see if people listed as admins are active in the moderator role, what is in place, and how they manage the lists.

Related post-meeting addition: Forum sections without moderators assigned (osmf-talk)

Topics: OSMF engine | SotMs and membership | Etiquette | GDPR | Translations | AB | Diversity | AOB: Etiquette 2 | AB 2

GDPR preparation update

The General Data Protection Regulation will come into effect May 25, 2018. The Licensing Working Group (LWG) is working on a document with a set of recommendations.

Related Board discussion: Feb 2018
Related LWG discussions: Mar 2018, Feb 2018, Nov 2017, Sep 2017, July 2017

Lead: Heather
  • The LWG is working on a GDPR document with suggestions and will probably have an update by the next board meeting.
  • Protection of minors is important aspect.
  • Brussels privacy lab has volunteer to review the draft.

Discussion about frequency of GDPR updates on the agenda

Points mentioned:

  • The topic does not need to be added to the agenda every month since the LWG will inform the board if any board action is required.
  • The topic is important and the board needs to be aware.
  • The update does not need to take a lot of time.
Topics: OSMF engine | SotMs and membership | Etiquette | GDPR | Translations | AB | Diversity | AOB: Etiquette 2 | AB 2

Translations of OSMF webpages

The Communication Working Group (CWG) was recently contacted by two community members who offered to translate OSMF webpages, including the board meeting minutes, and by a third community member who sent a translation of the updated Trademark Policy. The offer of help was welcomed and the CWG contacted the Board.

Some suggestions

  • Adding the translations on the osmf website, with an information box on the top, making it clear that the official pages are in English and these are volunteered translations.
  • Publishing the translations on private blogs/diaries instead.
  • (for board meeting minutes): providing a short write-up of the minutes and collaborating with weeklyOSM (project independent of OSMF) if the volunteers and weeklyOSM agree, so that translations are published on the weekly.

Concern was expressed about whether translations on the OSMF website would be perceived as official.

Lead: Martijn

Things to consider:

  • Maintenance: Document updates will make the initial translations outdated and it might be necessary for them to be removed # Depends on the type of document
  • Quality: We do not have the capacity to ensure the quality.
  • Endorsement: Hosting unofficial translations on the OSMF website might give sense of official endorsement, even with a disclaimer.
  • Accessibility: On the OSMF website volunteer translations will be easily accessible.

Current case on the OSMF wiki: Contributor terms

Suggestions

  • Let the Communication Working Group (CWG) decide.
  • Ask the CWG to mention that these are legal documents and the translation has to be very close to the original.
  • Select specific documents to be translated, rather than the translators making the selection.

Decision: Discussion will continue offline.

Topics: OSMF engine | SotMs and membership | Etiquette | GDPR | Translations | AB | Diversity | AOB: Etiquette 2 | AB 2

Advisory Board - monthly update

The Advisory Board (AB) is an entity separate from the OSMF board of directors, composed of individuals - either nominated by corporate members of the OSMF or invited directly by the OSMF board of directors. The OSMF Board of Directors will publicly minute, in the board meeting minutes, any communication sent to, or received from, the AB. This monthly section is reserved for this purpose.

Related discussions:
2018 Feb, Jan
2017 Oct, May (F2F), Apr, Mar, Feb, Jan

Lead: Martijn

Notes from the discussion during the AOB section.

Discussion about AB internal processes

Q: Do the AB members have a formal process on how they run?
A: No

Points mentioned during discussion:

  • The initial idea was that members of the AB would be a group of individuals that the Board of Directors (BoD) would consult.
  • A process that will create democratic decision making might overshadow the BoD.

Wish See more voices active and more discussion.

Suggestions

  • Make it clear that we want to keep the current status and there is no "AB opinion".
  • Explicitly ask the opinion of AB members who may have not answered to a query.
Topics: OSMF engine | SotMs and membership | Etiquette | GDPR | Translations | AB | Diversity | AOB: Etiquette 2 | AB 2

Diversity in OSM

Discussion about what the Board can do to support diversity in the OSM community. Suggestion to have a statement on inclusion and diversity from the board.

This topic was proposed during a recent Board discussion about how to handle diary comments like #comment41167 and #comment41179.

Lead: Heather

(this topic was reordered during the meeting)

Suggestion for the topic to be added on the Face-to-Face agenda.

  • Statement about etiquette
  • Find ways how to support an inclusive OSM
Topics: OSMF engine | SotMs and membership | Etiquette | GDPR | Translations | AB | Diversity | AOB: Etiquette 2 | AB 2

Any other business

Board reminder/communications about etiquette guidelines 2

Suggestions

  • Board reminder about etiquette guidelines on osmf-talk, talk & facebook page and statement that we support
  • Reminder to be yearly

Points during discussion

  • avoid meaningless gesture
  • not send too many reminder communications
  • wording is important

Decision: Send a reminder about etiquette soon.

Advisory Board update 2

Updates were provided during the AoB and have been added under the AB update section.

Topics: OSMF engine | SotMs and membership | Etiquette | GDPR | Translations | AB | Diversity | AOB: Etiquette 2 | AB 2

Next meeting

Meetings now take place on the 3rd Thursday of the month, at 21:00 London time, unless rescheduled.

The next monthly board meeting will be on the 19th of April, at 21:00 London time, unless rescheduled.

Meeting end