Diversity and Inclusion Special Committee/Minutes/2020-02-13

From OpenStreetMap Foundation

Attendees

meeting 1

  • Rory (at work and listening)
  • Joeri
  • Mike Migurski
  • Michael Reichert
  • Mikel
  • Maggie Cawley

meeting 2

  • Rory
  • Ilya
  • GeoJess??
  • Andrew Buck
  • Jinal Foflia
  • Mikel

Agenda

Intros

  • Mikel
  • Rory,
  • Joeri from Netherlands, OSM Telegram group moderator
  • Mike Migurski, interested in the topic
  • Michael, interested and observing
  • Maggie, OSM US, interested in the topic and what she can do to help
  • Mikel
  • Rory, OSMF Board also
  • Jinal, super interested in topic, and helping other folks to know
  • Jesper, work FB team, joining to be more aware of community and diversity topics
  • Ilya, Russia and Belarus, also work at Lyft, interested in topics, read a lot, not sure yet about participation

Scope as set by Board

Set scope as a "committee"

  • Compile previous research and substantial discussions on the topic of diversity in OSM and OSMF.
  • Determine the current diversity of OSM and OSMF, as well as regional or topical subcommunities, along the attributes listed in the Diversity Statement (and any others identified by DISC).

This involves choosing and implementing methodology for measurement and research, and collecting both quantitative and qualitative information. The analysis should be both global and specific to local or topical groups, consider the scale of the problems, and see whether similar communities have achieved different results.

  • If applicable, identify root causes and systematic issues within (and outside) the OSM community that contribute to these identified shortfalls.
  • Having identified causes and studied how other communities would have solved similar issues, produce a public report recommending actions for the Foundation, Working Groups or any other OSM actors to resolve these issues and improve diversity and inclusion.

This could include a wide array of approaches, from recruiting more people to OSM/F, mentoring, work on inclusion in our interaction and communication, or a hundred other things. DISC would not alone be in charge of implementing these actions; it would involve support of and coordination with working groups, the Board, and the community. Recommend to the Board any changes to the OSM Foundation Diversity Statement

  • Set timeline and implementation of evaluation of these actions, to determine what’s working, what isn’t and why, and where we need to iterate on the approaches.
  • Determine necessity and make recommendations on future scope of work for the group, and in which form it should continue (e.g. new committee(s) or Working Group format).
  • Report to the board at least once every three months.

Discussion of objectives, thoughts on work plan

meeting 1

Joeri: Focused on telegram. Could pin research or poll on telegram based social interactions. Global OSM, and Duth OSM group. This is only a slice of overall OSM community. Active group of 100 folks. There are many other groups in different languages and places.

Maggie: Research part is really important to gather. Happy to help pull that together.

Rory: Feedback on diversity statement, that should incorporate some tweaks. Can come back with recommendations. Issues: language, nationality, culture.

Rory: If there's something more permanent, this could be a useful resource the rest of the OSM community.

Maggie: All men in this meeting, do we need more outreach to get people involved and do a push to join and be welcome to contribute.

Michael: Occupied with local chapter tasks so no time. Likes the scope. Important to notify the timeline which would take more than one year. Larger survey would take a lot of time to conduct and analyze.

Maggie: Does OSMF have related questions from recent survey? OSM US has them, and will share. The more questions we can answer before asking for more.

Mike: Scope is not emphasizing action, is that why more aren't here. GeoChicas not here. Work on building relationships with other groups, and why they're not here. Heather, Jinal, Miriam come to mind.

Michael: Research needs to back up actions, to not just generate more debate.

Mike: There's more organizing and political moves can also help with arguments for the recommended actions.

Rory: What kind of measurements would help? Well sometimes no amount of evidence is enough. Sometimes its about our beliefs as well -- our FOSS policy is not backed by research but our beliefs.

Mike: Some of the scope might be laying on a "burden of proof". Is research or more orgazining what's needed?

meeting 2

Rory: offered to make small tweaks to Diversity Statement

Jinal: can support chair on running these meetings. Can only join today because in EU today / need to assess better time. How frequent are calls? Two of them on a regular basis, with combined notes, is a good idea.

Rory: Could also rotate times to work for all at some point.

Ilya: Looks good and actionable. Identifying root causes can be very challenging. Scope of entire group should be to spot what's practical to address. These are things we need to think about and come up with.

Mikel: Similar points to what we talked about earlier on degree of rigor in research portion.

Ilya: It's well known in Russia and Belarus virtually no female contributors. Have some ideas what the causes may be? It's a lot about what we measure. Hard to measure quality of experience of participating, and dealing with microagressions.

Mikel: Is that due to other technical and mapping communities being all men in the region? Or is that the baseline OSM finds itself.

Rory: It varies a lot in different communities, good to know how things are in different locations.

Ilya: Hard to collect informtion on non-participation.

Mikel: Are there easy things which can be done while harder parts are being worked on?

Ilya: Include non-native English speakers in the work of the group. Might work better to meet in chat, and not mumble. Text could make it easier to participate.

Jesper: Asking for translators of our messages, and ask mods to share on their channels. Help to get word out.

Rory: We need policies and procedures to join and vote? What are your questions rather than saying does anyone have questions.

Andrew: Could have distinct meetings in different languages.

Jinal: Should determine the geographies and languages that interested people are in. We could have a form with what people expect, to maximize participation.

Mikel: Good to think about recommendations to broaden participations in groups across OSMF.

Ilya: Good to help get people to participate would be to break down tasks into smaller, discrete chunks. Make sure that people who spend little time can help, and bring their local experience to the group. Make a list of tasks, outline ways people can help. "Meeting is once per week, and just bring ideas is enough"

Jesper: Scope of tasks can be intimidating and overwhelmingly big task.

Logistics

  • Chair ???
  • Where to minute: OSMF website
  • Meeting times / venue / frequency

Mike: US working hours can be hard, so before work is good

Rory: EU evenings are good, but flexible. But shouldn't set in stone now.

Jinal: in Singapore.

Actions

  • Maggie will start pulling stuff together on a new Wiki Page
  • Rory suggest tweaks to Diversity Statement
  • Jinal will develop a form to ask what it takes for people to participate
  • Rory going to engage on mailing lists
  • Mikel will distribute minutes, digest a bit, and set up page on OSMF wiki with key pieces
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