Strategic Plan Outline: Difference between revisions

 

 

The OpenStreetMap project is unique in its global diffusion of crowdsourced data collection, distributed responsibility for data quality control, and diversity of its community, ranging from individual volunteer mappers contributing highly specific local knowledge to large corporations contributing satellite imagery and artificial intelligence tools. It is unusual in its fostering of a commercial ecosystem that provides hundreds of jobs side by side with empowerment of localised civil society, small and medium businesses, and humanitarian organisations.

 

A limit on growth of expenditures on administration of the project is also core to OSM’s philosophy: we often hear the refrain that OSM should not become another opaque and inaccessible bureaucracy-heavy NGO, with large paid staff. Adherence to this core philosophy will ensure that OSM remains a free project, independent from influential donors. By empowering volunteers rather than staff, it will also remain a vibrant project that attracts enthusiastic contributors, because it will remain fun as well as useful – and we volunteer contributors, at the end of the day, are why OSM is today the success story that it is.

 

A strategic plan is a big undertaking. Our approach is to set high-level directions across all the efforts and structures of the Foundation, and then to take a phased approached to develop more specific ideas and determine details of plans. To start we will focus on technical planning.

 

Working with SSRE and OWG, we shall develop a range (low/medium/high) of OpenStreetMap platform services growth projections in 1-, 3-, and 5-year timelines. Determining implications for hardware, hosting, software and workload will feed our financial planning.

 

 

This document is a conversation. We will seek commentary on the document, perform structured surveys for input, and directly reach out with questions to stakeholders.

 

 

Discussions of the OpenStreetMap Foundation’s role have often turned to discussing what is core. To build its strategy on firm ground, the Board has sought to improve that definition and offers the following:

 

So, we now have two complementary definitions:

 

 

Part of the OpenStreetMap Foundation’s mission is to ensure that there is at least one fully Free and Open Source Software path to complete the OpenStreetMap mapping process. Decisions about what software to support will follow directly from this.

 

 

 

 

A formal approach shall reassure stakeholders (OSMF members, donors, contributors) that the OSMF is serious about sustainability, by taking concrete formal steps. In times of crisis, a formal document as a guideline has a stabilising effect. So, the Board shall draft a simple formal reserve policy for approval.

 

 

 

Banking remains challenging and time-consuming – it is unusual for an organisation the size of the OSMF to have such an international financial context. The OSMF will explore paths to make banking in USD and EUR easier.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Goals:

 

 

Means:

 

 

A sketch that will be approached in more detail in the next phase.

 

 

 

 

 

With confirmation from the recent survey, the Board recognises the lack of non-male participation in the project and considers it a problem since our ambition for the project is to benefit the whole of society and to take advantage of as many contributions as possible.

 

The Board will develop a strategy to promote gender diversity. To give it sound foundations, it will start with the Board Members personally reaching out to non-male persons around OpenStreetMap, including former participants and non-participants. From analysing that round of interviews, the Board will start pursuing specific initiatives.

 

 

 

As we have defined OSM’s core as the mapping process, we have to remain engaged with each of its stakeholders – individuals and corporations, contributors and users.

 

 

 

 

**(2) providing geospatial data for anybody to use and share.*

 

 

Brexit is important to OSM because the OSMF is incorporated in the UK. Brexit threatens enforcement of our database rights in the European Union.

 

To OSM, Brexit isn’t an incoming wall – the erosion will be gradual. Nevertheless, it is now time to start studying whether to move to a more favourable jurisdiction and how that could happen.

 

Public trust in the Foundation’s commitment to OpenStreetMap is paramount to the Foundation’s mission. The Board will therefore seek to enhance institutional mitigation of the risks of third parties leading it astray, through thorough assessment and identification of major and subtle risks. From there, the design of mitigation at the organisation, process, and financial levels will be implemented.

 

 

Working Groups are the OpenStreetMap Foundation’s operative organs. Community participation in the Working Groups is critical to OpenStreetMap’s health. Therefore, the Board seeks to increase retention and recruitment.

 

The Board shall seek to increase the visibility of Working Groups and their activity, so that the community recognises and understands them. The Board will offer help to Working Groups to exchange best practices and in particular to enhance onboarding. With those foundations solidified, the Board will organise a Working Group Membership drive, using its access to promotional channels.