Board/Minutes/2021-09

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Participants

Board members

  • Tobias Knerr (Chairing this meeting)
  • Eugene Alvin Villar
  • Guillaume Rischard (connection issues during part of the meeting)
  • Jean-Marc Liotier
  • Mikel Maron (connection issues during part of the meeting)

Officers and board
Biographies

Minutes by Dorothea Kazazi

Not Present

  • Allan Mustard
  • Amanda McCann

Guests

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.

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Administrative

Previous minutes

Circular Resolutions

2021/Res31 Ukrainian appeal of Data Working Group ban

Whereas, the Board of Directors of the OpenStreetMap Foundation finds the terms "vata burning man" to constitute hate speech directed at another ethnic group, and

Whereas, the Data Working Group (DWG) had already unblocked two of the plaintiffs because they permanently removed the offensive language from their user profiles, and

Whereas, the DWG has informed the remaining plaintiffs that they will be reinstated if they permanently remove the offensive language from their user profiles,

the Board of Directors upholds the DWG's ban on certain Ukrainian mappers under the conditions the DWG has applied in this case.

Further, the Board of Directors authorizes the Chairperson of the Board to inform the plaintiffs of this decision, and that the offensive language must be removed permanently from the remaining user profiles, and that further use of abusive, offensive, or hateful language in any communications medium supported by the OpenStreetMap Foundation will not be tolerated and will result in sanctions. The Board additionally reminds the plaintiffs to abide by the OpenStreetMap Foundation policy on disputed territories (https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/w/images/d/d8/DisputedTerritoriesInformation.pdf).

Approved on 2021-09-08 with 5 votes in favour:
Guillaume Rischard, Eugene Alvin Villar, Jean-Marc Liotier, Allan Mustard, Mikel Maron (Side note on Conflict of Interest (COI). My opinion is that from OSMF view, COI does not apply here. Having a coworker is involved in an OSMF capacity in a topic unrelated to the material interests of their employer is not COI. Amanda could abstain here for personal reasons only.).

2 abstained:

  • Amanda McCann (Since some of the DWG members in question are co-workers of mine, I have a conflict of interest. Hence I legally must abstain from this vote. If I were allowed to vote, I would vote yes, to uphold the DWG actions.).
  • Tobias Knerr (I agree that moderating profile page content falls within the authority of DWG, and that it is justified to request the removal of text that is unrelated to OSM and antagonizes other members of our community. I am still abstaining because I lack the linguistic and cultural background to fully understand the meaning and implication of the text on the profile pages, and I feel that the policy on disputed territories is not directly related to the matter at hand.)
Circular by Allan Mustard (Chairperson).

Board conflict of interest policy.
Note: The closing date of this circular was later than the next one because the voting period for this one was longer.

2021/Res32 Data Working Group to suggest update of the Ban Policy regarding conditional blocks

In addition to the types of sanctions documented in the Ban Policy¹, members of the Data Working Group (DWG) have, on occasion, imposed "conditional" blocks on users. Such blocks will be manually lifted once the user has met certain conditions, so they are typically short-lived. However, they are initially set up, and publicly displayed, with a very long duration, so if the user does not comply with the conditions, they effectively suffer a permanent ban without any of the protections guaranteed in the Ban Policy (such as native-language warnings or internal DWG deliberations). The lack of documentation on this practice has also led to challenges of the authority of DWG members imposing such bans.

The board would like to see the use of this instrument, and the circumstances in which it may be used, explicitly documented in the Ban Policy. The board therefore asks the DWG to document its practices in a proposed update to the Ban Policy and send this proposal to the board.

¹ Ban_Policy

Passed unanimously on 2021-09-07 with 7 votes in favour: Tobias Knerr, Mikel Maron, Guillaume Rischard, Allan Mustard, Eugene Alvin Villar, Jean-Marc Liotier (Flexible response is credible response), Amanda McCann (IMO the OSMF Ban Policy doesn't say that the DWG cannot do this now. However it is good to clarify things, so I vote yes).

Circular by Tobias Knerr.

2021/Res33 Approve 2020 accounts

Please approve the completed Financial Statement for year ending 31st December 2020 prepared by Chater Allan, which includes the assessed tax figure of $7617.

Also attached are the Xero Reports1,2 laid out to match the report.

1 Profit and loss, financial year 2020
2 Balance sheet, financial year 2020

Unanimously approved on 2021-09-17 with 7 votes in favour: Jean-Marc Liotier, Tobias Knerr, Eugene Alvin Villar, Mikel Maron, Allan Mustard, Amanda McCann, Guillaume Rischard.

Circular by Guillaume Rischard (Treasurer).

2021/Res34 Approve active contributor membership application 2021090910000123

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

Approved on 2021-09-19 with 4 votes in favour: Tobias Knerr, Eugene Alvin Villar, Mikel Maron, Amanda McCann (People who help make WeeklyOSM possible have definitly contributed to OSM).
3 not voted: Allan Mustard, Guillaume Rischard, Jean-Marc Liotier.

Application initially processed by the Membership Working Group.

2021/Res35 Approve active contributor membership application 2021091010000148

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

Did not pass on 2021-09-19 with
3 not voted: Allan Mustard, Guillaume Rischard, Jean-Marc Liotier
2 votes in favour: Tobias Knerr, Eugene Alvin Villar (Although the person has not been very active in mapping lately, since this membership application is a renewal, and the person has been registered since 2011 with over 700 changesets, I would like to err on the side of inclusion).
1 disagreed: Mikel Maron (Would like to have a bit more detail on the evangelism besides a link to a mailing list and video. Who is the audience for this evangelism, why are they important to OSM, and what have been the results).
1 abstained: Amanda McCann (There is not enough information for me to make a decision. I defer to the other board members).

Application initially processed by the Membership Working Group.

Action item updates

See Board/Action_Items.

General points mentioned during action item updates'
Guillaume has a lot of action items and is happy to hand some of them. Would like to keep the ones related to the budget and to OSMF relocation.
Jean-Marc offered to take some, after talking with Guillaume.

Reportage

MapUganda Local Chapter application

  • There is ongoing discussion with MapUganda members.
  • The status of the application is unchanged.

Nor MapUganda nor the board is pressing the issue.

What is needed

  • clarification on board expectations.
  • clarification on commercial activities of Local Chapters (what is tolerated/expected/not welcome).

Both might benefit from some degree of formalisation.

Action item: Jean-Marc Liotier to seek feedback from the Local Chapters and Communities Working Group (LCCWG). Some issues already discussed in the working group.

Hiring a Senior Sitre Reliability Engineer (SSRE)

Formal job description for SSRE sent to TimelessTime by Guillaume Rischard.

Hiring an iD developer

  • Signed contract with Martin Raifer (has worked on development of Overpass Turbo). He's going to continue working for 25% of his time for HeiGIT (Heidelberg Institute for Geoinformation Technology).
  • One of the candidates withdrew (of 3 total).

Action item: Guillaume to contact the other iD candidate.

Treasurer's report

OSMF Corporate Members adding our new banking details on their systems

  • Facebook - haven't heard back from the Supplier Connect team. Marc Prioleau (Facebook) put Guillaume in touch with the right person.
  • Microsoft - need to create an account on their supply portal.

Other news

  • EUR cash spent.
  • Will convert from USD to EUR - a lot of the incoming donations for the two positions of Senior Site Reliability Engineer (SSRE) and iD developer were in USD.
  • Will withdraw from GBP savings account, as it is cheaper than converting.

In 2020 budget most of our money was in savings account. Is that still true? (by Tobias Knerr)

> Yes - we get some interest on it. The condition is to give 90 days notice to withdraw money.

Would the board notice whether the Treasurer or accountant requested withdrawal?

> No. One of the two will notice if the other one requests withdrawal.
> Both the Treasurer and the accountant have to confirm the withdrawal.
> There is a limit to the amount that can be withdrawn in a day.
> All board members have access to Xero (online accounting system that OSMF uses).

Can we see orders that have been submitted and not executed? (Question by Jean-Marc Liotier) > We have never withdrawn money from that account. > Money might appear locked and after 90 days moved to current account.

Other point mentioned during discussion

  • Grant Slater (Operations Working Group) will go the Dublin data center and he asked for an advance. As it will be complicated accounting-wise, the Treasurer is providing that amount via simple expenses.

Board Rules of Order update regarding circulars

Suggested change of $7.1 of the Board Rules of Order regarding circular resolutions from:
"Circular resolutions are board resolutions on time-sensitive issues agreed prior to a board meeting."

To:
"Circular resolutions are board resolutions agreed prior to a board meeting."
"Circular resolutions are used for time-sensitive issues, routine topics or minor updates to previously discussed items. They are not used for non-urgent, one-off topics that have not been thoroughly deliberated by the board."

"(The numbers of all subsequent points in section 7 are incremented by one.)"

Points mentioned during discussion

  • Board rules of order should reflect good practice for future boards.
  • The time to clarify and formalise the board rules is when everything is going smoothly.

Vote

Approved on 2021-09-24 with 4 votes in favour: Eugene Alvin Villar, Jean-Marc Liotier, Mikel Maron, Tobias Knerr
1 abstained: Guillaume Rischard
2 not voted (absent): Allan Mustard, Amanda McCann

Email from the LCCWG moderation subcommittee

Suggested by Allan Mustard.

Should the etiquette guidelines and suggested moderation process apply to other spaces other than osmf-talk1 and talk2 mailing lists?
(Read about the background regarding the proposed revision to the etiquette guidelines).

1 osmf-talk is the mailing list for OpenStreetMap Foundation members (Become a member of the OpenStreetMap Foundation). You can read all past messages here.
 2 talk is a general mailing list for OpenStreetMap. Anyone can subscribe to it. You can read all past messages here.

Points mentioned during discussion

  • When you have a hard limit, abuse will sit on the edge of that limit so it's important for moderators to have discretion.
  • Enough to get in place right now on mailing lists.

Points mentioned by Maggie Cawley (LCCWG Moderation Subcommittee member, guest)

  • The point in the email was meant as something to consider but not right at this moment.
  • It was our time to communicate any thoughts to the board since it is a temporary subcommittee.

> No need to act at this moment.

Advisory Board - monthly update

  • Advisory Board (AB) members are welcome to suggest topics for next board and Advisory Board meeting.
  • There's a poll for the next OSMF Board and Advisory Board meeting (November 2021).

On pending board decision to publish future archives of the Advisory Board mailing list.

  • There was question to Advisory Board members during an AB meeting - 1 response.
  • Suggestion: Should be transparent by default. (Guillaume)
  • More fruitful discussion if no under scrutiny. (Mikel)

Presentation by the Microgrants committee

Final report (file type: .odt, file size: 29 KB) and presentation by Hanna Krüger (.pdf, 53 KB, 8 pages)

Comment by the Treasurer: The person from the not-completed project was asked to return the money.

Questions

Were there any suggestions made by the people who received the grants? (by Guillaume Rischard)

> Most suggestions from committee members. The advice to not use the OSM wiki came from applicants as almost all needed help.

> Some feedback from the community.
> Many questions regarding the equipment.

Will we follow-up with longer term impact of the Microgrants and enable new capabilities? (by Jean-Marc Liotier)

> For software projects, the calendar project was completely successful. Also the StreetComplete project.

> Mapping in Kosovo and Nairobi - while mapping finished, this does not mean no impact on the community.

Would the Microgrants Committee members be willing to continue working on it? (by Mikel Maron)

> Personally yes and probably Chris Beddow - can't speak for the whole group.
> The OSM community was not involved in the selection of the committee members, so there should be some discussion on whether that should change.

Will the committee publish the report? (by Tobias Knerr)

> Yes. (Post meeting addition: see the links at the top of this section).

Action item: Topic to be added to the next board mid-month chat.

Presentation by the LCCWG Moderation Subcommittee

Presentation by Maggie Cawley (Local Chapters and Communities Working Group (LCCWG) moderation subcommittee)

Final draft on moderation process sent to the board on September 13 (email for documentation purposes) and is on the OSM wiki.

What has been done

  • Responded to all the comments on the OSM wiki.
  • Made some changes to the draft and hopefully incorporated everyone's feedback or responded in a responsible way.
  • Removed points from "expected behaviour" section into tips for "effective communication".
  • On supporting understanding of people who are non-native English speakers. (comment by many people):
    • Direct statements in the text.
    • Links added to some of the terminology, especially new terms related to inclusion and diversity, to support understanding.

Plans

  • To ask the board for a few 100s of USD to hire someone for a plain English translation service to remove any complicated language before making a formal recommendation to the board.
  • To invite as many translations as possible to retain the concise language.

Current status

Questions

Are you explicitly asking the board to approve this budget for the plain English translation? (by Tobias Knerr)

Maggie Cawley:
> It would make things move faster if the board agrees.
> There are no quotes yet for the service yet.
> Rob Nickerson (LCCWG) had mentioned that he had used plain English translation services in the past and it costs about 300-400 USD.

A circular resolution can be made by the board.

How can the board help with recruitment for the moderation team? (by Mikel Maron)

Maggie Cawley:
> Everyone in the call can help.
> LCCWG will work with the Communication Working Group.

Thanks expressed by the board.

Monthly presentation - Kathmandu Living Labs

Presentation (.pdf, 3.05 MB, 20 pages) about Kathmandu Living Labs by Saurav Bhattarai.

Link shared during the meeting: https://beforeafter.baato.io/

Questions

"Are the generated maps stored or do they get discarded after some time? (by Eugene Alvin Villar)"

> Sending email to the user and to the developer of the portal once maps are generated.
> We still don't have any database - plan to do so.
> Maps get deleted.

"What's the limitation on storing maps - I think you can select one year, so theoretically would it be possible to store a planet version of vector tiles for all the years than OSM has been in existence? (by Tobias)"

> Limitation on generating the vector tiles due to RAM on the server.
> Whenever we try to generate tiles for an area larger than a city, the process starts to get really slow and sometime crashes.
> We currently provide only cities and small areas.

Any other business

No other business.

Guest comments or questions

No comments or questions.

Meeting duration: 102 minutes.

Next meeting

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  • Public meeting: 29 October

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Acronyms

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