OSMF Local Chapters criteria
OSMUK is officially affiliated with the OpenStreetMap Foundation OSMF as the UK's Local Chapter. There was a question on OSMF-Talk that asks what the joining criteria should be, i.e. how do you identify the 'official' Local Chapter of OSM in a country in such a way that it doesn't stop organisations with limited resources or red tape to battle with, whilst avoiding fake ones. https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/osmf-talk/2019-July/006131.html
We'd like to join in the discussion in a positive manner. Personally, I believe that the discussion drifted away from the original question, and that we should focus on that.
Opinions?
Brian Prangle Thu 1 Aug 2019 8:11PM
Couldn't agree more Rob - it's all internally facing process-driven stuff which is a sure fire way to kill any enthusiasm stone dead.To me the whole idea of local chapters is to increase the size and reach of resources available to OSM so as to give organisations and mappers a local base they can work with rather than some remote global outfit with limited bandwidth for local engagement. Go forit!
RobJN Sat 10 Aug 2019 3:59PM
Cheers Brian. I have drafted something and shared with OSMUK Board first. Ideally this would be an open letter if my fellow Directors are supportive of that.
RobJN Thu 5 Sep 2019 7:14PM
Hi all. This took a bit longer than expected but today I sent the attached letter to the OSMF.
RobJN · Thu 1 Aug 2019 6:05PM
My concern is that there is a lot of discussion about red tape and protecting trademarks but very little about the benefit of even having a Local Chapter. So far all I see is the following:
With the exception of the legitimacy argument (which is kind of helpful in a few of our interactions), the others are all false offers. The Advisory Board is inactive and delivers no benefit to the Local Chapter and given that OSM relies on grass-roots support the whole concept of OSMF starting to banish groups from using "OSM" is a non-starter and a sure fire way to kill of the community spirit.
I think in order to determine an answer to Joost's question, the OSMF Board have to first answer why they feel the need to have Local Chapters in the first place. For me it comes to one of 4 things:
As far as I can see, it fundamentally has to be one or more of these things and the OSMF need to set out which before they consider rules for becoming a Local Chapter.
I propose a response to OSMF along the lines of what I set out above.