On Thu, Nov 19, 2020 at 08:41:15PM +0100, Christoph Hormann wrote: > > Paul Norman via dev <dev@openstreetmap.org> hat am 19.11.2020 17:09 > > geschrieben: > > > > - managing development to be paid by the OSMF by contracts and grants, and > > For better understanding of how the board envisions this to work, could you > explain: > > * why i as a pure hobby OSM contributor with experience in the field of > development should volunteer my time to manage the paid development work of > others on my own unpaid time. > * how i as someone with a business or professional career interest in the OSM > context would be able to contribute to this work without universally having a > massive conflict of interest with every decision of substance that is being > made. > > Please note although these might sound like rhetorical questions they are > not, i am honestly interested in how the board envisions this to work.
Why does someone want to join the EWG? Maybe because they don't want to sit at the sidelines but contribute to OSM, take responsibility and shape the future of OSM with their ideas and their values? I think it is totally awesome that the barrier of entry to contribute to such a working group is basically that you have to have an email address and nothing else. No "You have to be this tall to ride the rollercoaster". And you get to steer the rollercoaster, too. At least a little bit. Of course sysadmin experience would be great, but it is absolutely not required. And of course there is a lot of work involved if you actually want to make a difference and a lot of talking to people and compromising. But how many places are there in the world where it is so easy to start making a difference? I am the first to tell you that this kind of work can be really frustrating at times, but it is also enormously rewarding to work with others and see that your ideas can make the world a tiny bit better. Full disclosure: I am currently paid by the OSMF for software development (the EWG was not involved in that at the moment, but might be in the future) and I have been paid by others, too. I am not going to join the EWG. That conflict of interest would be too large. But that doesn't mean I can't contribute my spare time somewhere else. I am on the board of directors of the FOSSGIS e.V., the local chapter of OSMF in Germany. FOSSGIS is employing somebody for organizational work, I am basically their boss. This gives me a bit more opportunities to see my ideas and values brought into action. Although far less than you might expect. We are not hiring minions, but people who think and act on their ideas, their values, and their interests. And that's a good thing. What brings OSM (and, really, anything else) forward is the shared work of people with diverse interests and backgrounds. Of course there are more (potential) conflicts of interest there. Theoretically I have through FOSSGIS and OSMF some influence on EWG policy who might be my boss in the future. And I have some influence because I know people in EWG. And because I write this email. Why should that be a problem? I basically started having conflicts of interest the moment I entertained the idea of making my OSM hobby into a profession. I have done that more than 10 years ago. And I think about that basically every day. With every project I start (or not start), with every software I write (or write differently), with every email I write. Like this one. That's just part of my life. And anybody's life really. We all have to find a way to make our hobby life and professional life work together and work together in this project. Yes, it can be very complicated sometimes, but very often it isn't. You do your best, disclose potential conflicts of interest, keep away from something if needed. And move on. And just to explode everybody's mind who wants to think about the layers and meta-layers of conflicts of interest I write about in this mail I write this next sentence: I am available for contract work, software development or general OSM consulting. Jochen -- Jochen Topf joc...@remote.org https://www.jochentopf.com/ +49-351-31778688 _______________________________________________ dev mailing list dev@openstreetmap.org https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/dev
