Questions & Answers - Winds of Change in OpenStreetMap

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 Nota : Desafortunadamente, el Q&A no se filmó, pero el audio está disponible en https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lDn_z12D8WSLMfCNHRFi7W1YXb61WqpM/view

Inglés (principal) Preguntas para Wi of Change en OpenStreetMap Tenga en cuenta: para la nota clave no habrá tiempo para preguntas. Allan va a hacer un Q & A como y presidente de la junta OSMF el día de hoy a las 19:00 GMT en https://osmvideo.cloud68.co/user/all-m3n-e6n . Consulte https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/State_of_the_Map_2020/self-organized_sessions para obtener detalles sobre cómo unirse.

Si lo desea, puede hacer preguntas aquí para que Allan las vea más adelante en las Preguntas y respuestas. Agrega preguntas aquí.

  1. [HECHO] Me gustaría desafiar la idea de que la descentralización y la visión son opuestas o incompatibles.
  2. [HECHO] ¿Qué lo llevó a concluir que los mapeadores de naves se oponen universalmente al cambio, mientras que las partes interesadas comerciales quieren un cambio universal?
  3. [HECHO] ¿Cómo se asegura de que las “voces fuertes” no descarrilen el progreso?
  4. ML / AI: ¿No comenzaron todas las áreas con vastas áreas no mapeadas y pocos contribuyentes? En la vida real, esperaría que las características asignables escalen con la población, al igual que con los posibles mapeadores.
  5. [HECHO] Voces altas: ¿hablaste con voces que no eran fuertes en tus charlas? ¿Cómo elegiste con quién hablar y con quién no?
  6. [HECHO] Usted señala que el peso de la opinión / voz de alguien no debe definirse por su “soltura”: ¿cuáles cree que deberían ser los criterios para decidir qué peso le dan a una opinión / voz aquellos que están en una posición de ¿tomando decisiones?
  7. [HECHO] Cuando dices “la comunidad”, ¿incluyes voces corporativas en eso?
    1. Me encantaría escuchar la respuesta a eso. La charla parece implicar que la respuesta a eso es ‘sí’.
    2. “Mi opinión es que la comunidad está formada por todos los que creen que están en la comunidad. Cuando contribuyen. ¿Tienen una voz más grande? No. ¿Prevalecerá su POV? Probablemente no, la comunidad es bastante grande”.
  8. [DONE] Allan says that the full SWOT analysis can be found on the Wiki, and that he can send it by email. Is the full analysis the same as https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/apm-wa/diary/392767, or are there additional resources to review?
  9. [DONE] Regarding role of businesses in OSM: on one hand we have the extreme example (as far as I know, to date without a satisfactory resolution) of GlobalLogic who directed financial resources to gain voting power in OSMFB. But we also have a lot of other companies whose intentions are less obvious - either because they are in fact less nefarious, or because, learning from GlobalLogic’s example, they are spreading their OSMF membership registration more thinly so that even the amazing Membership WG can’t pick it up. Personally, I believe the reason OSM is so great is that it is not motivated by money,  but driven by volunteers. I oppose corporate involvement in OSM and OSMF not just under the GlobalLogic model, but also more apparently benign models (such as having employees of companies benefitting financially from OSM sitting on OSMF board). As someone more articulate than me put it, “If the OSMF (…) allows GlobalLogic or any other corporation to take over OSM for its own purposes, all my mapping work to that point, intended to benefit a much larger community, will have been for naught, and they idea that my work will then benefit only GlobalLogic will make me rather angry.” (https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/osmf-talk/2019-February/005953.html ). So my question is: what measures can we have in place, what is being done, what can I do, to ensure the OSM project continues being open and volunteer-driven, while allowing for a healthy relationship with powerful corporations?
    1. Empower local chapters and communities.
    2. These companies understand our volunteer-driven model and do not want to touch the spring of this data they’re using and valuing. A bigger threat might be someone from outside that group.
  10. [DONE] You mention white male dominance in your talk - does this (race and sex/gender) in your opinion constitute the most severe or the most significant dimensions of the lack of diversity in the OSM community?
    1. “I don’t know the answer to that question. I would argue that geographic diversity is probably as important. We need more on the grounds activity and communities on the ground to protect the foundation from a hostile takeover.”
  11. [DONE] You are speaking of ‘opposition to machine learning and artificial intelligence in Western Europe’.  Could you elaborate on what this refers to?  Is it possible that you have misunderstood opposition to a certain practice of using technology to generate data with questionable connection to the observable reality and no or limited control of the mappers over the technology as principal opposition to a technology in general here?
    1. “I talked to people in Europe and also in East-Asia, South-Asia, Africa, Latin-America. In these latter regions I did not hear this opposition. In fact, in some places, these tools are even viewed as necessary. In Europe there’s a stronger focus on individual mappers.”
    2. “I don’t think I misunderstood. I think the key is that it has to be a decision of the local community. If they can assert quality control. E.g. checking that ditches and roads are correctly classified. I think it’s more a question of who’s in control of the map. And the local mappers are.”
  12. [DONE] Re. Vector Tiles - have you asked current developers of community map styles on input on the future of community map design?  What map users want is one thing, priorities and needs of qualified volunteers is another.
    1. Do you consider the OSMF paying people for work in that domain? +1  naveenpf
    2. “There are a lot of questions we and the community need to answer before we can move forward on this. E.g.: what should they look like, should we compete with commercial providers…”
  13. [DONE] What are you thoughts on Usergroup instead of Chapter ? In some countries running a govt approved legal entity like chapter is very difficult  ? – naveenpf
    1. “We’ve talked about that. We’re going to look to the local commnities to tell us how they want that to happen. India isn’t the only place this is happening. Local communities should talk to us, if local chapters aren’t going to work, tell us what will.”
    2. “if you would like work to happen on a “local chapter light version”, please join the LCCWG it’s on our agenda there” - Joost
  14. [DONE] “If there is a common goal, then conflicts can be solved.” —Eli Goldratt, father of the Theory of Constraints - What is the common goal of the OSM?
    1. “There’s a line on the OSMF website: “We want to create a map of the world that everyone can use”. Or a database, as Frederik said, but that’s less understandable, so we go with a simplified phrase. But this is the common goal. I agree with Frederik on that.”
  15. With each imagery set several meters different than each other, the more we edit the more damage we do to the map. So yes please get some  “good datum imagery” that we can finally edit with.. (Maybe in developed countries this is not a problem.)
    1. “Yes, please, this drives me crazy too. The imagery is all donated. It has to do with the orthorectification which is not 100% accurate. This is why you can drag backgrounds in the editors. This is why I’m glad that in Turkmenistan I collected an aweful lot of GPX traces. I’m not sure there is a solution to this, this is a complex technical issue.”
    2. Yes I slide the maps… damaging it even more…

[Questions asked during the Q&A with Allan are below this point]

  1. [DONE] Do you have a breakdown of OSMF members by country or continent? (asked by Janet Chapman)
    1. “No”. Altough others pointed out this had been looked at in the past, see https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/imagico/diary/391322
    2. Follow up question: Should the board ensure that all continents are represented then? (in the board) - Janet
    3. I worked in government that had de facto quotas, and it never really worked. I would rather see a more organic growth in the geographic diversity of the board. I would like to see more people in the special groups we’re setting up and then have them run for the board too.
  2. [DONE] What are the “threats” to OSM in the future? E.g., Presidential order shutting it down., Evil empires’ troops secretly deleting edits, etc. Anything? Legal action from Google for who knows what. Better back it up in several different jurisdictions.
    1. I don’t see threats from Google or the other empires trying to shut us down. The threats I see is a hostile takeover from someone in the corporate area that isn’t yet part of our ecosystem and doesn’t understand that a hostile takeover would damage our project. I don’t see any likely threats.
  3. [DONE] Do you think that the OSM intellectual property is not currently protected enough from your comments in the talk earlier? - Guy
    1. “I think from a legal standpoint it’s protected well enough. This is something where the local chapters can be helpful too. A local chapter came to us for permission to sue an entity that was violating our license. I think this is a good thing.”
  4. [DONE] What about sovereign or national threats to OSM - are these a possibility in your opinion? - Guy
    1. “I suppose it’s possible that a country could sue us because they don’t like something in the data. I think it’s a low probability and I think it would be hard for them to do. The map is in a state of flux, it would be easier for them to go in and edit the map and tag it properly.”
  5. [DONE] The topic of what should be on openstreetmap.org comes up from time to time - as in should the homepage show something othre than the map (e.g. links to local communities, beginner info, etc). What thoughts do you have on this? Is the Microcosms work in progress the start of something bigger?
    1. “I don’t really have a view on that. I thought about what Frederik said about that about what they’d done in […], it was pretty interesting. I think that it would be good to have links to the local communities. I find it good that the iD has this information. But should this be on osm.org? I’ll leave that to web designers and people who understand this a lot better than me.”
  6. [DONE] Gee, you talk like a CEO (and I like that) But CEOs need big salaries. As I understand it you are just a volunteer (good too). So you might say OSM is your “hobby” (good too.)?
    1. At a talk I gave at SotM 2016, I explained why I got involved with OSM. It became more than a hobby, it actually became part of my work plan as ambassador in Turkmenistan. [Link to the keynote: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_t5DxV7cXgQ ]
    2. I’m retired, I can live off my pension.
  7. [DONE] I think we need to have a debate about use of AI in the future of OSM and discuss the benefits to the project - Guy
    1. My take is that this is up to the local communities. As the foundation, we don’t tell people how to map.
  8. [DONE] I think it would be beneficial to assist with the tedious jobs such as plotting building outlines which take much time but offer advantages perhaps?
    1. An armchair mapper drew a highway where there was a creek. There’s a place for AI, but that place needs to be complemented with on the ground knowledge. Only a local mapper can tell you whether your assumption about what you’re looking at is correct.
  9. Turkmenistan? Boy I bet they clamp down on their national data bad.
  10. What do you do when you can’t zoom in past zoom level XX and can’t convince the carto people that people think their mouse must be broken…
  11. The debate re paid mappers is an interesting one that came up last year at the SOTM - with the idea that in developing countries this could be helpful. - Guy
    1. My personal view is that OSMF should not pay for mapping.
    2. Does that mean you don’t support the micro grants? - Erica
    3. “No, I support the micro grant system”
  12. What does the next 12 months look like for the board? - Rob
    1. Should OSMF have paid staff. We’re down to 2 sysadmins, both volunteers. We’re looking at 50% growth in data use, what do we need to do so that the platform remains stable and there for what we want it for.  The 2nd priority is the geographic expansion of the community. Thats going to be plenty for us to work on.

Comments (not questions)