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    <p>Hello from California Jeroen, Board Members, stakeholders and
      others</p>
    <p>  Here in the US West Coast, next to San Francisco, Seattle and
      the Silicon Valley, there have been tensions and security problems
      with China PRC actions over the networks and elsewhere, and
      arguably, some similar things from the USA itself.  Therefore,
      sanctions, block banning, and prejudicial social methods are
      regularly proposed, privately and also in public forums.</p>
    <p>  Meanwhile, individuals and academic teams of all language
      groups continue to learn, excel and make advancement in the
      Geophysical Sciences, use and contribute to Openstreetmap, and
      study and cooperate in the open with maps, mapping and geospatial
      data.  I am enthusiastic that individuals and small groups can
      invent, learn, and publish in the open, facing the serious and
      worsening Climate and Environmental challenges today.</p>
    <p>  As a senior editor at #osgeolive, a multi-lingual and inclusive
      publication of Open Source and Open Science, I support learning,
      publishing and software freedoms for individuals in all language
      groups worldwide. <br>
    </p>
    <p>  thank you and best regards</p>
    <p>   --Brian M Hamlin    /  MAPLABS  /  OSGeoLive PSC<br>
    </p>
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    <div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 1/10/24 03:27, Jeroen Ticheler via
      Board wrote:<br>
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        <div>Dear board,<br>
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        <div><br>
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        <div>With a long war in Ukraine going on, I would like to know
          if we have had talks in the OSGeo board or community on how we
          deal with contributions to our software from Russia and
          Belarus? We have sincere and great contributors that are
          residents of those countries on one hand, and we have things
          like international sanctions on the other hand. <br>
        </div>
        <div><br>
        </div>
        <div>In the GeoNetwork community we have active contributions on
          the language translations from contributors we know and that
          we don't know. Sometimes with usernames that are generic.<br>
        </div>
        <div><br>
        </div>
        <div>Now I personally have both positive and negative feelings
          about this. Negative because I dislike the idea that our
          software could be used for bad things by a hostile government.
          Positive because contributions coming back to the project
          improve things for everyone and helps making the world a
          better place by being inclusive and friendly. <br>
        </div>
        <div><br>
        </div>
        <div>As also described in <a
href="https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/21/russian_foss_contributions_blocked/"
            target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">this article</a> it
          does not help much to block Russians or Belarussians from
          contributing; They can still use the software and _not_ share
          their improvements with the project (a fork is easily
          maintained outside of our repositories). So my stance at this
          point is not to take active action. I'm very interested to
          know what the board thinks about the topic and if other
          projects have had similar discussions?<br>
        </div>
        <div><br>
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        <div>Thanks and greetings,<br>
        </div>
        <div>Jeroen</div>
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                            <div>Jeroen Ticheler <br>
                            </div>
                            <div>E-mail: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:jeroen.ticheler@geocat.net">jeroen.ticheler@geocat.net</a><br>
                            </div>
                            <div><a href="https://www.geocat.net"
                                style="color: #0099cc;" target="_blank"
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                                class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://www.geocat.net
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                            <div>Veenderweg 13 <br>
                            </div>
                            <div>6721 WD Bennekom <br>
                            </div>
                            <div>The Netherlands <br>
                            </div>
                            <div>Tel: +31318416664 <br>
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      <pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">_______________________________________________
Board mailing list
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:Board@lists.osgeo.org">Board@lists.osgeo.org</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/board">https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/board</a>
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