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<p>Extending on Maria's comments (and others),<br>
</p>
<p>I think we are over-emphasising the relative importance of the
OSGeo board. Reducing the importance of the board will increase
the importance and influence of our OSGeo committees. <br>
</p>
<p>If OSGeo is a Do-ocracy and Meritocracy, and the influencers in
OSGeo comes from the Do-ers in our community, then questions like
board diversity almost becomes a non-issue.</p>
<p>Warm regards, Cameron<br>
</p>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 31/10/17 6:14 pm, María Arias de
Reyna wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:CAERgKeDwNbkKkwBVviz_f=hJr6ndwQtPqb1aFkoek9N-5XnHOQ@mail.gmail.com">
<div dir="ltr">Dear all,
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Sorry for the late response. I was busy going back from
different timezones and that is a killer for me (travelling,
being sleepy, etc...).</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>I agree with Sanghee that we have gone one step backwards.
We have lost Asia in the board. That's a step backwards we
shouldn't have had. And I agree with 90% of opinions posted
here that are sad about the European-NAmerica board. So I will
just highlight what I don't agree with. And this is an
optimistic email, I don't share the general pessimism. Wait
for the end of it.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>I don't agree that Venka has been punished somehow despite
his good work. Do you really think that if someone is doing a
good work that should warrantee his position on the board? I
don't think so. I think the reward of doing a good job comes
somewhere else: recognition, ¿fame?, trust, acknowledgement,
even free beers! But even if you think a position on the board
is a reward, then, maybe other people have been also rewarded
with that for work outside the presidency of OSGeo but inside
the community. Or maybe people just wanted a fresh view, not
necessarily that meaning that his work (or your work!) was
bad. There is a lot of reasons for voting someone and I
personally think that a "reward" vote shouldn't be one. Having
other candidates with more votes doesn't mean you did a bad
job at all. </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Do I think that you both should be on the board? Yes, of
course! But this has also been (at least for me) a very
difficult voting. It was very hard to choose between the
candidates. All had good reasons to be there, all had good
work done inside the community. So, how to choose? I know what
you have been doing because I have done an explicit effort to
know about that. I have gone to international events, I have
followed the mailing lists, I have followed many threads on
twitter. Most people only know what people around them do. So
it is possible (and very likely, in my opinion) that a lot of
people just see OSGeo as an organization, but don't see the
work of individuals. So for them, Venka is that person who
does the "history of OSGeo" talk, but nothing special around
him that other active members don't have. If we ask members
who has been behind the new website, how many of them would
know? And that is something that has had a lot of publicity
recently. What about all the rest of work that has less
exposure?</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>So when it comes to voting, they see candidates who are
active in trying to show their views and other candidates that
are not present. Not being present on the election process,
that is what have drained votes, I would say. Not your fault,
maybe, but how do we explain that to people who don't see
individuals because they are already busy with local and
regional stuff?</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>And now the optimistic part:On the other hand, we have gone
two steps forward. Wait, what? Let me explain:</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>We are finally half male half female. Although this may not
look like a step forward to some of you, to me it is a huge
win. And we did that without the need for quotas. That't a
double win. And it is a tendency that has been stable so I am
optimistic here.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>And the other step, but still an important step forward, we
have recovered the long lost Iberoamerican community in the
board. Since Jorge Sanz, we haven't had a spanish-speaking
board member. I know I count as European, but I am as European
as I am part of the large (huge!) community that culturally
spreads also on north, central and south America. So yes,
Vicky may have been a better representative of this community
because she is not european, but still, I plan to work hard on
getting latin americans closer to OSGeo. Remember that this
community is the ¿largest? community in OSGeo and they are
very silent because many reasons (low English level, no
international FOSS4G being done close, middle income economy
that can't afford to travel far or even organizing codesprints
properly!,... etc...). Most of them work hard towards OSGeo
and don't even know there is such a thing as a membership!
They just work aligned with our goals and inside the
community, but they see so far away the OSGeo "official"
community that they don't even bother to get closer. To get
what? What would be their motivation to get closer to a
community that largely ignores them?</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>If you think OSGeo has less importance in South America,
check the GeoInquietos. Different branding, same work. On the
FOSS4G-BA, after María Brovelli's talk about OSGeo, many of
them were surprised. They knew about FOSS4G just because the
geoinquietos from Argentina placed it on their doorstep. But,
OSGeo? What's that? Aaah, the same thing they have been doing
but on an English-speaking community. </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>We have lost Asia, but we have a window to South America.
And that's very important.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>And, wait, have we lost Asia? Does it mean that if there is
no board member from Asia, Asia is going to disappear or
something? </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>If you think it will help, we can have something like one
representative for each chapter as advisor or watcher of the
board. Why not? Let each chapter decide who to "send", like
embassadors. I think that would be a good approach to get
closer to different communities.</div>
</div>
<br>
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</blockquote>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Cameron Shorter
Technology Demystifier, Learnosity
Open Technologies Consultant
M +61 (0) 419 142 254</pre>
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