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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>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<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>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<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>
</div>
<div>Thanks and greetings,<br>
</div>
<div>Jeroen</div>
<div><br>
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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>
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<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="">_______________________________________________
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