[OSGeo-Discuss] My feelings about board elections

Sun Oct 29 13:52:16 PDT 2017

Hello All,

Democracy isn’t the only form of governance, just the one that works for us at times. 

Elections are just that, elections. The voice of the whole doesn’t not always recognise an individual’s views, but this doesn’t mean that the views of an individual aren’t important. Sanghee, you’ve raised some very interesting points and one’s that we need to consider long into the future and especially not make rash decisions as a community. 

Representation from across our community is really important and the centralisation of our committee members in two regions is not a positive one. I’d call on the board to consider what measures they could take to increase representation from across the wider community; potentially including regional representation to the board with voting limited to those from that region. This isn’t a perfect solution, but drastic times call for drastic measures.

Just my $0.02s. 

Best,

Mark

> On 29 Oct 2017, at 19:36, Massimiliano Cannata <massimiliano.cannata at supsi.ch> wrote:
> 
> Dear all,
> I think that this is democracy.
> 
> You were the board and should have thought when in power to change the election rules, but since you didn't, to me is not fare to rise concerns just the day after. Asian is just a part of the world, what about missing Africans, or south Americans or Oceanians in the past board? Was that more fare then now?
> 
> We are global and global is the election, we are just members: one member one vote. We have no closed doors. If you like, make a proposal and ask charter members to vote on that.
> 
> I regret that Venka, a dear friend, was not elected. Just because it's Venka, the history and wisdoms of OSGeo and foss4g, not because he's Asian.
> 
> Regarding Jeff I think it's time to stop spamming his reputation. Everybody should respect the person and the people that voted for him!
> He also know much more of OSGeo community than you may think...
> 
> My 0.01 cent.
> 
> Long life to OSGeo.
> 
> Maxi
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Il 29 ott 2017 3:55 PM, "Maria Antonia Brovelli" <maria.brovelli at polimi.it <mailto:maria.brovelli at polimi.it>> ha scritto:
> Dear Sanghee
> 
> Many thanks for your frank email. I also want to congratulate the new friends elected but, at the same time, I share your same  considerations. I feel not confortable in a Board that is only, as you correctly pointed out, European and North American. That is not becasue I don't like the current Board Members. On the opposite, they are wonderful and I love them. But there is something wrong if we missed one part of the world which before was represented and we have not added any new one.
> 
> With respect to point 2 of your mail, I also agree with you. It seems me not serious to change ideas every other day. Also in this case, I have nothing against Jeff, whose activism, enthusiasm and help is so important for all of us, but I can simply say that I would not behave in this way. 
> 
> Writing this mail was a bit tough and I thank you, Sanghee, for starting this discussion (I imagine how difficult it was by you). Sometimes we need also to discuss about weak points in the life of the Foundation.
> 
> Best regards and love to all of you.
> 
> Maria
> 
> 
> 
> Pay attention to this Special Issue and see if it is of interest by you:
> http://www.mdpi.com/journal/ijgi/special_issues/Geospatial_Big_Data_Urban_Studies <http://www.mdpi.com/journal/ijgi/special_issues/Geospatial_Big_Data_Urban_Studies>
> 
> 
> ----------------------------------------------------
> Prof. Maria Antonia Brovelli
> Professor of GIS and Remote Sensing
> Politecnico di Milano
> 
> ISPRS WG IV/4 "Collaborative crowdsourced cloud mapping (C3M)" http://www2.isprs.org/commissions/comm4/wg4.html <http://www2.isprs.org/commissions/comm4/wg4.html>, Board of Directors of OSGeo; GeoForAll Advisory Board; NASA WorldWind Europa Challenge; SIFET Advisory Board
> 
> UN-GGIM Academic Network Deputy Chair, UN-GGIM Italy, UN OpenGIS Initiative (Chair of the Capacity Building WG)
> 
> Sol Katz Award 2015
>  
> P.zza Leonardo da Vinci, 32 - Building 3 - 20133 Milano (Italy)
> Tel. +39-02-23996242 - Mob. +39-328-0023867,   <mailto:maria.brovelli at polimi.it>maria.brovelli at polimi.it <mailto:maria.brovelli at polimi.it>
> 
> 
> 
> 
>  
> 
> 
> Da: Discuss <discuss-bounces at lists.osgeo.org <mailto:discuss-bounces at lists.osgeo.org>> per conto di Sanghee Shin <shshin at gaia3d.com <mailto:shshin at gaia3d.com>>
> Inviato: domenica 29 ottobre 2017 15:17
> A: OSGeo Discussions
> Oggetto: [OSGeo-Discuss] My feelings about board elections
>  
> Dear All,
>  
> First of all I'd like to give my sincere congratulations to newly elected board members. Here I want to share some of my feelings around this board elections.
>  
> 1. Needless to say all new board members are deserved to win the election. However as a whole, now we have all WHITE board of directors only from Europe and North America. We've talked about the importance of diversity and inclusiveness many times so far, however the reality is like this. Please don't get me wrong. I'm not writing this because of my failure in an election. Being nominated and encouragement to run the election was just great honour to me. For me as Asian, one of most shocking and disappointing moment in this election was Venka's failure in an election. Venka has contributed so much to Asian community over the last 2 years. His contributions and activities reached out not only to Japan but also to Thailand, Vietnam, India and sometimes to Korea as well. He also put so much efforts organizing FOSS4G Asia this year. And I know as a former board member how he restlessly carried out his duty as president of OSGeo. And finally he failed! I know he didn't answer to some of quesitons to nominees during the election period. Ok, it’s excuse however he and I was being tied up with handling a urgent issue in community. Anyway I and other Asian friends are so shocked that he was not elected! I bet other Asian members share the same feeling. The result gave the clear meaning to Asian community, "If Venka can't be a board member of OSGeo, nobody can be forever from Asia." I already saw many complaints and discouragement in Asian community. I believe regions other than Europe and NA have the rights to be reprensented failry. So, I'd like to ask new board members to fix this kind of wrong representation of board configuration by adopting new election rules.
>  
> 2. I believe Jeff McKenna's ambiguous behaviours around election period made both him and OSGeo untrustworthy. I don't want to mention again here some of concerns over him in detail during the election. One thing I'd like to point out is his un-withdrwal from board election after disclosing the results. Nothing personal, Jeff. Actually I tried to accept and understand this situation so many times for a couple of days, but I failed to accept. We're not the children in the kindergarten! How can it be happened? The last thing I did as a former board member was approving the motion, "This board election is valid." I was able to block the motion however I approved the motion. Because I accepted his withdrawal as sincere one and trusted him. I'm feeling my good intention was being betrayed. I know I don't have any rights now to change my previous decision and I don't want to criticise someone here. New board, this case cleary has shown that there's big loophole in our election process. If OSGe can't fix it, OSGeo will lose trust and credibility. Board, you need to bear in mind that there's already bunch of sign of loosing trust from community.
>  
> Many mentioned that OSGeo is run by Do-ocracy. I believe the basis of Do-ocracy is recognizing of someone's work and trust. If someone's hardwork is not recognized and acknowledged fairy, who will want to jump into the matters to fix it? And if someone can't trust the organization, who wants to put their precious time and efforts to untrustworthy one?
>  
> If OSGeo lose the trust, it will lose everything. OSGeo is just shell.
>  
> Best regards,
> 신상희
> ---
> Shin, Sanghee
> Gaia3D, Inc. - The GeoSpatial Company
> www.gaia3d.com <http://www.gaia3d.com/>
>  
> 
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