[OSGeo Oceania] A discussion on openness

[Alex Leith]

Hey Folks

I volunteered with SSSI for 6 years, including 3 on the Board, so I've seen
this all before. And really, we could do worse than becoming like SSSI, in
that they are an organisation with deep roots that has been around in
different variations for decades. SSSI is mostly run by volunteers,
although there are a number of paid staff too. But most importantly, it's a
group of people doing their best, and it's very easy to criticise the work
of others, and much harder to get inside and actually do the work. I can
look back at my time in SSSI and feel that I did good work. I would have
liked to be more opinionated and to have actually dived in and made some
changes that I didn't, but I've learnt from that, and I have a bunch of
great colleagues, mentors and now, to some extent, mentees in that
community. Also remember that they supported us in running our first
conference while expecting us to make a loss! We could do a lot worse than
that. Supporting someone in their innovation, despite expectations of
something less than success is exactly how you empower someone. I'm
grateful for SSSI's institutional knowledge and its community.

I think it might be worth the new Board calling on someone from Linux
Australia perhaps to talk to the Board about how they survive the politics
and drama over time. But right now I can't imagine what I might ask someone
like that. Because you know what? I think Phil captured it right. This year
has been ridiculous, we're volunteers and we need to protect ourselves from
cynicism and burnout. I trust those who I am on the Board with, without
question. It's not a matter of faith, it's respect. Basic respect.

On Ed's original question around openness and transparency, I hope
conversations like this help us, but I can't help but think that they might
be harming us. We have work that must be done, a new Board to onboard and
some kind of conference to plan next year and having the same arguments
about what perfection is does not get us any closer to that.

So, like a cockroach, I'll slip back under the fridge, having survived
another pair of boots.

Regards,

Alex

On Tue, 8 Dec 2020 at 08:07, Bruce Bannerman <
bruce.bannerman.osgeo at gmail.com> wrote:

> Thank you Adam for taking the time to contribute what must have been a
> very difficult response.
>
> I value your thoughts on this.
>
> If Osgeo-Oceania is going to survive as a viable open source community, we
> need to learn from experiences such as yours and John’s.
>
> We cannot afford to turn away and lose such talent from our community.
>
> Our volunteers are our lifeblood. We cannot afford to lose any.
>
> OK, I can see that there is an issue here.
>
> It is important that we understand the root cause of what has caused this
> rift within our community.
>
> Therefore, I urge others to also share their experiences. We can then move
> forward.
>
> It is not easy establishing and nurturing a successful open source
> community. Once it is done effectively, the community will develop a
> momentum of its own.
>
> I can see that we have been very successful at attracting new blood to our
> community. However that has also brought people who are new to open source
> communities and how they need to operate to thrive.
>
> With some effort, we can resolve this current bump in the road.
>
> To the current and former OSGeo Oceania Directors. Thank you for
> volunteering your skills and time to lead our community. You have not had
> an easy task, and it is easy for those who have not been in a similar
> position to criticise.
>
> As a community, we can turn this situation around. We have a lot of
> experience to call on, particularly those with extensive international open
> source experience.
>
> Kind regards,
>
> Bruce
>
>
> > On 8 Dec 2020, at 02:02, Adam Steer <adam.d.steer at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Hey Ed
> >
> > Thanks for initiating this discussion. My story is long and boring and
> > yes, the fundamental reason for resigning is that I literally could
> > not interact with the board anymore - because of ethical concerns,
> > because it just felt like a drain on my time and energy, because I
> > really felt like I had wasted so much time being forced into circular
> > discussions and projects (eg communications, which is still a giant
> > and growing tangle) - so I leave this discussion and the incoming
> > board with some suggestions:
> >
> > - always remember the community does not need OSGeo Oceania, but OSGeo
> > Oceania needs the community.
> > - always give people space to speak for themselves, especially in
> > board meetings.
> > - always respect peoples' efforts and experience and input, and do it
> > consistently for everyone
> > - as John indicated, operating transparently is easy and fruitful. The
> > tools are there use them
> > - as you indicated, always propose a solution when a problem is raised
> > - remember we have a broad, caring, thoughtful, enthusiastic and
> > deeply experienced community to draw on
> > - remember we have existing patterns for open and transparent
> > operation to draw on (OSGeo in particular, the book Bruce mentioned,
> > other long established chapters of OSGeo and OSM, orgs like Linux
> > Australia), and ready collaborators for taking on projects like
> > building open conference systems
> > - remember to care about ethics, particularly around how we handle
> > personal data we are trusted with and who we hand it to. Take the time
> > to learn about how companies we use (eg Mailchimp) operate instead of
> > just glossing over data issues for convenience.
> > - value transparency over bells and whistles in communication.
> > Remember http has also been around a while but we don't call it the
> > cockroach of the internet - and even fancy mailers use ancient mail
> > transfer protocols ;). Mailing lists persist because they are
> > incredibly functional and useful.
> > - avoid becoming another SSSI.
> >
> > Congratulations on being elected to the board, I hope the organisation
> > remembers its roots in this coming year. I am unlikely to spend much
> > OSGeo Oceania time for a while - however feel free to reach out about
> > any wrinkles you find that have my name attached. I've made as much
> > mess as anyone, and haven't been particularly great at handing over
> > things
> >
> > Best,
> > Adam
> > _______________________________________________
> > Oceania mailing list
> > Oceania at lists.osgeo.org
> > https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/oceania
> _______________________________________________
> Oceania mailing list
> Oceania at lists.osgeo.org
> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/oceania
>


-- 
Alex Leith
m: 0419189050
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/oceania/attachments/20201208/017e2503/attachment.html>