[OSGeo Oceania] A discussion on openness

Mon Dec 7 15:48:46 PST 2020

Hello from the sidelines!

I didn't put my hands up for board nomination for some of the discussions
and events that Adam suggested earlier, which we could see on the openly
transparent board lists.  Everyone has limited time and energy (especially
in these "interesting times") and when I see a bit of poking or sniping I
just don't want to be involved.  That's a downside to transparency - but
it's something to remember, that the community is also looking in (as Alex
says, this could be a distraction you don't need right now).

Similarly to Alex, I've volunteered with SSSI and SIBA in the past.  In the
end there were some fundamental misalignments between where they wanted to
go strategically and where I thought they should be going, and so given I
was in a minority I thought it best to move on.  That's something that
happens in these volunteer board situations, and we can't expect an open
and passionate community to all want to pull in the same direction all of
the time, or even just within the board.  So my 2c is that you need to make
sure you have some clear rules around what expectations there are around
the board (which I think you have in places), and how you deal with
decision making through open consensus, and make sure that all the board
members are aware of those via some sort of welcome/induction.  That was
one of the best things about my time with SIBA - there were clear
inductions, clear expectations and an agreed decision making approach,
which meant that you knew where you stood.  In my case, despite
the disagreements, it was respectful and I was happy to accept the
consensus that occurred through voting etc - and due to a number of those
results, I realised it wasn't the best place for me to be.

All that said, it is highly impressive to see so many people interested in
OSGEO and the FOSS4G community.  I really appreciate the amount of time the
previous board has spent organising such successful conferences and the
like, and you should all be proud of what you've achieved.  It's easy to
throw rocks from outside, but in this case there are no rocks to throw,
just congratulations.  Without your energies and efforts we wouldn't have
just had the conference that I have heard repeatedly called "one of the
best (if not the best) I've been to" - no small feat considering these good
ol' "interesting times".

For the coming board, congratulations and enjoy the experience!  There is a
community out here that is ready to help you, so don't hesitate to reach
out - and use those personal connections as well, because quite often these
mailing list emails go straight into our "read later" email filters, but a
direct message from a colleague sits at the top of our inbox (well, at
least they do for me).

It's great to be part of this community (even from the sidelines) and I
can't wait to see what we can achieve next.

Piers

-- 
*Piers Higgs *| Chief Executive Officer
*e*   piers.higgs at gaiaresources.com.au
*m* +61 411 754 006 | *p* +61 8 9227 7309
Level 6 FLUX, 191 St Georges Tce, Perth WA
<https://www.gaiaresources.com.au/contact-us/>
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On Tue, 8 Dec 2020 at 05:27, Alex Leith <alexgleith at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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
> _______________________________________________
> Oceania mailing list
> Oceania at lists.osgeo.org
> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/oceania
>
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