[OSGeo Oceania] A discussion on openness

[Alex Leith]

Hey Bruce

Just a couple of quick points. When I said "first conference" I meant the
conference in 2018, so the first of the Oceania conferences, not the real
first one! Apologies for the oversight.

And there is a draft code of conduct
<https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/oceania-board/2020-November/000046.html>
and various
<https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/oceania/2020-November/002407.html>
conversations
<https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/oceania/2020-November/002408.html>
around it.

Regards,

On Tue, 8 Dec 2020 at 15:30, Bruce Bannerman <
bruce.bannerman.osgeo at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi Alex,
>
> Comments interleaved below:
>
> Kind regards,
>
> Bruce
>
>
>
> On 8 Dec 2020, at 08:27, 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.
>
>
>
> SSSI also had its destructive divisions.
>
> I was a former member of the Australian Institute of Cartographers and the
> Australian Institute of Surveyors.
>
> I applauded the move to bring similar parties together under the banner of
> the Spatial Sciences Institute of Australia and became a founding member.
>
> The SSI was a bright light on the Australian scene for a number of years,
> until a small group, believing that they knew better fractured the
> community and forced the additional ’S’  in SSI.
>
> I don’t intend rehashing old issues, but suffice to say that many former
> SSI members left the organisation then in disgust, myself included. I have
> no idea what SSSI is like now, but do know of a number of people who I
> respect are still members.
>
> The lesson that I learned from that episode is that you need to bring your
> community along with you.
>
> That requires open communications, avoiding as much as possible any
> private and hidden discussions.
>
> I suggest avoiding the emulation of SSSI processes and policies. There is
> a significant difference between an open source community and a
> professional association.
>
>
> 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’m glad that you remember that!   Though I don’t recall any monetary
> involvement from SSSI. The financial risk was bourne by the OSGeo
> Foundation.
>
> SSSI was one of the organisations that kindly supported us with
> publicising the International FOSS4G-2009.
>
> Thanks in particular go to Glen Cockerton and David Sinclair.
>
>
> 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.
>
>
> We have a new board and members new to open source communities. So be kind
> to yourselves.  It will take time to bed things down.
>
> Sorry to repeat myself, but also remember that there are people within our
> community who have a wealth of experience working within international open
> source communities. Some with nearly two decades experience.
>
>
> 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.
>
>
> The burnout issue is a significant problem.
>
> IMHO, this is why OSGeo AustNZ lost momentum and petered out. We had too
> few active volunteers, combined with the sustained two year effort to
> prepare and run an international conference put a severe strain on things.
> We all had day jobs that demanded our attention.
>
>
> I urge members of our OSGeo Oceania community to get involved and
> volunteer. You will constantly be surprised at how much you (and your
> organisations) get back in return.
>
>
>
> 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.
>
>
> Alex, please don’t think of this discussion as a pursuit of perfection.
>
> In my opinion, this is a timely and necessary discussion about ensuring
> that we have solid open source community foundations in place. A critical
> part of this is having free, open and respectful discussions to arrive at a
> community consensus decision.
>
> When community members feel valued and listed to, they will want to become
> more involved and contribute more.
>
>
>
> The OSGeo-OCeania Community may also wish to adopt an appropriate Code of
> Conduct to ensure free, open and respectful interactions.
>
> One such example is the Berlin Code of Conduct:
> https://berlincodeofconduct.org/
>
> We don’t need to reinvent the wheel. There is a wealth of experience out
> there to utilise.
>
> As per my post yesterday, a good starting point is Karl Fogel’s excellent
> book ‘Producing Open Source software’ https://producingoss.com/
>
>
>
> (stepping down off my soapbox...)
>
>
>
>
> So, like a cockroach, I'll slip back under the fridge, having survived
> another pair of boots.
>
>
>
> I don’t see that this thread is targeted at any particular person. It is
> more about ensuring that we have our basic foundations right.
>
> So, I apologise if you feel singled out. It is certainly not my intention,
> and I have not seen it come up in other discussions on this thread.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> 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
>
>

-- 
Alex Leith
m: 0419189050
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