Author Archives: Henk Hoff

Buenos Aires hosts SotM14

buenosaires_benontherun.com_ccbyncsaAfter being in Europe, North America and Asia, it is time to explore yet another continent. We’re happy to announce that the 8th international State of the Map 2014 conference will be held in Buenos Aires, Argentina (map) on November 7th – 9th.

OSM is a truly global project with people all over the globe. Having SotM14 in Argentina is a great way to show the world what’s going on in South America regarding OSM and it can help strengthen the local OSM communities there.

If you haven’t made holiday plans for this year yet, why not consider Argentina in the spring? (yes, it will be spring there)

In case you live in Europe or North America and you feel Argentina is too far away? You’re still invited to join SotM-EU (Karlsruhe, June 13 – 15) or SotM-US (Washington DC, April 12 and 13).

More details about SotM14 will follow later this month. Stay tuned.

[UPDATE: Lots more details can be found at stateofthemap.org]

(image by benontherun.com cc-by-nc-sa 2.0)

OSM Foundation AGM and board election

The Secretary of the OpenStreetMap Foundation announced today that the next Annual General Meeting of the OSMF and election for board members will be held at State of the Map – Tokyo. The original announcements reads:

To all members of OpenStreetMap Foundation,

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the 6th Annual General Meeting of the OpenStreetMap Foundation will be held at the State of the Map 2012 conference, Komaba Research Campus 4-6-1, Meguro-ku, Tokyo, Japan, at 12:30 JST Saturday, 08 September 2012.

You do NOT have to join the conference to attend the meeting. Attendance of the AGM is free. However, if you would also like to join SOTM 2012, you can still register at http://stateofthemap.org/register-now/

OSMF AGM Agenda can be found here: http://www.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Annual_General_Meetings/12

Nominations are also now open for three OSMF board positions at the AGM. Nominations close on Sunday, 26 August 2012 at 1700 UTC.

To add a nomination or your own name please see the instructions at http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Foundation/AGM12/Election_to_Board or send an email to secretary at osmfoundation.org .

All (at the start of the AGM) paid-up members of the Foundation are eligible to stand for election to the Board. If you are not already a member of the Foundation then you can sign up via http://www.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Join. If you have questions concerning your membership contact membership at osmfoundation.org .

All (at the start of the AGM) paid-up members of the Foundation are eligible to vote at the Board election.

Proxy voting by email opens on Monday, 27 August 2012 at 0900 UTC. Details on proxy voting by email can be found on the wiki at http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Foundation/AGM12/Election_to_Board

The final vote will be taken at the AGM itself.

On behalf of the Board, I’m looking forward meeting you at our Annual General Meeting.

Henk Hoff
Secretary
OpenStreetMap Foundation

Board grants project founder the title of “Chairman Emeritus”

Steve CoastAt the end of his term as Chairman of the OSM Foundation, the Board has unanimously granted Steve Coast, founder of the OpenStreetMap project, the honorary title of “Chairman Emeritus” of the OSM Foundation.
This honorary title is granted for the Steve’s achievements for the project and the Foundation, and (not least) for actually starting the project. The title also voices the Board’s intention to retain a close relationship between the Founder and the OSMF.

Therefore, the Chairman Emeritus has a standing invitation to all board and working group meetings and to all State of the Map conferences. He is explicitly invited to give advice to the Board and Working Groups.
The Chairman Emeritus is allowed to voice personal statements in public using his title.

With his distinct personal relationship with the OSM project, the Foundation may ask the Chairman Emeritus to represent the OSMF in public (e.g. in media and conferences).

The Board asked Steve to take this honorary title and is pleased with Steve accepting it. The Board is also very happy to see that his passion, vision and dedication for the OpenStreetMap project will be maintained.

With accepting the Chairman Emeritus title, Steve decided not run for re-election as a board member. He will no longer be an official director of the Foundation after the upcoming AGM.

For the avoidance of doubt, the Board checked that granting the title “Chairman Emeritus” is in line with the current Articles of Association.

Henk Hoff
Secretary OSM Foundation

License change still ongoing

Three weeks ago we mentioned we were still perfecting the ‘redaction bot’. The piece of code that goes through and redacts (removes/hides) any data that isn’t compatible with the new licence. Much to our dislike, it will take more time to get the bot working perfectly. Good news: the bot is now passing more tests than ever; bad news: still not all. Several people are working on this to make it work error-free.

Once these system tests are passing, live data testing will be conducted against a test server that is already configured and waiting. Subject to a successful test, a test of an isolated portion of the live database will be processed, most likely for the island of Ireland. If this goes successfully, the rest of the data will be processed.

On a positive note: in the last few weeks we’ve also managed to get agreement on several contributions to keep them in our database. We would like to thank all people who helped us make that happen.

We’ll give you another update next week.

Thank you all for your patience.