Tag Archives: Board meeting

Highlights from the OSMF Board Spring 2024 Meeting

The OpenStreetMap Foundation (OSMF) Board of Directors recently convened for a Face-to-Face (F2F) strategy meeting, and we wanted to provide you all with an update!

We met on April 27th and 28th in Frankfurt in person, and for some of us, it was our first time ever meeting in person.

The meeting allowed us to discuss and refine strategies, foster deeper connections, and become more effective in serving the OSM community. By coming together in person, we were able to cultivate a deeper understanding of each other’s perspectives, refine our communication strategies, and focus on the most pressing priorities facing the OSMF.

Over the busy weekend, we were fortunate to have the guidance of our trusted facilitator, Gunner, who helped us navigate through discussions and prioritize our action items. He helped us communicate better, refocus on what really matters, and prioritize our many tasks and goals. With his guidance, we were able to make the most out of our time together and tackle important issues head-on. With his support, we not only stimulated our internal operations but also laid a solid foundation for more effective engagement with the OSM Community.

By coming together, we were able to address challenges more efficiently, brainstorm innovative solutions, and lay the groundwork for future initiatives. As we move forward, the Board is excited and motivated to share the progress of our action items with the community. While some of these initiatives will yield results in the short term, others may require more time to fully come to fruition. Nevertheless, we are committed to transparency and accountability, and we look forward to celebrating our achievements together with you all, the community.

You read more about some of our discussions and actions from the meeting on the OSMF website (here).

We’re incredibly grateful for the opportunity to meet F2F and strengthen our bonds. And we’re not stopping here! Looking ahead, we are eagerly anticipating our next in-person engagement at this year’s State of the Map in Nairobi. This event will provide another invaluable opportunity for us to connect with each other, and most importantly with members of the OSM community, exchange ideas, and continue our collaborative efforts to make OpenStreetMap the best it can be.

The OpenStreetMap Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation, formed to support the OpenStreetMap Project. It is dedicated to encouraging the growth, development and distribution of free geospatial data for anyone to use and share. The OpenStreetMap Foundation owns and maintains the infrastructure of the OpenStreetMap project, is financially supported by membership fees and donations, and organises the annual, international State of the Map conference. Our volunteer Working Groups and small core staff work to support the OpenStreetMap project. Join the OpenStreetMap Foundation for just £15 a year or for free if you are an active OpenStreetMap contributor.

ODbL progress

We’re planning the final stages of the switch over to the Open Database License for OpenStreetMap data. The OpenStreetMap Foundation Board discussed the license upgrade process and many other aspects of the project at their recent board meeting, and we’ll have more information about that from the board shortly.

One item that came out of the board meeting was the deadline to complete the license upgrade by 01 April 2012 and to publish the first OpenStreetMap planet file under the ODbL by 04 April 2012. The License Working Group supports this target date as a reasonable goal.

There are still many things to do before we are ready to publish the first OpenStreetMap planet file as an ODbL database. As always, community engagement and your participation are important. There will be more information and details on your favourite OSM community channels including the mailing lists and IRC. For now the process of contacting mappers yet to respond and remapping non-compliant data is still the priority.

There are various tools to help you get an idea of ODbL coverage in your country, or your local area. In particular, you can enable a view within Potlatch2 or install a plugin for JOSM to see the license status of elements.