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**Subject**: Recent public remarks by an OSMF board member

Note that my comments here are my personal opinion and do not reflect the position of OSM US.

I recently learned of OSMF board member Roland Olbricht's recent comments[1] on the talk-de list. While Roland posted his comments back in October, they have only recently circulated amongst the English-speaking OSM community after Christoph Hormann's cited them in a recent blog posting[2]. In full disclosure, I am not a German speaker, so I rely on machine translations and translations/interpretations of other German speakers in the community to understand the substance and context of these remarks.

I was concerned to hear Roland describe the candidacy, or possible candidacy, of three American OSM community members listed by name as ugly (unschöne), describing one as "not looking at tagging consensus with his butt" (Community-Konsens zu Tagging einmal mit dem Hintern nicht angeschaut hat). I'm hoping this awkwardly-translated phrase is an idiom that doesn't translate well into English. I also understand from the subject line and the bizarre remarks within that Roland feels that Facebook is plotting some sort of secret hostile takeover of the project. Additionally, Roland indicates that he chose to post his remarks in a German-language forum specifically for the purpose of ensuring that the wrong people (presumably, speakers of English) are disinvited from the discussion: (Das steht bewusst hier und in Deutsch außerhalb der automatische Übersetzung, damit nicht noch mehr fragliche Personen sich eingeladen fühlen).

As a US local chapter board member, I find it incredibly problematic if a sitting OSMF board member openly objects to the candidacy of American community members or American companies' participation in the project purely based on nationality. I am proud of the technical, monetary, and in-kind contributions that US-based individuals and companies make on an ongoing basis toward the success of this project. Look at the sponsors page of our last State of the Map conference[3] and ask yourself if the event would have been as successful without the American contributions.

It is the responsibility of the OSMF board and its members to make a good-faith and professional effort to advance the goals of the global project as a whole rather than representing a particular country, language, or special interest group, at the expense of others. Remarks to the contrary by the project's leadership harm our ability to attract contributions large and small.

Roland's comments suggest hostility towards non-Germans, despite his duty as a board member to serve the entire OSMF membership. I am appalled that a project leader has chosen to single out Americans and American companies and describe them as unwanted contributors to the project.

Roland, can you explain these remarks? Do they represent the views of the OSMF? Can you assure us that the Foundation is not biased against American participation in the project?

[1] https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk-de/2022-October/117842.html
[2] https://imagico.de/blog/en/the-openstreetmap-foundation-in-2022-the-upcoming-elections/
[3] https://2022.stateofthemap.org/#sponsors