# 2024-02-14: Interview 'Towards a sustainable open data ecosystem (ODECO)'

###### tags: `meetings with externals`

**Principal investigator:** Ashraf Shaharudin (Faculty of Architecture & the Built Environment, TU Delft) & Ramya Chandrasekhar (Centre for Internet & Society, CNRS)
**Interviewee:** OSM Belgium (community members Thierry Jiménez, Pieter Vander Vennet, Michaël Dierick )

ODECO: 15 researchers all over Europe
research project:
1) ESRI (commercial project)
2) OSM (community-driven)

## Tentative Interview Questions

### Interviewee(s) background

1. Could you please briefly describe your role in OSM Belgium? And how long have you been involved in OSM?

### Objectives & activities
2. What is the current status of OSM Belgium re-application to become an official local chapter of OSMF?

3. (Without going into details if you don’t prefer to), what were the general reasons for the termination of the local chapter agreement in September 2023 and then the re-application in December 2023?

4. What are the advantages and disadvantages of being an official local chapter of OSMF?

5. Could you please describe the vision and missions of OSM Belgium?

6. Who are the target beneficiaries of your work? And how do they benefit?

7. What are the key activities (technical and non-technical) that OSM Belgium does?

8. Could you describe how OSM Belgium is governed/organised?

9. What are key drivers or motivations for members to contribute to OSM Belgium?

10. What are the typical backgrounds of OSM contributors in Belgium (e.g., age group, professional background, sectors, interests, location etc.)?

11. What are the human, physical and financial resources that OSM Belgium have to maintain?

12. How does OSM Belgium obtain funds to support development and fixed costs?

13. Do you rely on open-source or proprietary tooling for your activities? Kindly describe.

### Licensing

14. Could you describe how you deal with original data source licenses? For example, if data from government agencies (e.g., NGI) is under a certain license, how do you harmonise it with the OpenStreetMap ODbL license?

15. Do you see any weaknesses regarding the licensing aspect of OpenStreetMap?

16. To what extent do you think existing licenses contribute to reuse of OpenStreetMap data?

### OSM Belgium in the (open data) ecosystem

17. Who are the key stakeholders that OSM Belgium engage with, in what ways, and for what purposes? (e.g., governmental institutions, for-profit companies, non-profit organisations etc.)

18. What are the key challenges that OSM Belgium encounter (e.g., regarding local/global governance, infrastructure, technical support, political support, etc.)?

19. Could we talk briefly about Overture Maps Foundation:
a. What is your general perception about Overture and its impacts?
b. Are there any risks of Overture towards OSM Belgium? If yes, how do you plan to manage the risks?

20. What are OSM Belgium’s wishes for the local/global open data ecosystem?