The OpenStreetMap community inspires me. Every day OpenStreetMap changes someone’s life. Whether it be helping some navigate their daily tasks or giving someone the chance to edit an open map, the ways OSM contributes is as diverse as the global community. Since I started as a supporter in 2010, my contributions and engagement have also grown.

Meeting OSMers in person on four continents plus via the various online channels provides me with incentive to run for a board position with OSMF. Extensive experience in community building and governance in open source communities are two strengths I offer to bring to this role. I’ve been involved in open source and open data communities for well over a decade including Open Knowledge, Ushahidi, and Mozilla. My board governance experience includes four years with Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) and one year with PeaceGeeks. As part of the Governance Working Group at HOT, I recently led a team to deliver a revised Code of Conduct. The diverse nature of OSM and growing global nature are reasons that I aim to participate as part of this board.

If elected, my goals, in collaboration with fellow board members, will be two-fold: community building and governance. OSM has had an amazing impact on the world of open source and beyond. The impact of OSM on each of our lives, communities and, even, businesses is a story that is often understated. Community-building comes in many forms including localization of leadership, and organizational development. There are many global open source communities and models of governance. The goal would be to open up the discussion to determine how might the OSM community have more engagement across the globe in our governance and in working groups. Community-building is an essential ingredient in building good governance and expanding support. In my experience and research, this type of change is something that Boards make in concert with the various governance bodies and community members.

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As a Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team Board Member Candidate, I wish to state my potential conflicts of interest:

Employer is Qatar Computing Research Institute:

My full time job is in research on Humanitarian and social innovation software. Our open source software often uses HOT-driven OSM data. (e.g. MicroMappers and hopefully UAviators via OAM) As a research institute, we do not receive remuneration for HOT nor do we receive profit from these projects.

Professional Affiliations:

ca.linkedin.com/in/heatherleson

Boards and Advisories:

*Board: PeaceGeeks (member of Digital Humanitarian Network) *Advisor: School of Data *Advisor: Jump2Spot *Organizer: International Conference of CrisisMappers *More advisory roles: http://textontechs.com/portfolio/

If there are any situations of conflict of interest, I will respectfully step out of the discussion and/or vote.

Thank you,

Heather

What can we do? This drives us every day to support HOT’s mandate and mission. Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team is a respected, global community within the larger OpenStreetMap family. For the past 2 years, I have proudly donated my time, network and skills to help HOT grow organizationally as your Board Member. I respectfully ask for a HOT nomination from the membership and community support to continue this mandate.

My previous election posts can be found on my personal blog. These were shared on the HOT mailing list with the wider community.

• [2013] (http://textontechs.com/2012/12/hot-membership-and-board-proposal/)
• 2014

Summary of Achievements in the 2014-2015 term

Board Secretary

• Managed and distributed [Board Meeting Minutes] (osm.wiki/Humanitarian_OSM_Team/Meetings) for the year
• Assisted and Lead meetings

Organizational Development

• Executive Director support: reviewed, wrote and edited key strategic and organizational process documents.
• Board Retreat: Recruited Allen Gunn of Aspiration to facilitate the HOT Board Retreat. Curated the HOT Board Retreat Planning
• Board primer: to better define Board responsibilities, I created the [Board Primer] (https://docs.google.com/a/hotosm.org/document/d/1ze85KMCa39KIzQPPTQL5EGZgDS84OC1j2sNNDPFNo2Y/edit)
• Actively participated in the [HOT Strategy Planning] (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1E7cAmjl_IV6Dt82ytyZnTR1V0m9xPNRnrQ9n160cHY8/edit#heading=h.58jdoc59t4ct)
• Actively supported the Membership Chair on Elections

Community Support

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