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Zum nach-der-Wahl-Kater in der Filterblase

Posted by imagico on 18 December 2019 in English.

Die OSMF-Vorstands-Wahlen dieses Jahr sind vorbei - die Ergebnisse der Wahlen und Abstimmungen finden sich hier:

Es ist bemerkenswert, wie sich jetzt anscheinend unter manchen Leuten Unverständnis, Enttäuschung und Ärger über die Resultate artikulieren, die ja doch eine recht breite Unterstützung in der OSMF-Mitgliedschaft für die Kernwerte des Projektes - die egalitäre und selbstbestimmte Zusammenarbeit zur Erfassung lokalen Wissens über die Geographie - erkennen lassen. Da hat wohl manch einer in seiner Filterblase etwas Anderes erhofft.

Beeindruckend ist auch, wie manche sich jetzt geradezu in ihrer Voreingenommenheit und Intoleranz suhlen und gemeinschaftlich darüber spekulieren, wie man denn nach einer Machtübernahme das Projekt nach den eigenen Vorstellungen und kulturellen Werten umgestalten könnte. Die Rede ist da zum Beispiel von bezahlten Managern, die die Mapper zu erwünschtem Verhalten erziehen sollen (euphemistisch als “active community management” bezeichnet) und von der Zensur unerwünschter Äußerungen (“active moderation”). Es geht da also klar erkennbar nicht um Offenheit gegenüber anderen Kulturen und Werten, sondern um die Ausgrenzung von solchen Ansichten und Werten, die der Dominanz der eigenen kulturellen Vorstellungen entgegenstehen.

Klar, wenn jetzt ein paar tausend amerikanische SJWs entschließen würden, in OSM einzufallen und dort mal aufzuräumen dann wäre OSM als soziales Projekt Geschichte. Insofern sind diese Überlegungen nicht komplett unrealistisch. Aber wie unverfroren und unreflektiert da manche ihre Intoleranz, ihre Ablehnung von anders Denkenden und Ausgrenzungs-Bestrebungen artikulieren ist schon bemerkenswert.

Was die Sache dann noch auf die Spitze treibt ist, wenn dabei auch total übersehen wird, dass die einzige Frau unter den Kandidaten der Vorstands-Wahl (Jinal) vor allem deshalb keinen Sitz im Vorstand bekam, weil Mikel und Michal zur Wahl angetreten sind und ihre Wähler aus dem selben Teil der OSMF-Mitgliedschaft rekrutierten. Jinal war in der Breite der Wählerschaft recht klar die beliebtere Kandidatin, konnte aber in der Kern-Wählerschaft aller dieser drei Kandidaten deutlich weniger Wähler überzeugen, ihr die erste Stimme zu geben, als die anderen beiden, wodurch sie am Ende keine Chance hatte.

Dass vermutlich viele Frauen unter den OSMF-Mitgliedern lieber Leuten wie Guillaume oder Rory ihre Stimme geben, die - egal ob Mann oder Frau, weiß oder nicht - eine solide und überzeugende Geschichte von Engagement für wirkliche Vielfalt und Offenheit in der OSM-Community vorzuweisen haben und dabei selbstkritisch auch ihren eigenen Anteil an ungleichen Chancen und Voraussetzungen reflektieren, als opportunistischen Schaumschlägern, die die Fehler immer nur bei anderen suchen, geschenkt.

Wer mehr Analyse zu den Wahl-Ergebnissen möchte, findet diese auf Englisch auf meinem Blog.

Non-authoritive automatic translation from deepl.com for your convenience:

To the post-election tomcat in the filter bubble

This year’s OSMF board elections are over - the results of the elections and votes can be found here:

It is remarkable how now some people seem to articulate incomprehension, disappointment and anger about the results, which show quite broad support in OSMF membership for the core values of the project - egalitarian and self-determined cooperation to gather local knowledge about geography. Some people hoped for something different in their filter bubble.

It is also impressive how some people are now wallowing in their bias and intolerance and speculating together about how, after assuming power, the project could be reshaped according to their own ideas and cultural values. There is talk, for example, of paid managers who are to educate mappers to behave in the desired manner (euphemistically referred to as “active community management”) and of the censorship of unwanted expressions (“active moderation”). It is therefore clearly not about openness towards other cultures and values, but about the exclusion of such views and values that oppose the dominance of one’s own cultural ideas.

Of course, if a few thousand American SJWs decided to invade OSM and clean it up, then OSM as a social project would be history. In this respect, these considerations are not completely unrealistic. But how boldly and unreflectively some articulate their intolerance, their rejection of different thinking and exclusionist aspirations is remarkable.

What drives things to extremes is that the only woman among the candidates of the board election (Jinal) did not get a seat on the board because Mikel and Michal ran for the election and their voters recruited from the same part of the OSMF membership. Jinal was clearly the more popular candidate in the breadth of the electorate, but in the core electorate of all three candidates she was able to persuade significantly fewer voters to give her the first vote than the other two, which meant she had no chance in the end.

That probably many women among the OSMF members prefer to vote for people like Guillaume or Rory, who - whether man or woman, white or not - have a solid and convincing history of commitment to real diversity and openness in the OSM community, while self-critically reflecting their own share of unequal opportunities and prerequisites, as opportunistic buffoons who always look for mistakes only in others.

Who would like more analysis to the election results, finds these in English on my Blog.

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Discussion

Comment from mikelmaron on 18 December 2019 at 21:21

Agree the results show a good balance, support for core values, and everyone is good to work with.

Before conceptually translating people’s intentions into red herrings to slam, and throwing around the usual insults and usual words like “dominance” “opportunistic buffoons”…

The fact is that we have poor representation of gender and geography on the Board and in the OSMF. I think everyone can acknowledge that for a start.

Also acknowledge that we have poor information on what is keeping women from engaging and what they want from OSMF, so let’s get proper research rather than speculation.

Comment from Stereo on 19 December 2019 at 00:19

Oh, the pitfalls of automatically translating idioms! A Schaumschläger is an eggbeater, and it means a person who boasts and produces a lot of hot air. Also, a ‘tomcat’ is a hangover.

Metafilter is often cited as an example of good moderation. What they do takes a huge amount of work, but they manage to create a space where very different viewpoints can meet and have a civil conversation. Is that what we’d want, and can we do that?

Comment from escada on 21 December 2019 at 07:14

Can you explain to me why you accuse me of “wallowing in their bias and intolerance” and why my comment on Heather’s diary is about “speculating together about how, after assuming power, the project could be reshaped according to their own ideas and cultural values”

With my comment, I tried to point out that I do not like the idea of board members that get a seat just because they are women or belong to a certain group, not because they get elected. Yes, I fear that when certain board positions have to be filled in by certain groups, the candidates can all come from corporations. I thought that you have pointed out the dangers of that in the past and gave voting advice again people for this reason.

And now I am speculating about reshaping the project?

Comment from imagico on 21 December 2019 at 10:24

Can you explain to me why you accuse me of “wallowing in their bias and intolerance”

I can’t because that is not what i did. I linked to

osm.org/user/Heather%20Leson/diary/391598#comments

not

osm.org/user/Heather%20Leson/diary/391598#comment46098

and i am talking about “manche” (some peope) - not all of them. Your comment was a perfectly valid, open and respectful question for better understanding of what Heather means but you might have noticed that except for Heather sidestepping your questions to get back to her narrative everyone essentially ignored your comment.

And to be clear - the problem is not that there are some people whose cultural values differ from those of others in the OSM community and who would prefer it is their values would have more significance in OSM. That is perfectly natural. The problem is the intolerance, disrespect and insults to those who do not share exactly the same values and the unreflected musings about how to top down impose their ideas onto the community and squeeze out those who are not willing to subject themselves to this imposed value system and to re-educate the rest.

That is completely incompatible to the core value of OpenStreetMap of creating the best map of the world through egalitarian cross cultural cooperation.

To be perfectly frank: The willingness and ability to accept people with cultural values fundamentally different from your own - including fundamental questions like fairness and equality - is kind of a prerequisite for working in the OSM community.

For those who have difficulties with that i have a long standing open invitation to discuss these questions without fixed premises in an enlightened fashion based on arguments and reasoning. But so far reaction to that has been fairly sparse.

Comment from escada on 21 December 2019 at 14:57

Thanks you for pointing out my mistake. Then it is just unfortunate that my comment is the first in the list.

I also think that more diversity can achieved via local groups, small iniatiatives etc. This has nothing to do with the board.

Repeating how toxic the communication is within OSM has probably a negative impact on the intake of new mappers. On the other hand, how many mappers are actually seeing any of this toxic communication? Such communication is bad, but generalizing the problem will not help.

A [list] (osm.wiki/Tagging_in_Support_of_Women_and_Girls) for dedicated tagging for women and girls is imho more about enforcing stereotypes than embracing diversity. I doubt my wife has needed any of those POIs more than me. When she uses a map it is for spare time and hobbies, not for the items listed on that page. I am honestly interested in finding out whether women map other items then men, but such a study should differentiate between societies where women have (almost) the same rights as men and those where this is not the case.

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