We are hosting a session online and in person for SOTM 2022. We’d love your input to help us shape the conversation and to include those who may not be at SOTM this year. Thank you!
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One of interesting and tricky topics is what kind of traits are considered as relevant for considering diversity.
Sometimes it is treated as obvious, sometimes it is limited to race and gender, sometimes both.
Also, how to distinguish “OSM community has problem” from “OSM community metrics are not matching general population metrics due to external reason”. For example, people from North Korea are under-represented, but for the most part it is not fault of OSM community but people people oppressing them in general.
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I think there is an inherent conflict between certain types of inclusion due to differences in beliefs between countries. for instance the discussion about lgbt friendly countries and official sotm events, i can’t remember what the final decision was but there was a point brought up that most of the lgbt friendly countries are in europe and north america (which are already overrepresented geographically). as our goal is to create as complete of a map as possible, i think we should focus more on geographic inclusion.
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I think everyone would love to see more inclusion of people and events in more countries. Unfortunately some more conservatives/theocratic countries make it that impossible because of how dangerous it for some people to enter. In particular those identifing as LGBT+ or those with conflicting beliefs could be arrested or imprisoned purely for those differences. This is not the way to create a safe or inclusive atmosphere for people interested in sharing ideas about mapping. It is one thing to arrested for a threat or act of violence, it is another in case of an accidentally offensive of someone’s religious sensibilities. I personally would not attend an event if there was a chance I could end up on jail because i said the wrong thing.
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Yo, I think we’re trying to take diversity & safety seriously here. It’s not cool to talk about how some groups of people are optional and harming you, like this. I think the Etiquette Guidelines apply here. I’m sure @forums-governance is happy to help clarify.
Yes, the Etiquette Guidelines apply in this space. If you believe that a post violates them, you can flag it to bring it to moderators’ attention.
(Personally, I would not come to the conclusion that the EGs have been violated here – but I’m not a moderator. The board’s 2021-10 decision to adopt the State of the Map safety policy was an attempt to reconcile the needs of different groups we wish to feel welcome in our community, and it is absolutely possible for reasonable people to disagree with the solution we arrived at.)
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