Well, how could we possibly enforce that? People are free to discuss OpenStreetMap wherever we like - we canât prowl round physical and virtual places and put a physical or virtual bag over someoneâs head if they start talking about OSM in an âunauthorised locationâ. That said, itâs a shame when a group chooses a platform that isnât open to everyone (such as one of the US corporate giants that may be on the wrong side of a firewall in other parts of the world).
The OSMF has a Commitment to Open Communication Channels, which means that when the board or a working group say anything publicly it canât only be said on e.g. Slack/Loomio/etc. - it needs to be said where everyone can see it. It might also be said on Slack (if I was saying something that primarily was aimed at the US community itâd be daft to ignore the place that most of them congregate).
However, no-one is forcing any OSM user to use a non-free channel. Although itâs probably the most popular channel, plenty of US-based mappers donât use Slack. In the UK the Loomio group that OSMUK use seems to be relatively inactive compared with e.g. the mailing list. That doesnât mean that Loomio isnât good for what the OSMUK people want to use it for; just that there are all sorts of mappers in all sorts of places and one size does not fit all.
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