I like all that you say here, and importantly, the very good intentions of everyone who posted in this thread is entirely legible to me.
I agree that the need to hear different points of view is essential and that it needs to happen in a public forum. As an American, I have a strong predilection for and tolerance of free speech ideology and the importance of free thought and free discourse. I have no interest in the trend toward sanitizing or "moderating" intellectual discussion. This leads only to mediocrity and, in the worst case, censorship and groupthink. All that said, there are folks in Talk-OSM who could learn two or three very easy, very commonly used, rhetorical techniques that make spirited discourse more effective and more inclusive to more ideas and more styles of thinking. I believe that my team's research project can provide some data-backed best practices for this, which is why I am so passionately advocating for it. I know OSM'ers need data to back community proposals, so I am hoping we can provide it. I also believe that it doesn't hurt anyone to take a beat, reflect on the feedback that they are getting, and try to keep an open mind. It's important for folks to not expect everyone, all over the world, across experience, across nations, culture, professions, training, and etc. to communicate like a European engineer or data analyst. Every great team-- every great innovation--every great technological leap forward--came from two or three or ten people, working together, who had a diverse range of skills, thinking styles, and ways of communicating.The starting point for truly synergistic collaboration is communicating with openness and curiosity instead of scorn and defensiveness. I don't think it's putting too fine a point on it to say that OSM is at an inflection point. Can the community work together to meet the phenomenally interesting challenges of this decade? In my opinion, it can, and should. Or is it going to keep doing the same old flame wars? It's precisely because I care very much about the future of this remarkable community that I am insisting on a reckoning in this area. It's not really about my team's survey and research project. It's about the future of the project. Can we grow and evolve? Or not? I think the moment is upon us to find out. On Mon, May 1, 2023 at 4:02 PM Mike Thompson <miketh...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > On Sun, Apr 30, 2023 at 10:42 PM Ewen Hill <ewen.h...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> Hi all, >> I am really disappointed by the anger and outrage in this thread and >> that, to castigate a volunteer in public, >> > I understand you, and some others may feel this way, but what I am seeing > is simply an exchange of ideas between people that have different points of > view - some of those views are very strongly held. If that is your idea of > "anger, outrange, and castigation", then we have a problem, because for the > vitality of the community - and our individual development and learning - > we need to be able to express our views and hear views from others. The > only "anger" I heard was towards companies that some on this mailing list > believe compromise our privacy. Whether you agree with those people or > not, I don't think there is a problem with anger directed at such companies > and their alleged behavior - but perhaps others feel differently. If > there was a particular statement or statements that you felt were > problematic, perhaps you could point to the general type of case (probably > shouldn't call folks out by name) so that the rest of us could learn and > improve. > > > >> >> I hope in future, that if someone objects strongly to a scenario >> presented, then they contact the original poster directly first and if they >> have no luck, then reply to the group. >> > It is important that these debates happen in the open so we all can hear > all different points of view. For example, you responded to the entire > list, and now we know you feel there has been "anger, outrage, and > catigation" on this list. If you provide more details to the list, I am > sure most of us will make an effort to do better (as long as it doesn't > involve refraining from expressing our views and debating the issues). > > Mike > _______________________________________________ > talk mailing list > talk@openstreetmap.org > https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk > -- --Courtney Cook Williamson survivalbybook.substack.com
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