OpenStreetMap Foundation] Voting on 2021 board election

Hi
For some reason I have voting rights at this election.
I don’t know so much about those up for election. I have watched a few meetings online and some members stands out.

Can anyone advice me who is “Thailand friendly”?

For reference, here is a list of candidates to this year’s election:

https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Foundation/AGM21/Election_to_Board

This year there are four seats available for vote. See above site for member bio.

My **PERSONAL **opinion on the candidates and how it might benefit the Thailand community:

As OSMF is very international, there is no direct benefit for Thailand community expected. I advise to vote for candidates which are more in favor of a strong local community. This means less focused on big tech companies with paid and assisted mapping.

We got support back when Facebook tried out their mapping activities in Thailand. I disagree with the way Facebook did this and also their “relaxed” way of attributing OSM copyright is problematic. So all candidates from Facebook do not get a vote from my side. I also tend to stay away from candidates with strong HOT relation, as they seem to much focused on harvesting donations than caring for the quality of their edits. See the mess around the malaria projects in Thailand or other activities driven by them.

Proposal to order the candidates in OPA-vote in this order:

  1. Amanda M. Supported us at the beginning when Facebook edits started. Note a name change.
  2. Roland O. Good track record of OSM contributions and author of overpass. Rooted in the community.
  3. Guillaume R. Helped me once to fix issues with osmose software. Community member.

Remaining candidates all have more or less a tendency to have conflicts of interest with their employers. I propose the following order:
4) Mikel M
5) Bryan H
6) Michal M

as stated: this is my personal opinion. Please take your time to form your own opinion. Read the candidates manifest and check this against the mail archives for a reality check.

I was leaning towards Amanda as she sounds like a voice of reason and calm on the OSMF-talk mailing list.
Thanks. My vote is casted.