<html><head><style type="text/css"><!-- DIV {margin:0px;} --></style></head><body><div style="font-family:times new roman,new york,times,serif;font-size:12pt">Richard,<div style="font-family: times new roman,new york,times,serif; font-size: 12pt;"><div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><br>> Most people I know believe that OSM needs to develop to become more <br>> user-friendly, more capable, harder, better, faster, stronger. We're <br>> agreed on that.<br>> <br>> But there are two viewpoints on how we get there.<br>> <br>> One viewpoint is that you need usability reviews, consultants, funding <br>> plans and Needs Summaries to work out what to do.<br>> <br>> The other viewpoint is that OSM is full of talented people who already <br>> want to build cool user-friendly stuff, and the priority should be to <br>> encourage a welcoming, friendly community where these talented people <br>>
can thrive.<br> <br>There's no need to make this so black and white. I think the characterization<br>of the first viewpoint is unfair, and is trying to paint this exercise as bureaucratic<br>and corporate. <br><br>User experience is important to consider. Consultants ... who said anything about that?<br>Funding plans ... um, that's exactly what the OSMF has done since its inception.<br>The needs summary is just a concise statement of where OSM currently stands.<br><br>> I'm strongly of the latter view and I think that's what Frederik is <br>> saying too. OSM has already developed from a fascinating, but unusable, <br>> unholy mess used by 20 geeks in 2005, into a massive, fast-moving <br>> worldwide project with 200,000+ registered users. That's entirely our <br>> doing. Are we capable, on our own, of taking that to 1m users? Evidence <br>> to date suggests: hell yes.<br><br>"Our doing"? Why this us and them? OSM has never existed
in a vacuum.<br>And while we've never asked for permission, when offers of help have come,<br>and our community has grown, we've always been very open to that.<br><br>-Mikel<br><br><br><br></div></div>
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