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<p><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">The fact that emergency
services now use online maps generated from OSM data to respond
to fire, police, and ambulance calls is a strong indication that
OSM is more than only a hobby at this point. Yes, it is a
hobby, still, but not exclusively or purely.</font><br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 4/17/2020 11:05 AM, Mikel Maron
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:80507580.1470327.1587135958311@mail.yahoo.com">
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> <span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;
background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Corporate involvement
in OSM is a fact of life. OSM has evolved away from only being
a hobby for craft mappers dependent on cast-off equipment into
something else.</span>
<div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br>
</span></div>
<div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">I know I keep
repeating myself on this point Allan. Companies and
organizations have been a part of OSM since practically day 1.
There’s been evolution and major growth, but not ever from a
pure hobby endeavor.<br>
</span><br>
Mikel<br>
<p class="yahoo-quoted-begin" style="font-size: 15px; color:
#715FFA; padding-top: 15px; margin-top: 0">On Friday, April
17, 2020, 10:50 AM, Allan Mustard <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:allan@mustard.net"><allan@mustard.net></a>
wrote:</p>
<blockquote class="iosymail">
<div id="yiv9980282681">
<div>
<p>Christoph, by that logic nobody should use the iD
editor, OSM's default editor (and I suspect most used
editor), which has been heavily supported by private
companies. By that logic we should also reject
corporate sponsorship of tile caches.<br clear="none">
</p>
<p>Corporate involvement in OSM is a fact of life. OSM
has evolved away from only being a hobby for craft
mappers dependent on cast-off equipment into something
else. We can ignore that evolution at our peril, or we
can seek to deal with the evolution, retaining as much
of the spirit of individual do-ocracy as possible while
acknowledging that corporate involvement is not going to
go away.</p>
<p>One other point--the corporations have made clear in my
conversations with them that local knowledge from
volunteer mappers is the key to the value of OSM to
them, and they therefore have no interest in "taking
over" the project or indeed in activities that would
discourage local craft mappers. Some of them are in
fact supporting local communities of volunteer mappers
in Asia. I believe the threat to OSM emanates not from
the corporations supporting us now, but rather from
external actors who either view OSM as a competitor or
simply may want ownership of the current very valuable
data without concern for potentially damaging or killing
the project. I do not believe it is useful for us to
denigrate our current corporate sponsors and supporters,
who appear to grok OSM, while ignoring more realistic
potential threats.</p>
<p>apm<br clear="none">
</p>
<div class="yiv9980282681yqt4964490979"
id="yiv9980282681yqtfd74673">
<div class="yiv9980282681moz-cite-prefix">On 4/17/2020
6:28 AM, Christoph Hormann wrote:<br clear="none">
</div>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre class="yiv9980282681moz-quote-pre">On Thursday 16 April 2020, Rory McCann wrote:
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre class="yiv9980282681moz-quote-pre">OSM is a do-ocracy. 😉 FOSSGIS (or others) hasn't set up or arranged
an alternative. We have one option. Ergo that options wins. 😉😉
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre class="yiv9980282681moz-quote-pre">I am sorry for drifting a bit off-topic in this thread - but the above
indicates potentially a rather problematic mixing of two things that do
not mix well. I am not sure if this is meant ironically - but to make
sure, even if it is, that it is not widely read and taken at face
value - the following comment.
OSM can in the long term only work as a do-ocracy as far as volunteer
work of individual independent volunteers is concerned. Mixing in
organized and especially corporate activity into the do-ocratic domain
would destabilize the whole thing. A company like Google could
essentially take over the project by donating sufficient manpower and
resources if do-ocratic principles are interpreted to apply to
organized and corporate activities as well.
People are much less likely to volunteer their personal time and
resources if they see these being just used and purely valued as a
cheap substitute for commercial services. Saying: "We take whatever
option is offered to us according to 'Einem geschenkten Gaul schaut man
nicht ins Maul' and - should that fail at some point we will take money
to buy a substitute" is much less likely to motivate volunteers than
saying "We use this commercial service for testing now but in the long
term we would rather use and depend on volunteer provided and managed
services - even if that means we cannot just use our checkbook to make
them do what we want them to do".
Again - this comment is not meant to criticize what has been done, it is
meant to raise problem awareness for the future.
</pre>
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