[Osmf-talk] SotM2011: What's next?
Jaak Laineste
jaak at nutiteq.com
Tue Jul 20 07:58:49 UTC 2010
I think it would be better to charge small amount for workshops, mainly to
get more commitment from attendees, not to use it as a cash cow.
Regarding funding in general: hopefully OSM will be soon mature enough to
do massive sponsorship campaigns, like Wikipedia plans to rise 20 MUSD this
year and has now about 50 paid professionals to maintain the core
infrastructure, do fund-rising, PR and other key activities. Of course this
is matter of long-time vision - would we want to become strong and
professional (but also less fun) or remain like it is, for fun project based
to volunteers only in both mapper and maintainer level. In many cases it has
been proven that volunteer-only activities won't last forever: the key
people who keep the project running get tired, move on to other new and
exciting things, get children and demanding spouses etc. Mapping itself
could and should always be fun-powered. This would certainly mean quite
different cost structure and revenue requirements. Are we ready to move on?
Jaak
-----Original Message-----
From: osmf-talk-bounces at openstreetmap.org
[mailto:osmf-talk-bounces at openstreetmap.org] On Behalf Of Nick Black
Sent: Monday, July 19, 2010 8:31 PM
To: Andy Robinson (blackadder)
Cc: osmf-talk at openstreetmap.org
Subject: Re: [Osmf-talk] SotM2011: What's next?
Good point Andy. And agree with carefully reviewing the budget.
My point is:
* Is SOTM about making money for the Foundation or providing a forum for
people to learn about OSM, share experiences and so on? (the two do not have
to be mutually exclusive)
* If its about making money for the Foundation, there's probably better ways
to do that than charging attendees (eg long term sponsorship of the
project).
--
Nick
On 19 Jul 2010, at 09:05, Andy Robinson (blackadder) wrote:
> Nick Black wrote:
>> Sent: 19 July 2010 8:35 AM
>> To: SteveC
>> Cc: osmf-talk at openstreetmap.org
>> Subject: Re: [Osmf-talk] SotM2011: What's next?
>>
>> We charge for the conference so that there is no risk of the
>> Foundation losing money if sponsorship does not materialise.
>> Attendee fees cover venue hire and basic equipment and catering.
>> Sponsor money covers more exciting catering options, plus the
>> Saturday evening meal. Most of the sponsor money goes back to the OSM-F.
>
> That's not quite correct. In reality the attendance fees do not cover
> the cost of venue and food, they did for the first SOTM but then the
> venue was principally free, since then there has been a widening gap
> between basic venue and food costs and the amount returned by delegate
registrations.
>
> I'd recommend that for next year the budget and outturn cost for this
> year's SOTM be carefully reviewed before setting the budget for 2011.
> While we will have some surplus funds this year it won't be a
> significant amount despite the impressive size of commercial sponsorship.
>
>
>>
>> So if the point of workshops is education and outreach, we could make
>> them free / very low cost. If the point is to make money for the
>> Foundation, there are probably more effective ways of raising money
>> from NGOs and other organisations who have indicated that they are
willing to donate to OSM-F.
>>
>> --
>> Nick
>>
>> On 18 Jul 2010, at 18:04, SteveC wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>> On 7/17/10 7:18 AM, Emilie Laffray wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On 17 July 2010 12:14, Nick Black <nick at blacksworld.net> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Interesting idea - but is the main point to collect revenue or
>>>>> educate
>> people? It seems that there are lots of opportunities for collecting
>> sponsorship and donations for OSM-F, but less opportunities for
>> education and outreach. Maybe workshops should be for fee?
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> I agree with the fact that charging for workshops would go against
>>>>> the
>> desire to educate people. Charging for asked-for workshops might be
>> something to look at in a different context.
>>>> workshops are also excellent sponsorship opportunities for businesses.
>>>
>>> er, why do we charge for the conference at all then?
>>>
>>> Steve
>>>
>>> stevecoast.com
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> osmf-talk mailing list
>>> osmf-talk at openstreetmap.org
>>> http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/osmf-talk
>>
>>
>>
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--
Nick Black
twitter.com/nick_b
nick at blacksworld.net
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