[Osmf-talk] SotM2011: What's next?

[Jonathan Harley]

On 19/07/10 18:30, Nick Black wrote:
> 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)
>    

It can be about both of those, but surely there are other things it can 
be about too. Things like developing the OSM community and keeping it 
cohesive and moving forward as the membership changes.

As OSM grows, I think it's important that the Foundation continues to 
reflect the needs and wishes of the community. In other communities, you 
sometimes see community leaders diverge disastrously from what community 
members really want. So I see an important function of SotM going 
forward as the place where the foundation can keep in touch with the 
membership (particularly as the actual people on the board, and doing 
the mapping, change over the years). I'd like to see the foundation's 
AGM and working group meetings as central to SotM - not just scheduled 
during a lunch break!

> * 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).

If it's about making money for the Foundation, I'd like to see a lot 
more debate on what the Foundation wants the money for.

Not that I can't think of plenty of things - for example with my 
business hat on, I'm a bit alarmed how dependent OSM is on a tiny number 
of key volunteers. Until it's rich enough to hire some full-time staff, 
I'd like to see the OSMF keeping a fund so that when things go wrong, 
professional help can be hired immediately to fix stuff. Companies which 
use OSM data commercially ought to be willing to contribute to this 
(especially the profitable ones!)

As I said, I can think of plenty of good reasons why the OSMF should be 
trying to make money, but I don't remember seeing anything much in the 
way of debate about it. Perhaps the Foundation should develop an open 
list of its spending priorities?


Jonathan.