[Osmf-talk] seeking feedback on needs summary

[Frederik Ramm]

Milo,

Milo van der Linden wrote:
> Nonsense, it is a marketing way of telling "our power is in the masses 
> and we would like to know if you would be interested to help discover 
> how to attract the masses" which is exactly why we need support from 
> outside. 

But are we not already attracting masses?

You make it sound as if OSM were stagnating. But in fact not a day goes 
by without someone, somewhere, mapping something for the first time, and 
adding a previously unmapped area to the map.

I am totally awed by this success, and by how we manage to attract 
people all over the planet *without* actually trying hard! Compare this 
to all the money e.g. Google throws at marketing their Map Maker. If 
success were determined by how much resources you put into trying to 
convince people that you're good, OSM should be dead and Map Maker would 
rule ;-)

> Maybe in your area. Here in the Netherlands, OSM growth is slow and I 
> know a lot of places in the world still don't know anything about 
> OpenStreetMap.

Undoubtedly many don't know about OpenStreetMap. But every day more 
people know about it, and while I don't want to say "exponential", the 
progress is at least better than linear.

>> In my eyes this is not a discussion that we have had in the Foundation, 
>> but I think it is very important because it has the potential of 
>> defining a large part of the character of our work (and where our funds go).
>>
>> Has the board among themselves discussed this and reached a conclusion, 
>> or is everyone simply accepting the notion without much thought?
>>   
> Again, this is in my opinion outside the scope of Mikel's "teaser". 

Yes, of course. I was not suggesting that Mikel's document should 
contain such a discussion. I had just noticed that Mikel's document 
contains the idea that "we could use help in actively reaching out for 
more people to participate in OSM"; and if you go to others saying that 
you could use this help, this somehow says that you have actually made 
up your mind that you want it. - I always perceived OSM as doing quite 
well without creating an outreach organisation.

And I'm perfectly happy for OSMF to become one in spite of that - if the 
issue has been weighed and discussed and the consequences thought about.

Bye
Frederik

-- 
Frederik Ramm  ##  eMail frederik at remote.org  ##  N49°00'09" E008°23'33"