[Osmf-talk] seeking feedback on needs summary

[Mikel Maron]

Frederik,

Carefully tried to balance this active debate, and not give any foregone conclusions. I've added even more qualifying language here. 

I actually think there is a lot of common ground on this debate, but that we need to be careful about wording and exact activities in order to discover what we as a whole want to do. OSM never just happened, in fact has always involved a lot of outreach. Now, interest in OSM is growing fast, we don't need to do much more for that ... but to get those folks to stick around and become active contributors, I believe there's something we can do to _support_ this. There's long been interest in curriculum on OSM, and white papers to make the concise argument in government for data release. There are places, like most of Africa, where natural uptake lags significantly behind the competition, and I do strongly believe that some places will take outreach.

The needs summary isn't saying that these are things that we need to do, but that it's important we at least think about them. Hope this is all clearer.

-Mikel


4.    Use of proceedsOpenStreetMap is on the threshold of
extremely rapid growth. We are nearing 235,000 registered users, and
12,500 users contributing every month, and if the past few years
exponential increase continues, we could see over 1 million registered
users by the end of 2010. The project is gaining wide attention in the
media, and in governmental circles, attracting the interest of new
kinds of communities in new places. We must prepare to scale up to meet
this increase.

OpenStreetMap is a volunteer community. We have
no forgone conclusions on what funding might cover, or if it's
absolutely necessary, so the details here are only a rough sketch of
things, and not exhaustive. These are things we might like to do, may
or may not require additional resources, but certainly do require
coordination and time. The process of thinking about OSM growth and the
potential resources and advice available to us, this process is
essential as we bootstrap into a more responsive organization.

Our
technical infrastructure is solid, but will need to grow ... more
servers, larger hosting capacity. The core software platform is
maintained by volunteers, but may need support. And our heroic sysadmin
crew will certainly need to grow.

Much of OSM's community comes
from the open source and other technical communities. Non-techies often
do climb the learning curve, but contribution to OSM certainly does
remain beyond the reach of many. We have great need to invest in the
user experience of OSM. Our documentation and training materials need
work to be accessible in new communities. Already active efforts to
introduce the OpenStreetMap approach into government may need
considerable support. Curriculum development could rapidly increase
uptake in academia. Many parts of the world face considerable social
and economic challenges which may require focused efforts. Local
chapters may need assistance in their own OSM advocacy strategy and
projects. Communication between dispersed parts of this global project
can benefit from more facilitation. OSMF wishes to build on and support the organic processes already in place.

The OSM
Foundation itself has grappled with many organizational questions, and
the Board and Foundation membership overloaded with duties. Much of the
constitution of the Foundation needs examination. Legal questions arise
often. Financial questions arise often. OSMF can well benefit from
advice and support to build an organization capable of handling the
coming growth, and effectively disperse responsibility.



 == Mikel Maron ==
+254(0)724899738 @mikel s:mikelmaron
http://mapkibera.org/
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/index.php/Haiti




________________________________
From: Frederik Ramm <frederik at remote.org>
To: Milo van der Linden <milo at dogodigi.net>
Cc: osmf-talk at openstreetmap.org
Sent: Mon, March 22, 2010 1:11:04 AM
Subject: Re: [Osmf-talk] seeking feedback on needs summary

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 ;-)



>> 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"

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