[Osmf-talk] false Microsoft "big dollars" rumour

Gregory Marler sotm at livingwithdragons.com
Thu Apr 19 22:53:44 UTC 2012


An official (on the OSMF blog, not OSM wiki!) list of donors would be 
very good to be grateful to all of them. It also makes it easier to show 
that OSM isn't Microsoft's, nor it's secret weapon, but that have 
organisations have supported OSM just as much/more.

If you've got something like this, then the community can do the time 
consuming work of telling every journalist/article they are wrong, while 
providing a citation.
Yes nearly every press article has errors, but we are very good at 
pointing these out because normally we can reference sources that say 
what the case is.

Gregory.

On 10/04/12 04:19, Kate Chapman wrote:
> All,
>
> Honestly, how many times of your seen a news article that is right
> about anything you are intimately involved?  Heck has anyone given
> "big dollars" to OpenStreetMap really?
>
> I think it is important to balance the importance of being right, but
> also not make it appear that OpenStreetMap is a hostile environment
> for companies to actually help.  Maybe a more positive approach would
> be to list donors/supporters somewhere (if this doesn't already
> exist)?
>
> -Kate
>
> On Mon, Apr 9, 2012 at 8:02 PM, Frederik Ramm<frederik at remote.org>  wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>>
>> On 04/10/2012 12:11 AM, Steve Coast wrote:
>>>> "OSMF has not received any donations or support, monetary or
>>>> otherwise, from Microsoft" (adorned with language that says of
>>>> course the community is thankful for their imagery and that of
>>>> course were they offer money we'd gladly take it etc etc)
>>>
>>> That's not the case. Microsoft sponsored SOTM 2011. Microsoft also
>>> hosted the OSMF in-person board meeting in, I think, November?
>>
>> Right. But these don't really justify the press speaking of "big dollars".
>> So maybe our announcement should be that we haven't received, or been
>> promised, anything in 2012.
>>
>>
>>> Responding to every press article is sub-optimal.
>>
>> I agree. I wouldn't have brought up the matter if this had been an isolated
>> incident. Sadly, as soon as one of the big players is involved, the press
>> seem to be even more careless than they usually are, in their frantic bid to
>> be the first to report about "Microsoft's secret weapon" or whatever they
>> make up.
>>
>> A one-paragraph blog posting that explains our relationship with Microsoft
>> would really help to clear this up.
>>
>> Bye
>> Frederik
>>
>>
>> --
>> Frederik Ramm  ##  eMail frederik at remote.org  ##  N49°00'09" E008°23'33"
>>
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