[Osmf-talk] Good Job!

[Frederik Ramm]

Hi,

    I just wanted to say that I am positively surprised by the latest 
post on blog.osmfoundation.org regarding Apple's use of our data.

Reading the echoes of this in the blogosphere, OSM(F) is almost 
universally praised for its reaction. Communications professionals say 
it was a masterful stroke to say "Welcome, Apple" instead of, e.g., 
"Thieving bastards steal OSM data". And even those who are not in the 
business of manipulating opinion and who don't see a clever plan behind 
every communication say that our reaction was cool.

I'm very happy that it has turned out this way, and I would hope that we 
could aim for this kind of non-confrontational communication in the 
future as well.

For a while - remembering the recent anti-Google outbursts - I had 
feared that OSMF would perhaps go all confrontational and post something 
indignant about "considering our legal options" and stuff.

Of course this doesn't mean that we should let anyone get away without 
proper attribution but the post found just the right words to express 
that in a non-threatening but still nagging way: "It’s also missing the 
necessary credit to OpenStreetMap’s contributors; we look forward to 
working with Apple to get that on there."

Clearly lessons have been learned here. Good job!

Bye
Frederik

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