[Osmf-talk] freestanding office building of the "OpenStreetMap Foundation" in Geneva, Switzerland

[Oleksiy Muzalyev]

Hello,

Here is the location of the "Doctors Without Borders" ( Médecins Sans 
Frontières) office in Geneva:

http://osm.org/go/0CFn7lm_M--?m=

location of the "The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)" 
office is here:

http://osm.org/go/0CFn9l_BE--?m=

The "International Organization for Migration" office:

http://osm.org/go/0CFyoDWYM-?m=

As you can see all these and some other organizations, which are dealing 
with international disaster relief, building refugee camps, organizing 
field hospitals and pharmacies, are situated in the same area of Geneva.

I suggest the following plan:

1) we make the OSM map of the Republic and Canton of Geneva as good as 
it could be. It means close to 100% addressable. It is doable and the 
OSM community in Geneva is already working on it.

2) we search for a suitable building in this area. I suggest a 2-3 story 
freestanding building (the MSF, the ICRC, the IOM, etc. are situated in 
modest, but solid freestanding buildings)

The building should contain a conference hall, rooms for OSM GIS 
training and certification, research & development laboratories, 
logistics premises for organizing cartography field missions.

Any disaster relief mission, or any refugee camp needs a timely good 
map. Having the "OpenStreetMap Foundation" office close to international 
humanitarian organizations and UN offices would allow even closer 
cooperation and coordination between humanitarian, UN and OSM mapping 
communities.

A lot of buildings are being constructed and renovated in Geneva 
nowadays. Finding such a building in this area is also doable.

3) The building must be in this rather prestigious area and must be 
freestanding. So it means at least 20 - 30 millions USD or CHF.

If a good building is selected and agreed upon, a good business plan 
(should involve "The Humanitarian OpenStreetMap" http://hotosm.org/ ) is 
created, a new donation drive may be announced. Perhaps, a donor 
recognition plaque outside or/and inside the building could be offered 
to a donor?

In any case, we continue to work on the OSM map of Geneva via 
on-the-ground surveys, so that the OSM is well presented in the city at 
least virtually, and we start to collect data (HD photos, prices, 
measurements, etc.) on freestanding office buildings for sale in this 
area of Geneva.

With best regards,

Oleksiy Muzalyev
http://www.openstreetmap.org/user/Alex-7
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/User:Alex-7