[Osmf-talk] Financing the OSMF

[Robert Kaiser]

Jonathan schrieb:
>  I'm nervous about
> accepting money from corporations however necessary it may be
> sometimes. [...]
>
> Like Kate I feel more can be got from National or Super-National
> organisations from Governments to the UN, EU or other regional
> organisations such as the Arab League etc.


I'm not sure I'd trust something like the NSA (government organization) 
more than companies like MapQuest or ESRI when they want to support OSM 
- which in all those cases could be helpful to the interests of those 
organizations or companies.

I would not make a big difference between government organizations or 
companies, both have interests/agendas and things they want out of OSM - 
or might just like what we do and be benevolent in supporting us.

The core issue is of course that if we want some money from someone 
(that may be private people, non-profit organizations, government 
organizations, or companies), we need to give them some value in return. 
For some of them, knowing that their contribution helps us to exist, and 
so ensuring they have access to our data and maps, is all they want - 
for either of those groups. And that should be the main part, but many 
will want something else in addition, like them being mentioned as a 
sponsor in some significant place (companies and organizations often 
need to be able to show that to their managers for rectifying why they 
paid something). Some of them may want more than that.

We need to accept that there ain't no such thing as a free lunch. We 
want money to be able to sustain and grow our project. We need to be 
willing to think about trade-offs that come with that.

Robert Kaiser