[Osmf-talk] Death and evolution

[Frederik Ramm]

Hi,

On 09/26/2014 06:38 PM, Clifford Snow wrote:
> I agree with Pawel. There is obviously a need for development as shown
> by the success of iD. Why didn't we fund that project? We complain about
> Mapbox, yet what have we done? 

I remember discussing the issue with some people at the time. The
question people were asking was: "If Knight found the editor
development, why can't it be the OSMF that gets the money and disbursed
it to developers, instead of a private company?" - and the answer was
that even if we had applied for and won the money, we'd likely have
asked (someone like) Mapbox to do the actual development. And I'm
capitalist enough to believe that a for-profit company will very likely
always be more efficient at allocating resources and reaching goals than
a not-for-profit with a democratically elected leadership.

> I think a number of us are looking for candidates to step forward to
> lead OSM. Recent emails point to challenges that OSMF should be
> tackling, such as diversity.

Well, recent emails point in all sorts of wild directions and it is
totally unclear if OSMF is even in a position to "tackle diversity" (I
believe it is not). OSMF is a very slow moving affair. Anyone who is
really interested in diversity happening in the project (rather than
just "token diversity" exemplified by a top-down policy document or a
mission statement) would be *much* better off to think of a plan, a
programme, a subproject, a special conference, or whatever, seek out
like-minded individuals, and execute their plan. I don't think that OSMF
will stand in the way of such a project.

At the very best, diversity is something that you can provide room for;
whether it then happens or not is not something that you can control.
Far too many people make it sound as if diversity would automatically
happen if you just want it.

> Instead of waiting for for profit
> corporations to develop tools, we fund that development. 

Sounds easy on paper. You need to fund not only the devs (which you
won't be able to hire since it would just be project based), you'd have
to oversee them too. Manage expectations with the community, and take
the blame because whatever you do, 45% won't like it and will be vocal
about it... and they're all your voters. Come next AGM, you get two new
board members who try to steer the ship in a different direction
(because it's the mandate their voters gave them)... all I'm saying,
there's a lot more to it than meets the eye, certainly without the realm
of what can be done by volunteers.

Bye
Frederik

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