[Osmf-talk] Death and evolution

[Paweł Paprota]

> 
> Do I want a large foundation where power and control are concentrated,
> where professional power people vie for control of the board, and where
> the board in turn is responsible for the livelihood of hundreds or
> thousands of employees? Where decisions that we can now afford to leave
> to the community have to be elevated to whatever executive level because
> suddenly a large donor might disagree with our childcare tagging? Where
> hundreds of thousands of $$$ are spent for a developing a new editor
> that has exactly the kinds of features the board wants? (And while we're
> at it, maybe we need to slap on some DRM so that people cannot simply
> add plugins that circumvent our official tagging rules...?)
> 

Excuse the tone but... what on Earth are you talking about? This is pure
FUD coming from your side and I'd call *that* pretty un-imaginative.
Seriously, can't you see *any* middle ground between what we have now
(stagnation) and what you're describing (some kind of corporate
nightmare scenario)?

> I can see your concerns but I think your call for building a "massive,
> large-scale and well-funded structure" are un-imaginative; even if doing
> so would ensure the survival of something, that something might not be
> OpenStreetMap any more.
> 

For me, what you say is simply alarming given your position. The
disconnect between discussions here and what is really going on is
mind-blowing. On one hand I'd be tempted to simply ignore OSMF as board
members seem to encourage everyone to do ("OSMF would not stand in a way
of X" etc.) but on the other I have this feeling that OSMF is holding
OSM project hostage - you run and fund (?) servers, you decide about
license, imports etc. I'm not saying it's wrong, quite the opposite in
some cases because where would the project be without servers? But
really, ask yourself about what impression on potential serious
contributors are you making as board members by saying such strong
statements.

And here we come to the disconnect again - for which ironically I am
very grateful. Because in the real world there are people like Tom and
Matt who for me, as a developer, are *the* most important people in this
project. When you want to do something in OSM as a coder, you will talk
to these people and you will find out that they are extremely
supportive.

However, reading this list (and specifically yours and Simon's messages)
recently leaves a really bad feeling about the Foundation and I probably
won't be renewing my membership. OSMF's role in the project that you are
propagating is unclear and confusing - on one hand you obviously say you
want project to grow, for all the great things to happen etc. On the
other - you are writing things like the paragraph above. How *exactly*
do you expect the project to grow beyond certain stage without some kind
of fundraising-driven organisation behind it?

Paweł