[Osmf-talk] Draft New Corporate Membership Tiers

[Christoph Hormann]

On Wednesday 27 April 2016, Kate Chapman wrote:
>
> [...] but
> they have their own General Counsel that would like to speak to
> another lawyer. This is typically how companies operate

Yes, but this is usually to make legal deals, often of confidential 
nature, for mutural benefit.  For the OSM project this kind of deal is 
IMO neither possible nor desirable. 

> Calls with board members: This is intended to help people internally
> "sell" the corporate membership within their organizations.

And what is the selling point here if not the implied influence on OSMF 
politics?

> Though if organizations are interested in this why not help fund the
> OSMF?

Because it is not necessarily in the interest of the OSM community.  It 
seems to me trying to offer what corporations ask for is not a good 
approach because this would ultimately mean submitting to their 
interests for the purpose of making money.  Better to ask what the OSMF 
and the OSM community have to offer that could be of interest for 
corporations, whether they already know it or not - and that is 
primarily experience and knowledge w.r.t. the OSM project.  Offering to 
share this kind of expertise to me seems much more appropriate for a 
cooperation on a level playing field.

Yes, offering this as a service is difficult to do without the 
administrative overhead eating up most of the money.  But you could 
view this more as brokering contacts between experienced community 
members and corporations without actually giving advise and training 
yourself.  This could still be worth a lot to many companies because 
for them it is often difficult to find the right people to approach 
with problems and questions they have.

-- 
Christoph Hormann
http://www.imagico.de/