[Osmf-talk] Budget for 2016

[Mark Obrembalski]

Am 01.05.2016 um 23:41 schrieb Simon Poole:
>> There's another kind of reading it which I prefer: We can't buy
>> hardware in 2017 unless we find new funding sources. We can't spend
>> more money on trademark issues (what are the high expenses in 2016
>> about, BTW) unless we find new funding sources.
>
> The trademark related costs are mainly additional
> registrations/expansion of coverage. We are being fairly (some might say
> very) frugal there, but they are simply an expensive proposition
> (naturally -not- registering has the potential to be far more expensive).

I'm sure better protecting our trademarks is a sensible thing to do. I 
just would like to see an explanation about what exactly is to be done 
in the budget when we suddenly spend a lot more for this purpose than we 
used to. Of course, this can be just a reference to relevant documents 
outside the budget itself.

But, well, we just can't continue in protecting our trademarks as 
planned if we lack funding. We shouldn't just go on with paying money as 
planned for protecting our trademarks until we get bust - and as soon as 
we are nearly bust take desperate steps just to avoid bankruptcy. Of 
course, this is not especially about trademark issues, in fact I think 
there is a lot to be said for giving priority to trademark issues 
because there missing a deadline can do permanent damage to us. So, for 
not getting bust, we might better first cut down on something else. 
Maybe hardware. I would hate our servers to get slower and slower, but 
this is something we can reverse as soon as we get additional funding. 
No deadlines involved here. And no, we shouldn't tell people to 
specifically donate for hardware in this case but only for 
general-purpose donations. And when we get additional funds we should 
first use them to avoid hitting deadlines for trademarks and only later 
to speed up our slow servers. Of course, there may be hardware issues 
which have to be resolved quickly in order not to suffer permanent 
damage. It's not hardware vs. trademarks, it's permanent vs. temporary 
damage.

> The OSMF is not exactly throwing money out of the window, while there is
> some room for cuts, it is unlikely that they are going to radically
> alter the overall picture.

I sure don't think OSMF is throwing money out of the window. However I 
expect the OSMF rather to do without face-to-face meetings of the board 
than to take desperate steps to get funding or let expire crucial 
trademarks.

Mark

-- 
falls es militärisch dringend erforderlich ist, dürfen NATO Soldaten
auch mit dem Fahrrad in der Fußgängerzone fahren...
[Martin Koppenhöfer legt in der OSM-Mailingliste de-talk die StVO aus]