[Osmf-talk] Funding of iD Development and Maintenance

[Allan Mustard]

My two manats' worth:

In addition to what Mikel has outlined, the Board has examined the
question of why the Foundation effectively outsources support of key
software to private third parties, which in the view of some community
members gives those third parties ultimate control of the software. 
There have been calls for the Foundation to begin funding key software,
such as iD. 

Now, there are basically three ways forward.  Two are status quo ante,
the first being outsourcing key software support to a third party (e.g.,
Mapbox's and Critigen's previous support of iD, now ended, or Facebook's
ongoing support of RapiD), the second being the 100% volunteer do-ocracy
approach.  The third approach is for the Foundation to solicit donations
from a variety of sources (corporations using our data, philanthropic
organizations, other donors) and using those funds to support software
development.  The advantage of such an approach is that no single
outside entity has full control of a particular software project. This
last approach places more control of software development in the hands
of the Board and through it the community, but comes with certain
drawbacks (the Board is not structured well for such a management
function, which is why we want to resurrect the Engineering Working
Group, and we do not yet have a formal fundraising structure in place).

The worst case scenario is that if no funding were to be forthcoming
from any source, and no third-parties supported software, OSM would
revert to the 100% volunteer do-ocracy model, which has the drawback of
long time frames for completion of projects since volunteers work in
their spare time.  This is do-able but probably not optimal for "key" or
"core" infrastructure.  It remains, however, a possible path forward if
that is what the community wants.

All of the above is why the Board resolved to ask for community feedback
on the proposal.  This Board does not claim to have all the answers, and
solicits community ideas and thoughts in search of a solution. 

apm

On 8/3/2020 10:03 AM, Mikel Maron wrote:
> Here's some information on the financial planning, and the factors the Board has been considering.
>
> The most recent treasurer's report with reported numbers was February and had OSMF with holdings of 613K EUR
> https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Board/Minutes/2020-02#Treasurer.27s_report I just checked accounts as of today, and OSMF is at 636K EUR in cash
>
> Support for nominatim, potlatch, osm2pgsql would come from existing funds, and totals 22.5K EUR
>
> For the SSRE and iD roles, we don't have final figures but are looking at approximately 250K EUR for a year for both. The plan is to fundraise for these roles, rather than draw from existing funds.
>
> So overall the impact on 2020-2021 accounts in not major.
>
>
> We're soon starting more thorough planning, budgeting and funding plans for years beyond the next one. To early to say much about how this will look, and how things develop with our current plans will be an important part of the assessment. Suffice to say, a top line intention is to not start drawing down our savings but to keep funds in reserve, and to make plans and secure funding that makes this all sustainable.
>
> -Mikel
>
> For 2019, we approved the accounts in June https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Board/Minutes/2020-06#2020.2FRes30_Approve_official_accounts_for_2019 and those are linked from the minutes
>
> * Mikel Maron * +14152835207 @mikel s:mikelmaron
>
>
> On Sunday, August 2, 2020, 12:06:43 PM EDT, Simon Poole <simon at poole.ch> wrote: 
>
>
> Mikel
>
> Seriously, could we please get a budget including this and the other
> expenses we haven't had in previous years (that is microgrants, software
> development and anything else) and forecasted income? And including how
> much the OSMF wants to reserve for disaster recovery and how many years
> of operations should be supported at the current level if funding dries up.
>
> Making up things as you go along is fine and dandy, but there is a bit
> of fiscal responsibility involved in this whole thing and as far as I
> can tell, right now the OSMF wouldn't even notice a derailing.
>
> Simon
>
> PS: seems as if the 2019 tax filing (which should have happened by now)
> is missing from the OSMF website, I kind of remember it being there
> earlier this year, so maybe it has got lost some how.
>
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