[Osmf-talk] Consultation on fundraising strategy

Tue Mar 21 06:05:55 UTC 2023

I would propose to the board vote about being willing to accept government
donations: several are directly and indirectly using OpenStreetMap data for
years, even if to revalidate their own geodata.

Examples of how is used:

1. Going on use country by country varies. It's not straightforward to
summarize, however it does exist, just not explicitly organized editing. I
think they're likely to focus on fixing/improving features which are
relevant for what department they work in, which both non international
administrative boundaries (often the very first edits) and roads network be
a common trend. Likely places with far more content, there's more heavy
use. (this is something that could eventually be documented upfront on the
OSM wiki)
2. But at international level, just to give an idea of tip of the iceberg:
OpenStreetMap data is the second major dataset provider on UN OCHA data
portal https://data.humdata.org/organization?sort=datasets%20desc, just
after the World Bank (which is mostly for statistics, not what goes on
OpenStreetMap). And from a significant amount of datasets by organization
uploaders, quite often OpenStreetMap data and directly related ecosystem of
tools are used in part of their data workflow (not hard to think,
considering the world-level alternative tends to be proprietary or
shapefiles). Also, the idea of "Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team United
States Inc" be some kind of a bridge between humanitarian sector and
OpenStreetMap is erroneous: first, by far, most used data from
OpenStreetMap are from non organized editing at all, and then, from what
HOTUSI actually brings for data on OpenStreetMap, buildings without any
metadata (not even if they if they're a house) while take space on map and
is viable have large numbers, have no use at all in emergency response (one
starting point for what is used:
https://humanitarian.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/imtoolbox/pages/242090029/Natural+Disaster+CODs);
not even UN OCHA have any documented use for these generic buildings
promoted by HOTUSI as "humanitarian mapping", but they have for so much
more which OpenStreetMap have. I could talk much more here, but I'm keeping
it short.

> Frederik Ramm said:
> I'm not advocating for either, just pointing out that the need for funds
> is not god-given. Frequently on these mailing lists, a knee-jerk
> reaction of people to various problems is not "how can I help" but "the
OSMF should pay someone to do it" (...)

I'm anxious to help on this, and do it for free, pro bono publico! Then we
could go for others to use their contact network with governments, but even
without more people with me, it is feasible I get some sorts of "letters of
recommendation" from trusted professionals on how OpenStreetMap data is so
essential. It's also a "low risk, high reward" approach, not just because
it's a niche which OpenStreetMap is become the open alternative without
replacement (even comercial alternatives which, for example, can deal with
"world views" on disputed borders depend on OSM data), but because is would
be very, very weird go for government donations (which can sometimes even
be predictable commitment 3 to 5 years ahead) while would be public know
someone would take a %. The logic is similar to why individual OSMF
membership donations would cause trouble as part of this paid fee job, but
in case of going through this kind of donations, a bigger network of
contacts is better.

> Steve Coast says
> One of the many advantages of this is that companies often find it easier
to fund something if there is a reason, something they get in exchange,
like conference slots and so on, rather than throwing money into an eternal
black hole, with nothing to show for it.

No idea how others here have about the government, but to say upfront, how
the government spends money is different from commercial companies. This
thinking is partially applicable. Assuming one is able to prove
OpenStreetMap as a public good (and I personally would focus as
country/province/municipality level, not as foreign aid) then implies is
can suffer Free-rider problem <
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free-rider_problem>, which means the
government can do it, if not profitable from a market perspective. However,
the reason I partially agree is, similar to how companies as donors would
try to act in self interest, a government could naively attempt to try to
influence things related to disputed territories and the default place
names, so it may totally be worth reinforcing things upfront (but this
might already be ready, on this document from 2013
https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/w/images/d/d8/DisputedTerritoriesInformation.pdf).
Governments also often are a source of reference data, so it can be
stimulated to explicitly make it compatible to add to OpenStreetMap, even
if it is not granted if it will be imported. Maybe there's other things
which could be acceptable in exchange (even if it means those who do it are
also volunteers), without any new compromise than already is possible. I
also think that this is a moment of going after governments, even if lower
values are given to OSMF, and then use the contacts to get rights with a
more formal way to import data *to OpenStreetMap* (it's better than letting
potential future competition do it alone). It's up to suggestions of others
any other point I'm missing.

As last comment, others may see less problematic, but for government (if
the contacts are the ones who would think as "aid", not internal use), I
believe is better not accept "earmarking donations'' (WikiMedia Foundation
is successful in avoiding it, but charitable organizations often not) and
while is obviously good multi-year commitment, consider limit how my any
single government could donate per year (this reduces incentives to make
threats of stop donations to force some decision). While (at least if
considering foreign aid) it is easy to find massive numbers, by going with
a lower average, it simplifies use of contact networks to make more
countries/provinces/municipalities get engaged and reduce the need for
higher justification on those which could pay more.

Att.
Rocha
-- 
Emerson Rocha
Full stack developer at Alligo
Transdisciplinary researcher at Etica.AI
Member of  The IEEE Special Interest Group on Humanitarian Technology (IEEE
SIGHT)
Member of The IEEE Global Initiative on Ethics of Autonomous and
Intelligent Systems
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