[Osmf-talk] Hosting OpenStreetMap source repositories on free software platforms

[Richard Fairhurst]

contrapunctus wrote:
> I'm sharing (and voicing my support for) a suggestion made by
> Simon Poole on IRC - that the OSMF set up its own Forgejo or
> GitLab instance. Such an instance could use existing
> OpenStreetMap accounts for authentication, reducing friction for
> OpenStreetMap contributors. Critical OpenStreetMap software
> projects, including editors, presets, etc could be encouraged
> to leave GitHub and move there.

You know my view on this because I've voiced it often enough (also on IRC ;) ), but as we're restaging the discussion here, OSM is an open data project, not a free software project.

Our mission is to "create and distribute free geographic data for the world", not to promote free software. Sure, lots of OSM contributors are also free software advocates, and use free software as a key part of their OSM contributions. Plenty of OSM contributors (like me!) are also cycling advocates, and use bikes as part of their OSM contributions.

I suspect I feel the same way about cars as you do about Github. In both cases, moving away from them might be the ethically right thing to do.[1] But we are here to create open mapping data, and we should do whatever maximises our ability to "create and distribute free geographic data for the world".

I think you're mischaracterising the appeal of Github by describing the prime appeal as "Ease of authentication". It isn't. It's the network effect. That's literally why it's called "hub" and used to have the tagline "social coding". For whatever reason, developers are on Github. I can @ somebody on a Github issue and they will read it. If I'm having issues with some geometry processing in tilemaker I can crossreference to the related issue in Boost.Geometry and it appears there. And so on. It's much, much more than authentication. Being where the developers are is a massive draw for any codebase.

That said: OSM has always taken a "you do you" approach to community, hence why we have 8bn platforms for arguments like this.[2] Absolutely nothing wrong with OSMF setting up an instance of whatever-it-is, just as it runs a Mastodon instance. If you want to host your projects on SourceHut or whatever, go for it! If you want to set up a non-Github mirror of openstreetmap-website, go for that too! After all, the biggest OSM codebase is not on Github, which is a pretty strong precedent. But I am very, very wary of the suggestion that "Critical OpenStreetMap software projects, including editors, presets, etc could be encouraged to leave GitHub". We need more developers, not fewer.

Richard


[1] I'd say - but then I would - the case for bikes is much more urgent. Github is not significantly trashing the climate. But that's another debate.
[2] Wheee, a free software discussion on an OSM mailing list. What could possibly go wrong.
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