[Strategic] Server hardware donation offer

[Frederik Ramm]

Hi,

On 02/11/11 11:06, Eugene Usvitsky wrote:
> I would like to note that due to this fact, MapQuest's $50k that should
> primarily be spent on hardware upgrade can possibly go to somewhere
> else since we can get these servers from Rambler. Rambler is large,
> well-known and respected company (definitely larger than CloudMade or
> MapQuest before AOL) so decline of such offer would be stupid.

I don't mean to discount Rambler, or Moscow, or the efforts of the 
Russian OSM community, or anything.

But in a fairly recent discussion, members of the Russian OSM community 
have pointed out that there was a real danger of OSM being outlawed in 
Russia if we map too many military bases.

Now I don't know if these people have drawn a wrong picture of Russia or 
been overly concerned; but surely OSM would not want to maneouvre itself 
in a position where critical project resources could be that easily lost!

Meaning that there are certainly many good uses for hardware that 
Rambler makes available, and the offer seems generous indeed; but we 
can't say "oh let's not invest money in database server upgrades, lets' 
just move the thing to Moscow."

Bye
Frederik