[talk-au] Local entity

[John Smith]

I'm starting to get really frustrated with the general level of apathy
with the local chapters working group.

I emailed the OSM-F board some time ago to ask permission to use
OpenStreetMaps as part of the official name of a local entity that we
would most likely become a local chapter in future.

The OSM-F board passed the request onto the local chapters working
group who failed to even bother to contact me within a reasonable
amount of time until I brought the issue up on the mailing list.

Last week it was discussed briefly from what I understand, I was
hoping to participate in the call but something came up at the last
moment and I received an email a couple of days later with the
following reply:

"About the use of the name OpenStreetMap and logo. We cannot give a
formal consent for the use of the name and logo. There therefore we
need to have an agreement.

However, we will not forbid you to use it at this moment. If your
intention is to become an official local chapter then your problem
will be solved in due time.

Hope this will answer your question."

To me that reads as "we won't stop you but we're not condoning it either...."

I'm getting to the point where I'm considering some other name and
just doing our own thing until OSM-F gets their act together...

Maybe something like "Cartography Society" which is ambiguous enough
to cover things more than just OSM, although it might be useful to be
a non-Australian specific so we can cover New Zealand, South East
Asia, and Pacific Island nations.

Anyone else have any thoughts on this?