[Talk-GB] The state of Bristol in OSM

[Richard Moss]

On Sun Jan 15 11:15:28 GMT 2012
Andy Allan wrote

> On 14 January 2012 20:34, Dave F. <davefox at madasafish.com> wrote:
>
>> Q's
>>
>> Does anyone have a template letter along the lines of 'please can you sign
>> the agreement as it would mean a lot of hard work replacing your data' to
>> send to those that are undecided or, more likely, unaware of the change? I'm
>> crap at being polite :)
>>
>> Is there a way to tell who has been contacted already out of the
>> contributors who haven't signed? I don't think numerous people contacting a
>> user is the best way to get him to sign on the dotted line.
>
> There are templates and lists of contacted users at
> http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Asking_users_to_accept_the_ODbL
>
> Note that the page is inaccurate as it's the CTs, not the ODbL, that
> they are being asked to accept.
>
> Cheers,
> Andy

I've been using a slightly less formal and more personalised text - e.g this to
user/tisjames:

Subject Your OSM Contributions in Godmanchester

Hi tisjames

I don't know if you're aware, but OSM is changing the license that the data is
produced under. See
http://www.osmfoundation.org/wiki/License/We_Are_Changing_The_License .

People like you am me, who joined OSM before a certain date, have to accept the
terms of the new licence, otherwise their contributions will be lost. They've
now set a date of 1 April 2012 for the chageover.

In searching round my patch of Cambridgeshire, I've noticed that some of the
data in Godmanchester is yours, and that so far, you are 'undecided' about the
new licence. If you don't agree to the new terms before 1 April, your stuff will
be lost, which would be a pity.

Are you aware of all this, and will you be accepting or declining the terms?

Anyway, if you get this, please let me know what you think about it all.

Best wishes

Richard Moss

 

Obviously this needs adapting to suit the contribution of each user.  Between
David Earl and me, we have contacted 32 undecideds who have done bits in
Cambridgeshire.  Of these, 11 have converted, so worth the effort.  Now we've
just got to deal with the red bits that are left.

I'm afraid I found the table at
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Asking_users_to_accept_the_ODbL too unwieldy
to study.  Before writing to anyone, I have checked their user page to make sure
they are still undecided, and we've kept a running list of those contacted on
the talk-gb-midanglia email list.

BTW I prefer the English spelling of licence (noun)  :)

Richard