[talk-ph] OSM Philippines meet-up

[Jim Morgan]

Good to see everyone there as well, and put faces to email addresses! 

maning sambale wrote, On Monday, February 09, 2009 11:17 AM:
> On forming an organization:
> We had a previous mail discussion on "should we have a formal
> organization representing OSM Philippines" so this was a main
> discussion point in Grappas.  Basically two points were raised:
> 
> 1. There is a need to create a "legal personality" for OSM Philippines

One other alternate approach we discussed was to use the main London OSM body as a representative. Its unclear exactly how this would work though. Time zones would undoubtedly be tricky but it might be good as a stopgap. 
 
The cost of funding a non-profit would seem to be around 1M pesos to be held in a bank account (did I remember that right?) which would seem to be a barrier to entry. The other main expense would be the yearly accounts, so perhaps there is an accountant in the group who could donate their time to that (hint -- the non-profit would have no cashflow, so probably quite easy to do accounts) 

As far as extending the coverage of OSM in the Philippines, we discussed a number of ideas. To me, (ok, this is my biased opinion) the most powerful way of expanding coverage would be to use Naga as an example and tout that around other municipalities. 

Here's the sales pitch as I conceived it:
The data already exists, but is incomplete. By releasing it to OpenStreetmap they can get it incorporated into OSM at no cost to themselves (probably) and with no effort. Once its in there, the data will be fixed by the general public, and it can then be re-downloaded and used by the municipality. Its effectively a free way of cleaning up their data, and putting their city on the map. 

Hmm, something like that. It seemed clearer after a few beers! Someone else can choose the venue next time ... 

Jim