[Openstreetmap] no dots

[Tom Carden]

On 2/7/06, Lars Aronsson <lars at aronsson.se> wrote:
> Steve, at age 39 and being a coordinator and sole programmer of
> several Internet projects in the last 15 years, I think I have a
> pretty good grasp on reality.  I think you have way too much on
> your own to-do list, and you should encourage more people to get
> involved instead of trying to cover everything on your own.

There are very few bits of the OSM tool chain which aren't open to
contributions.  The main criteria for this is JFDI.

> I'm starting to think that Isle of
> Wight could be a good time for a founding meeting.  But there
> still is no date set for this excursion.

I think we were waiting to see who would come...
http://www.openstreetmap.org/wiki/index.php/OSM_Workshop#Maybe

>
> I would suggest you as chief technologist and Tom Carden as
> chairman.

I probably wouldn't want such a role, but I'm flattered you'd nominate
me.  I've been involved in starting organisations like this before,
and I'm just not very good at it unless I give it my full and proper
attention - something I just can't do with my current work/study
commitments.

> Petter could be treasurer and I could volunteer as
> secretary, if there are no other suggestions.  I would suggest an
> annual membership fee of 50 UKP = 75 EUR = 550 DKK = 600 NOK
> = 700 SEK.  You would have 20-30 members in a flick, and enough
> fees to purchase the first server of OSM's own.2
>

I give time and attention to OSM in abundance.  I'm not sure I want to
pay for its hosting costs.  I think there are better ways to bootstrap
this.

I don't think subscriptions would be sustainable or scaleable in the
long-term.  I think the way forward is for OSM to become something
like 'Flickr for maps' or 'del.icio.us for places' (not the first time
that's been suggested). People will then gladly pay for something they
perceive as having social value, and for those who won't/can't pay,
then showing ads isn't out of the question.  I have lots of ideas for
how this would work, but they are somewhat at odds with the idea that
OSM is the 'wikipedia of maps'.

I know the 'wikipedia of maps' idea is a favourite amongst many OSM
contributors - that's one reason why I wouldn't volunteer as chairman.

> That is a kind of organization that I could send donations to and
> recruit more members to. But right now I have no idea what kind
> you are coming up with or "working on".  So I'm held in suspense,
> trying to keep my expectations as low as I can, never to be
> disappointed.
>
> As Petter said, piggy-backing on an existing organization could
> cut the overhead even further.
>

Yes.  If it's just a case of getting things paid for, I would prefer
this route.  Setting up a charity/non-profit in the UK is fairly
tricky, and then there are restrictions on what you can do (can't
lobby for political change, for example).

Let's see whether Steve's funding applications pay off, and in the
meantime have a think about the bigger issues... we all believe in
bottom-up citizen-powered collaborative creation of geo-data,
otherwise we wouldn't be here.  Most of us believe that the results of
the collaboration should be Free as in freedom. Many of us believe it
should be free as in beer, too.  But not many of us has a clear
understanding of how much it will cost to host and maintain, and where
that money should come from.  Or even in the long term, what things
should and shouldn't OSM host?

Best,

Tom.