[OSM-talk] advertising

[Christoph Eckert]

> People seem to be fixating on the point that
> because the Foundation is registered in the UK then it's a UK
> organization

that might be a point, but I guess this issue can be communicated.

Currently OSMF *appears* to be an elitary closed british club, even that 
it *intends the opposite*. Examples:

* It's impossible to get an account on our servers for external 
developers. This should IMO be decided by the project's developers, not 
by the board members. Set up a web form for one or two weeks, post an 
announcement on the dev list and let the developers vote. If the board 
votes, it is obvious that OSMF tries to control the project's further 
development, sorry

* The appearance of the project's main page should also decided by a web 
form and public vote. Someone will design or create suggestions, then 
let the community decide. Ads on the map is a very sensitive topic, 
thus it must not be decided by board members only

* The database doesn't get replicated to balance the server load. 
Additionally it would allow other people to do nasty things with the 
project's data, *and* it would be a testimonial that OSMF does *not* 
want to control the data. A weekly planet file dump is not sufficient. 
Unfortunately, a server replication has been denied this spring :(

* [you name it]

It would be cool if OSMF would actively develop further ideas how to 
avoid the impression mentioned above. Then it can attract more people 
from outside the UK.

HTH & cheers,

ce