[OSM-talk] AND donate entire street network of Netherlands toOSM

[rob at robmyers.org]

Quoting Frederik Ramm <frederik at remote.org>:

> So it is only natural for us to ask: What has been left out in the
> AND "press release"? And let's be honest, we the community, that is
> the people who do the 90% of work that Steve doesn't do himself ;-),
> have not had more than the very same press release that went out to
> the world. We aren't insiders in this process. We are outsiders, and
> treated as such.

It's brilliant that AND have been persuaded to add this data to OSM.

It's quite hard to hide anything in a deal that BY-SA's data. The  
licence is the entire agreement.

> Think of his announcement  that we'll have Mappam ads ("I helped  
> create Mappam... currently only  UK... Mappam not taking a cut") -  
> all were true, but the full truth  was that Steve was a director  
> (not only helped creating it), that the  whole world followed  
> shortly after (while it was true that at the  time of announcing it,  
> it was only the UK), and that Mappam was not  taking a cut *in the  
> fist month*, with further details not yet worked  out. All that was  
> left out to make the message easier to digest.

Mappam is an excellent development.

Since it's a new business I'd expect it to evolve.

Given that OSM is Free, Mappam could simply siphon off the data, serve  
it from their own servers and keep 100% of the ad revenue. Or they  
could just have used another map service, ignoring OSM. The current  
arrangement will hopefully generate more funding for OSM than not  
having ads or having other ads, and serves as a good advertisement for  
OSM. So this is better for the OSM project.

> Admit it, you're a marketing guy as well.

The fact that a better and less intrusive map ad service has been  
added speaks for itself.

The fact that an entire country is being added to the OSM database  
speaks for itself.

None of this needs any marketing speak to dress it up.

OSM's aims are well defined and the AND deal furthers them.

- Rob.