[OSM-talk] Cloudmade: "We are the Wikipedia of maps"

[Ben Laenen]

On Wednesday 11 March 2009, Frederik Ramm wrote:
> It has been pointed out that Steve, apart from being a CM manager, is
> also the founder of the project and thus has to juggle various roles.
> Please then accept that besides running Geofabrik, I, too, am an
> active member of the OSM community and entitled to voice my opinion
> in this capacity. I think it is only normal for me to feel offended
> if an article makes it sound like the whole project was more or less
> the business success of some US company rather than the community
> effort it is and which I am a part of.

I guess this is the main issue for Frederik here. SteveC being founder 
of OSM, chairman of OSMF and at the same time co-founder of CloudMade. 
It's not entirely far fetched to think SteveC may be trying to steer 
OSM(F) to what's best for his own company. Seeing a blog like that 
probably started off some warning bells in Frederik's head.

While it's probably the interviewer's fault here to completely 
misrepresent the situation, it's only natural to be wary of persons in 
a position like SteveC's where conflicts of interest can happen. So 
don't be angry at Frederik here :-)

Greetings
Ben