[OSM-talk] Big sponsors (was: WolframAlpha uses OpenStreetMap data)

[SteveC]

On Jun 17, 2010, at 8:12 PM, John Smith wrote:

> On 18 June 2010 11:58, SteveC <steve at asklater.com> wrote:
>> But the sad thing is it applies for much lower numbers too - if you wanted to scale to 1 million / day editors let's say.
> 
> I'm wondering if bulk uploaders are already hitting these kinds of
> numbers, lets assume the bulk unloaders all went away and only live
> humans making live edits, how much capacity would there be?
> 
> Alternatively depending on actual editing growth rates, they may be
> similar to growth capacity rates of hardware, so while things may not
> necessarily scale at present, but will in the future. That said there
> seems to be a need for at least a hot spare database, I wonder how
> much the down time cost OSM the other day in terms of editors being
> turned off and not getting their quick fix that everyone has become
> accustomed to.

Thats exactly the kind of attitude I like. I don't think we should think of OSMers as 'customers' but certainly thinking of them in terms of how we can best serve them rather than what we want to work on.

For example all the early work I did in OSM, or a lot of it, was the annoying crappy work like db maintenance and stuff that tom and grant and jon and (...etc) now do admirably. We need that same kind of attitude in other areas - there are lots of neglected crappy things that need to be done instead of the more fun and interesting things. Which has always been the case, right? I just think it's more critical now and the balance is more clear between the two sides.

Let me give one simple example - I'd pay Frederick 100 euros to stop sending essays to the list for a month and use that time coding, even coding whatever he wants :-) :-) :-) Or freeze potlatch 1 (which may have actually happened, you never know), or get matt to write the feedback system I have in my head in a weekend... I don't think matt cares particularly about any charity but maybe I could pay some money to save the trees or whatever and he'd do it... or maybe I'll end up doing it myself, perish the thought!

Steve

stevecoast.com