[OSM-talk] [Talk-br] Wikimapa what is it?

[Stefan de Konink]

On Mon, 29 Mar 2010, Frederik Ramm wrote:

> Maybe, but I am happy with OSMF keeping a low profile. Before the last 
> election to the OSMF board, lofty plans were circulated how to make OSMF into 
> a strong organisation with 10.000 members and hire full-time personnel for 
> fundraising and management. I opposed these ideas because I feel that such an 
> organisation would quickly turn into a self-feeding behemoth that is more at 
> home in the corporate world than in OSM.

My point is that the OSMF does `cash' from contributions such as GSoC 
while the local parties cannot participate in instead of the `strong' 
organisation. But I agree, be careful what to wish for. Though with many 
things in NL we have seen, even if there is money, nobody claims it...


> If, on the other hand, there is nobody who wants to do the hard work of 
> finding sponsors, then why should OSMF - they're only people like you and me. 
> Ask them to do things that nobody in the project wants to do himself and you 
> are inevitably asking to set up an organisation that uses money to pay people 
> to do the jobs that nobody in the project wants to do.

I disagree; it was already claimed that the OSMF members became more equal 
than other active contributors because they `voted'. So like you and me, 
maybe in our minds, in their minds it probably like Animal Farm.

> Certainly a valid way of advancing the project, but in my eyes it carries the 
> danger of, little by little, taking the whole project out of the hands of 
> hobbyists. Before too long, we'll be a membership organisation where central 
> command runs the GPS vans and individual participation is reduced to paying a 
> membership fee and receiving a bi-monthly full-colour membership magazine.

Will we call the magazine `Steve'?


Stefan