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

[Mikel Maron]

Frederik,


> 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.

FWIW, I entirely share these concerns Frederik. 

Though the details have changed, I do still consider it high priority for OSMF 
to consider how it will respond to growth of the project. Honestly, we're already
over capacity in OSMF. We can not avoid considering changes to how we operate
in order to support the community. Wikimapa is just one example where we might have
had some influence if prepared for it.

But absolutely yes, when considering funding, the top consideration is to make sure 
that basic volunteer premise of OSM is not compromised.

> If someone wants to approach sponsors on a local or national level, 
> that's no problem and I am sure that OSMF will give them the support 
> they need. (We run a similar setup here in Germany where FOSSGIS e.V. 
> will help out anyone who needs a "legal contact" or someone to sign a 
> contract - but they don't, on their own, go searching for sponsors.)

I think to properly give these kind of efforts support, OSMF needs to be
in a stronger position. Honestly, the sponsors are already out there, but
they will require OSMF to be more responsive.

> 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.

It's not that nobody wants to do these jobs, but that there isn't enough time
in the day to even think about how to structure OSMF so this kind of 
work can be done in a volunteer fashion.

> 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.

Give me a break man! We will definitely make it a weekly magazine! ;)

Mikel
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