[OSM-talk] Measuring the OpenStreetMap Economy

[Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason]

On Thu, Sep 23, 2010 at 15:05, SteveC <steve at asklater.com> wrote:

> When I see announcements flying around like MapQuests $1M commitment
> to OSM, or CloudMades $12M VC round it begs the question of how big
> is the OSM economy?

This is somewhat orthogonal to your question, but I think a much
interesting question to ask is what's the overall economic impact of
OpenStreetMap?

The money that companies like MapQuests and CloudMade are making is
always going to by a tiny fraction of what OpenStreetMap is saving
people who would otherwise not have gotten their job done.

The social and economic impact that Wikipedia had was to turn
situations where you'd previously have had to ask an expert, buy
Britannica, or go to the library.

Similarly, how much of the existing market is being displaced by
OpenStreetMap, and how much is being created? I bet it's a whole lot
more than $20 million.