[OSM-talk] OSMF to provide commercial tile service? [WAS: something else]

Richard Fairhurst richard at systemed.net
Wed Oct 12 11:04:31 BST 2011


Serge Wroclawski wrote:
> I go back to my central point: We're spending a lot of time 
> blocking people and explaining to people why they're blocked. 
> Let's find a way to turn this adversarial relationship into a 
> cooperative one. Do you have a suggestion on how to do this?

I do.

If I read you right, you think there should be an "open to all" tileserver
whose proceeds are fed back to the project.

We agree that's not going to happen with the existing servers (because we
don't have spare capacity) or the existing sysadmins (because we don't have
spare capacity) or the existing hosting (because we can't resell the
bandwidth).

So you, Serge Wroclawski, should do it. 

Set up osmtileserver.org. Beg, borrow or steal some boxes, or simply take a
punt with EC2. Recruit like-minded souls to your cause. Get a basic
tileserver running. Approach one of the blocked app authors and say "hey, I
think you might be interested in this". And, when you make your first profit
that goes beyond what you need to reinvest, send a cheque to OSMF. 

It's not going to happen unless someone takes the bit between their teeth
and does it, and thus far you're the person best qualified (in enthusiasm
and technical knowledge) to do so.

You don't need OSMF approval to run a non-profit-making service, using OSM
community members and OSM community-developed tools, based on OSM data, that
feeds its proceeds back to OSMF. OSMF will happily accept donations from
anyone. If you really want some form of official endorsement then go talk to
OSMF-US, but I don't think it's necessary.

cheers
Richard



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