[OSM-talk] Paweł's q: what can be done?

[Paweł Paprota]

On 02/02/2013 11:49 PM, Frederik Ramm wrote:
>
> you are too impatient, at least too impatient for the occasionally
> glacial pace at which things move in OSM(F).
>
> You have been with OSM for about 6 months now if I'm not mistaken,
> and most of your recent messages (at least most of the messages that
> reach me) are about how and why you might be leaving. Most people
> take a bit longer than that!

That's because in those 6 months I have worked several hundred hours
(>300) on my OSM related projects. So I'm not exactly a regular member
of the community. I was working nearly full time on OSM in my own time
from October to December.

So you may say that my impatience was accelerated by that fact.

> You are also jumping to conclusions ("OSMF doesn't want to set agenda
> for the future") - maybe OSMF simply wants to think it over?

Please don't quote selectively. This sentence was an "either/or"
construct so please don't quote out of context.

And you seem to be "thinking it over" since 2011 according to SWG
meeting minutes. As Jeff mentioned, there is a group of people who have
the energy and ideas on how to reactivate such strategic/future
initiative. I'm very interested to see how OSMF reacts to that.

> There are many others who have, over the years, done much more work
> that you have, in their spare time, and who haven't after only six
> months sent lots of emails about having to abandon all their work if
>  OSMF doesn't finally manage to implement strategic planning or so.

So what? People are different. I am apparently more outspoken or
"sensitive" to some stuff than others. I.e. I want to make sure that the
project I'm spending tons of my own free time is actually going
somewhere. What's wrong with that?

> It seems that in your particular case you see a connection between
> coding for OSM and the OSMF because ultimately you would like to get
> paid for your work, and you don't see OSMF paying developers without
> a strategic plan. Is that reading correct, or do you simply fear that
> without a strategically planning organisation the OSM project will
> die and your contributions with it?

I abandoned my apparent pipe-dream of getting paid for OSM work
about a month ago. I still think that the community should be supported
in their efforts by some organization like OSMF, i.e. CWG or DWG members
should be actually paid for their work on some basis. Developers may be
a different case because some of the tasks require extreme amount of
work so it could be done on case-by-case basis.

What I want right now is some sign that OSM is not fading away as a
project. And no, "we just need time to think it over" written by OSMF
board member is not what I'm looking for.

For me the next 6-8 months will be make or break for OSM(F).

Paweł