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Happy Birthday OpenStreetMap

blog.openstreetmap.org

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Re: Happy Birthday OpenStreetMap

#11

Post by mtmail »

tetris11 wrote: post #6
twelve40 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

even if it does, a bunch of accessible data you can develop with is a godsend. Even if it were a completely commercial service, i'd still be happy to have some competition over the couple of monopolies that are left in this space.

I'm just hoping it doesn't turn into the Wikimedia Foundation, yearly begging for substantial funds whilst its many thousands of diligent contributors continue to work under the impression that they're doing a public good, but instead are enriching someone else's product

Wikimedia has about 350 employees. OpenStreetMap foundation afaik 2: one remote office admin and one system administrator. No offices. It’s very lean budget wise.

Re: Happy Birthday OpenStreetMap

#12

Post by Aachen »

Borg3 wrote: post #9
tetris11 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm just hoping it doesn't turn into the Wikimedia Foundation, yearly begging for substantial funds whilst its many thousands of diligent contributors continue to work under the impression that they're doing a public good, but instead are enriching someone else's product

Now worries. OSM have open data. Just mirror PBF files. Once something bad happen to OSM itself, you can easly respawn new instance. All building blocks are open source.

That was also the first thing that came to my mind, but then I realised the same goes for Wikimedia

The power is in the brand/execution, not the code/idea

Either way, I'm glad that it's both open data and open code (Wikipedia: creative commons; OpenStreetMap: open database license; both: some open code license) so that we at least have options, should it be necessary, even if it's an uphill battle to divert attention from a spoiled brand

Re: Happy Birthday OpenStreetMap

#13

Post by Helmut10001 »

mtmail wrote: post #11
tetris11 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm just hoping it doesn't turn into the Wikimedia Foundation, yearly begging for substantial funds whilst its many thousands of diligent contributors continue to work under the impression that they're doing a public good, but instead are enriching someone else's product

Wikimedia has about 350 employees. OpenStreetMap foundation afaik 2: one remote office admin and one system administrator. No offices. It’s very lean budget wise.

Here it says 8 [1]. Still very interesting, I did not know!

[1]: https://www.datanyze.com/companies/openstreetmap/353811364

Re: Happy Birthday OpenStreetMap

#14

Post by matsemann »

My job uses OSM for route planning, and contributes back changes, road closures etc. as that directly benefit us when planning the next day. It's a great system where everyone benefits.

On the private, I've lately been biking/hiking lots of trails with a 360 camera, and uploaded to Mapillary as CC-BY-SA (and google street view). To make a kind of street view, but also to use the data to improve trail/mtb/biking routes in OSM. I hate planning a route and ending up having to carry my gravel bike. Or someone taking their stroller for a leisure hike on a gravel road in the woods suddenly finds out some part of it is unwalkable. Or the opposite, taking the mtb for a ride and not getting any fun. It's quite fun, a good excuse to try new roads every time I'm out just to map it.

Re: Happy Birthday OpenStreetMap

#15

Post by mtmail »

Helmut10001 wrote: post #13
mtmail wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wikimedia has about 350 employees. OpenStreetMap foundation afaik 2: one remote office admin and one system administrator. No offices. It’s very lean budget wise.

Here it says 8 [1]. Still very interesting, I did not know! [1]: https://www.datanyze.com/companies/openstreetmap/353811364

Yes, 8 might be correct. https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/w/images/3/3c/FY2021_Full_acc... "The average number of employees during the year was 7 (2020 - 7)"

I doubt the 12.4 million revenue. The 2021 financial report listed turnover of £350,000 with surplus of £160,000 and £740,000 in reserves.

Re: Happy Birthday OpenStreetMap

#16

Post by mtmail »

tetris11 wrote: post #3

Doesn't OSM have corporate donors? (I'd be happy to know it's not reliant on them)

It's called corporate members https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Corporate_Members Goes from 750 Euro per year up to 30.000 per year. Those prices were raised in 2023. (disclaimer: I work for a silver sponsor)

Re: Happy Birthday OpenStreetMap

#17

Post by matkoniecz »

mtmail wrote: post #11
tetris11 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm just hoping it doesn't turn into the Wikimedia Foundation, yearly begging for substantial funds whilst its many thousands of diligent contributors continue to work under the impression that they're doing a public good, but instead are enriching someone else's product

Wikimedia has about 350 employees. OpenStreetMap foundation afaik 2: one remote office admin and one system administrator. No offices. It’s very lean budget wise.

If anyone is interested in general budget see https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Board/Minutes/2023-02/Bu...

For paid staff see https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Contractors_and_employee... (note that for example accountant is not contracted full-time)

(and yes, donations are welcome! See https://donate.openstreetmap.org/ if you want to help)

disclaimer: I am an unpaid volunteer on OSMF board

Re: Happy Birthday OpenStreetMap

#19

Post by unnervingduck »

matsemann wrote: post #14

My job uses OSM for route planning, and contributes back changes, road closures etc. as that directly benefit us when planning the next day. It's a great system where everyone benefits. On the private, I've lately been biking/hiking lots of trails with a 360 camera, and uploaded to Mapillary as CC-BY-SA (and google street view). To make a kind of street view, but also to use the data to improve trail/mtb/biking route…

I've been thinking of recording imagery too with an action camera, using a phone for that purpose hasn't been too good in my experience because it's shaky, especially on forest trails.

Also what do you think of KartaView? I'm not sure whether to trust the Meta owned Mapillary, even though the current data has an open license.

Re: Happy Birthday OpenStreetMap

#20

Post by matkoniecz »

Borg3 wrote: post #9
tetris11 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm just hoping it doesn't turn into the Wikimedia Foundation, yearly begging for substantial funds whilst its many thousands of diligent contributors continue to work under the impression that they're doing a public good, but instead are enriching someone else's product

Now worries. OSM have open data. Just mirror PBF files. Once something bad happen to OSM itself, you can easly respawn new instance. All building blocks are open source.

Sadly, coordination problems are not so easy to solve.

"Just mirror PBF files." is easy, mirroring community is harder.

But, yes it reduces some risks. And enables for example https://www.opengeofiction.net/ and https://www.openhistoricalmap.org/ which use OSM stack for fantasy and historical mapping.

And OSM open data is used very widely.

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