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Ilya Zverev

But if you think that's the reason for not going corporate, consider that right now the controlling already happens — corps keep thousands of mappers on a payroll, publish editors like Rapid and surveying tools like Mapillary, upload ML-detected roads and buildings and steer the community into thinking those kids of imports are okay.

Powerful OSMF would keep that influence at bay, not amplify it. Well, I wish :)

4 comments
Rihards Olups

@zverik What mechanisms could help to keep a powerful OSMF both safe from takeover, and reduce risks of excessive self-importance?

Ilya Zverev

@richlv Good question! And I don't know :) At this point I'm not sure what "powerful osmf" would look like exactly.

Rihards Olups

@zverik Indeed, so many things could be understood by that.
Perhaps for some it would be:

* More control over / influence on mapping.
* Offering more services to the mappers (more powerful tools, ortho/street imagery services...).
* Offering more services to data users - both individual and corporate (extracts, specialised datasets, mobile apps, SDKs, commercial APIs, general purpose web map...).
* Offering additional related services (integrated reviews etc).

What else?

@zverik Indeed, so many things could be understood by that.
Perhaps for some it would be:

* More control over / influence on mapping.
* Offering more services to the mappers (more powerful tools, ortho/street imagery services...).
* Offering more services to data users - both individual and corporate (extracts, specialised datasets, mobile apps, SDKs, commercial APIs, general purpose web map...).
* Offering additional related services (integrated reviews etc).

Ian Dees

@richlv @zverik i think a "strong OSMF" means two things:

* there is still a ton of interest from organizations of all sizes looking to interface with OSM as consumers and mappers. They want someone to talk to, and OSMF should provide that. Maybe an "executive director" or "biz dev" type person. This is the void that Overture is starting to fill.

* support for mappers. Set up/seek partnerships for imagery, importable data, tools

* bonus third thing: raise money to dump into these things.

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