Warning: you read this at your own risk and you may collide with a wall of text. I’m sorry, but it didn’t fit in a few words.

I listened with interest to Florian’s speech at SotM 2022 (https://youtu.be/BRv-IFp_zZs), unlike him I do not feel I am a long-time contributor, although I consider myself active, both in terms of OSM editing and my activities in the Polish OpenStreetMap community. I would like to add my voice to the discussion and support Florian’s position a bit.

Let me start with why, in my opinion, the replacement of the current OpenStreetMap operating model, both in terms of the organisation and the database, is necessary. The reasons are the threats and challenges that are becoming more and more apparent and, paradoxically, stem from the growing interest in OpenStreetMap and its development.

By way of introduction, I refer you to Jennings Anderson’s speech at SotM from 2020: https://youtu.be/BI0VrPyAtcQ

and the update he made a year later and published in his diary: @Jennings%20Anderson/diary/396271

I’ll start with the scaremongering - here’s a list of the threats I think we will face in the near future:

Threat One - loss of community control over the project.

As interest in geodata grows and the cost of generating it increases, more and more companies will become interested in using OpenStreetMap data. Currently, OpenStreetMap data can already be found in Facebook, Appel, Amazon and Microsoft applications. As a reminder, in 2020 their total capitalisation was more than six trillion dollars. According to their OpenStreetMap editing teams, Amazon has a team of 780 contributors, so this is a significant potential that we cannot ignore. I would just like to remind you that in 2018 we already had an attempt to take control of the OSMF (if you haven’t heard about it I suggest you should read https://tcrn.ch/2EDFvpN). As far as I am concerned, the threat is very real and is not necessarily limited to a takeover of the OSMF board, but could involve forcing changes, putting the community in front of a strategy of applying faits accomplis, such as the large-scale use of certain tagging schemes.

Threat Two - the marginalization of the project. I had the pleasure of lecturing and introducing geography students at several universities to the OpenStreetMap project on several occasions and teaching the basics of editing (such as https://osmand.net/blog/osm_editing_croatia/). Each time, most of the listeners were surprised at how many companies were using the data, even though some of the students would be professionally involved in the GIS industry. In a word, OpenStreetMap data can be found everywhere, but we, by not actively promoting the project, are pushing ourselves to the margin. And as some say, OpenStreetMap is becoming the industry’s best-kept secret. Despite the fact that thanks to the passion of many of us, Apple’s maps are getting better and better every year, not many people associate them directly with our project. If we don’t promote and educate, each year there will be fewer and fewer people interested in editing OpenStreetMap, and more and more will become “local guides” for Apple or Facebook.

Threat Three - cognitive error - a wiki among maps. Perversely, this threat is internal and perceived rather from the outside than by ourselves. If we want to explain to someone what OpenStreetMap is, we refer to this comparison. For me, unfortunately, it is wrong. The data collection model is similar, but that’s where the similarities end. The nature of the project is vastly different. The data we produce, unlike wikipedia, generates incredible revenue and savings for the companies that use it. One need only look at least at the development of MapBox, whose capitalisation in 2020 was over one trillion dollars and whose business model has at its core the use of OpenStreetMap data. In my opinion, it’s high time to accept that the effort we put into OpenStreetMap results not only into better maps for Doctors Without Borders, but also into generating real money for others. Ignoring this fact may not seem like a threat at first glance, while over time it will become more and more toxic to the community and could ultimately have a very negative impact on the entire project.

At this point, by the way, I strongly disagree with Florian about his references to wikipedia’s models. We should not draw from Wikipedia experience, because in this case the creation of a vision and action plan did not contribute to growth spurt. In my opinion they lost more than they gained from the implement changes (in Poland many valuable members of the community left and in their place there were no new ones). We need to find our own way. We are a community of communities and we should take advantage of this, as it is currently our greatest asset.

As for the remaining areas Florian mentioned, I agree with his diagnosis, while it needs to be worked on heavily, because for today it is more of a sketch than an action plan. Time is the most important problem. In my opinion, it is much worse than Florian described. It is worth reading the famous in some circles blog post https://blog.emacsen.net/blog/2018/02/16/osm-is-in-trouble/. Although it was written in 2018, it has lost very little of its relevance. What it really means is that we’ve lost a lot of time and not much is happening in many critical areas.

Good example An example of how we should approach the aforementioned threats and the changes in the operation of the community, are the current activities undertaken by the OpenStreetMap Association Poland (OSMP) and the community of contributors gathered around it. We are trying to act on several levels simultaneously, although this is very difficult due to the limited resources.

First Area. Improving OpenStreetMap database. We support the community in developing tools and data gathering to integrate them into OpenStreetMap database. An example is the website https://budynki.openstreetmap.org.pl developed by Tomek Taraś , which allows for the integration of building and addresses data available in Polish public repositories with OpenStreetMap data. Another example is the website https://openaedmap.org/, currently under development, which we hope will contribute to entering of defibrillators data into OSM database. Previously, the Polish version of the website https://aed.openstreetmap.org.pl, allowed us to acquire data of more than 3800 AEDs. Thanks to our established cooperation with the City of Warsaw, we receive bicycle infrastructure data on an ongoing basis and provide it to the community, so that it is entered in OSM on the basis of as-built documentation and verified additionally by local contributors.

Second Area. Education and promotion of the use of OSM data. OSMP has established cooperation with many universities in Poland and organizations related to cartography and eography. As a result, we have conducted many classes and training sessions at these universities. We directly support scientific works, those thematically related to OpenStreetMap and those that use the OSM data. Thanks to an agreement signed with the Association of Polish Cartographers, this year they expanded “the Internet map of the year” competition to include a category of maps based on OpenStreetMap. The member of the OSMP was invited to the jury to support cartographers with his knowledge of OSM.

Third Area. Analysis, updates and monitoring of OpenStreetMap data. With the cooperation of many contributors and constant monitoring of changesets, we are able to prevent vandalism, as well as help new mappers and correct most of the mistakes they make on a regular basis. Despite already existing tools such as https://osmcha.org/, we have noticed deficiencies in these areas. We are currently working to increase our capabilities in this area, but due to available resources, we do not anticipate quick action here.

Fourth Area. Creating and maintaining infrastructure. This is currently our biggest concern. In order to function and build more tools and projects, we need technical infrastructure. We are currently trying to provide the necessary resources so that they can be made available to the community.

Fifth Area. Community integration. The first step was to set up a Discord chanel. Thanks to this the community has become significantly integrated. Another step was social events organized by members of the OSMP in their cities. Although the pandemic has definitely thwarted our plans in this area, we are trying to return to these activities.

In summary, we are trying to support the members of the community in their activities and to be the integrator of these different activities. I would very much like to have the support of OSMF in our efforts.

I would also like to propose the establishment of a working group to create a strategy to be taken for the future. The working group, which should include all OSM communities, should develop a “road map”, starting with the necessary technical solutions, ending with marketing and methods of implementation of the strategy. The issue of securing financial and human resources should be developed as well. I think that our community is so diverse and brings together people with experience from many areas that the strategy developed in this way will allow us to cope with all the obstacles and reform the current structures to ensure the further development of the OSM project in the future.