
A Growing OpenStreetMap Needs Your Support - Doctor_Fegg
https://donate.openstreetmap.org/
======
mtmail
The Operations Working Group, the sysadmins holding the servers together, are
all volunteers.
[http://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Operations_Working_Group](http://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Operations_Working_Group)
and keeps a list of hardware and open issues.
[https://github.com/openstreetmap/operations](https://github.com/openstreetmap/operations)
(more help always welcome).

A frequent question is why the hardware bought and not rented hourly/yearly
with a PaaS. First of all the bandwidth requirement are huge and it would put
too much pressure on the organization to reach donation goals every year.

Besides the donation runs you can also become a member
([https://join.osmfoundation.org/normal-
membership/](https://join.osmfoundation.org/normal-membership/)) or you
company a corporate member
([http://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Corporate_Members](http://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Corporate_Members)).

Unlike wikipedia the donation drive won't need months. If I remember correctly
last year two companies gave 20.000 USD each. That said: donate now please.

disclaimer: work at
[https://geocoder.opencagedata.com/](https://geocoder.opencagedata.com/),
we're a corporate member

------
Doctor_Fegg
It's not widely appreciated how efficient OSM is: the whole project runs on
roughly $170k a year. Wikimedia spends around $65m (there are, obviously, many
differences in what the organisations do, but it's an interesting comparison).

~~~
SteveCoast
By design :-)

~~~
mtmail
To put the comment in context: Steve Coast started OpenStreetMap
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Coast](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Coast)

------
andyfleming
OSM powers this JavaScript library that was shared earlier:
[http://leafletjs.com/](http://leafletjs.com/)

Here's the related discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12589447](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12589447)

~~~
harry-wood
There's some complicated nuance in the word "powers" in that sentence.
LeafletJS is an open source javascript library for displaying maps on the web.
This usually involves bringing in a base-map, and you can get this from a
whole myriad of different providers who do the stylising, rendering, and
hosting of raster map tiles. They in turn may or may not be doing all of this
using vector map data from OpenStreetMap. It's all nicely de-coupled, although
for a typical web developer, when you look to "use OpenStreetMap" it will
mostly just involve learning how LeafletJS works. Also regardless of which
OpenStreetMap-powered tile server you choose to use, you must give credit to
OpenStreetMap on your map display. But to illustrate the de-coupling... you
might also choose to use "OpenLayers" instead. It's another open source
javascript map display library!

------
buro9
This is one of those reminders I'm glad that is posted to HN.

I've just donated, it's a great project, if you value it too you should give
what you are able to.

~~~
Twisell
And it reminded me to donate to Qgis too!
[http://qgis.org/en/site/index.html](http://qgis.org/en/site/index.html)

Kudo to all FOSS GIS developers!

------
rmc
As well as giving money, it's also useful to become a member of the
OpenStreetMap Foundation. You get voting rights for the board, which helps set
policy directions, and (possible) licence changes.

------
qwertyuiop924
OSM is an incredibly impressive and useful project. It's gotten to the point
where it is, at least for some locations, competitive with Google Maps.

------
cmurf
Doesn't Apple Maps use openstreetmap? Are they donating?

------
jnagro
what is the best OSM powered navigation app for Android?

~~~
msolujic
IMHO it is Maps.me by far

------
Tharkun
Paypal only? Not happening. Sorry guys.

~~~
stronsay
They accept Flattr, Bitcoin, bank transfer and credit cards (through PayPal,
but not requiring a PayPal account).

[https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Donations](https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Donations)

~~~
jasonkostempski
Does PayPal get a cut of the donation?

------
wAllDueRespect
and here is where i have a problem with "Open..."anything.

the belief that a non-profit model is the sole method for maintaining
ideologically directed development is a fallacy. look to Mozilla, which at
times has strayed far from the best interests of its users. look at the
wounded soldier project. the belief that making a profit will cause for
corruption of the ideological drive of an organization is a fallacy. look at
SpaceX which has made more progress in a shorter period of time than just
about anyone else to date.

the problem i have with the "please send us money" routine is that it ignores
certain basic, fundamental economic and financial realities. if an
organization is creating value, then they should be able to exchange value for
value. if they are not creating value, then it should be considered R&D or a
hobby, and should be funded as such. OpenStreetMap is creating value. there is
no reason they shouldn't be able to utilize the freemium model. the freemium
model could be coupled with a california style "benefit corporation". by
acknowledging that we _all_ must sing for our supper, we are forced to face
the realities of the marketplace, of limited resources, of special needs, and
so on. by continuing to deny this fact these organizations will constantly be
either over or under funded compared to their needs. said more plainly, by
staying totally blind to the economic realities of ones marketplace you're
gonna make worse business decisions than if you put it all on the table. every
time.

bottom line, there is no free lunch, and until the open-source community fully
acknowledges and embraces this _reality_ it will be at a disadvantage to other
players. and, frankly, it will be lying to itself.

disclaimer: i'm a die-hard open-source software advocate. i just want to see
it succeed.

~~~
qwertyuiop924
The freemium model would effectively defeat the whole point of OSM.

~~~
wAllDueRespect
How so..? Open-source is twice free. Free as in beer. Free as in speech. So,
OSM could give away the map, but provide value added services to city
planners, sell api tokens to advertisers, sell services to private developers.

Oh wow, I just thought up three possibilities in a minute which still allow it
to be kept free for individuals.

Last week I began working on a bicycle routing app for android, and there is
no obvious way to have unlimited calls to OSM, even if I paid. So, what I must
do is host my own instance of it. That's a lot of overhead for most use cases.
This is pretty much the opposite way app development has been going, where I
build off an api as a service.

If I'm using OSM wrong in this case, I'd sincerely appreciate being pointed in
the right direction.

side note, I'm assuming you down-voted me, but thank you for at least saying
why. other down-votes received, because i guess they are right. feels like
high-school popularity contests all over again when receiving anonymous down-
votes. heck, maybe it's possible to have a dissenting comment without a down-
vote. HN obviously believes this mechanism is good enough for letting the best
stories rise to the top. not sure why HN feels that people's comments should
be down-voted but stories shouldn't...

~~~
qwertyuiop924
Thanks for an explanation. I was thinking in the direction of commercializing
the map itself. Considering how many tech companies go in this direction. I
don't know what I was thinking.

And I did downvote you, because when I read your comment, it seemed to merely
be bashing on OSM, and didn't seem to be adding much value to the
conversation. Now that you've clarified, I kind of regret it.

And yes, anonymous downvotes are terrible, which is why if I downvote I
usually post a comment explaining why, unless somebody else has already done
it better.

~~~
wAllDueRespect
all good, that's why i appreciated your comment :) fostered conversation, and
we met in the middle! take it easy!

