On Feb 2, 2013, at 2:49 PM, Frederik Ramm wrote: > And Jeff followed up: > >> I think Paweł has hit on a key question: does the OSMF have plans to operate >> and lead OSM in a more efficient, organized manner or not? > > In what way would an organisation with great strategic planning, one that is > "efficient" and "organised", handle such a trademark issue differently? In > how far is the current trademark issue a sign of lack of planning? I really > don't get it. Is there a connection between these issues that goes beyond > "both are issues where the OSMF is criticised by some"?
Communication is hard, and there are ways to do it that make people feel like they're getting a complete story instead of a confused glimpse through an accidentally-open door. Simon's mail left out a lot of important things, most notably that he's a member of the OSMF Board and that it was an official statement. "Dear OSM Contributors, We at the OSM Foundation have recently received a cease & desist letter from Geocode, Inc. of Alexandria, Virginia, USA regarding the use of links displaying the Google geocoding service on the wiki. We have consulted with our legal counsel, and they have advised us to remove these links from all OSMF-owned domains. While we believe that Geocode's claims are without merit, we have decided that the potential negative impact of Geocode's actions outweighs the benefits of keeping those links on the wiki. [detailed description of potential negative outcomes]. We will be watching all future edits to the wiki to ensure that new references to the Google geocoding service are not introduced to the site. Editors attempting to add these links will be automatically referred to this message explaining why their edits have been rejected. [link to this message on an OSMF-controlled blog or domain]. We will be responding to Geocode Inc. and contacting Google Inc. to [do whatever happens next]. We apologize for the drastic nature of this action, but we feel that the [detailed description of potential negative outcomes] is an unacceptable risk to the mission of OpenStreetMap, and outweighs the adverse impact of removing the problem links. As a representative of the board on this issue, I will be available to discuss it [on email, IRC, conference call, whatever]. -Sincerely, Joe Q. Boardmember OpenStreetMap Foundation." ---------------------------------------------------------------- michal migurski- contact info and pgp key: sf/ca http://mike.teczno.com/contact.html _______________________________________________ talk mailing list talk@openstreetmap.org http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk
