For those that are unemployed, paying 15 pounds once is much money, including in "rich" countries because of higher general prices for life with the low incomes (ven with social benefits). Also lot of people can't pay online with their debit card (and they have difficulties to spare that money without having it seized for some reasons, or because they would have their benefits reduced if they keep that money unused in their bank account). Those people have only cash (bills/coins or electronic cash) for very short periods and can only pay small amounts (the rest of the time they have no money at all, everything is taken for essential life support).
One solution would be to pay in fractioned way, by micropayments, e.g. by SMS fees (one or two SMS every month at ~0.75€ each, and once you reach 20 SMS, you've paid the yearly bill; and each SMS before that will count for a ratio of period, so if you can pay only 10 SMS since the first one in the 1-year period, you get rights for 6 months since that first paid SMS). They would be able to choose when to pay these micropayments Micropayments would satisfy those that have the most time to contribute and work the most (they give in fact what is most precious), but can't decide because they have no right and can't pay the membership right. However micropayments may cause significant admin costs for OSM or HOT; I wonder if there are ways to manage micropayment via efficient online services (that would manage the transactions and identity of payers), something that would be also useful for general life in developing countries (may be some microbank organisation?), with also a strict respect of privacy. Le ven. 3 avr. 2020 à 23:05, Pete Masters via HOT <[email protected]> a écrit : > > Hi all, don't know if you have seen but the OpenStreetMap Foundation have > been discussing membership fees. Some interesting new proposals have been > voted on recently... > > https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Working_Group_Minutes/MWG_2020-01-19#implementation_of_new_Fee_waiver_for_mappers.2Fcontributors > > This is important because the OSMF members vote for the board and the board > are influential in defining / guiding the future of OpenStreetMap, which we > all know and love. > > This is different to HOT membership as to be a member for OSMF you had to pay > £15 (sterling) or apply for an exemption on an individual basis (whereas for > HOT, you need to be nominated). This fee was regardless of whether £15 was a > lot of money or not much money wherever you were from. The new rules look to > reward contribution to the OSM project, not just whether you can spare the > cash. > > The OSMF membership working group are looking for feedback on the proposals. > You can either email them directly at [email protected] or post to the > OSMF talk list [1]. > > I think the proposals are good and worth engaging with... > > Hope you are all safe and well in these crazy times! > > Pete > > [1] https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/osmf-talk > > > > _______________________________________________ > HOT mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/hot _______________________________________________ HOT mailing list [email protected] https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/hot
