On 16 April 2011 00:07, Ian Dees <ian.d...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Thanks for asking me (if this were a vote my answer would be "No", but in
> the interest of moving on from this nonsense and keeping data flowing I'll
> eventually say "Yes"), but the important part of my question was everyone
> else -- the community of OpenStreetMap. When were *they* asked?

FWIW I would have favoured earlier specific requests for a vote, but
it's basically been an impossible position for the LWG from what I can
see as an outsider. On the one hand, everybody wants to feel consulted
about the change. On the other, plenty of people have complained
throughout the process about being offered a half-baked solution.
Turns out this stuff is complicated.

I'm not the first person to say so on the lists, but it seems to bear
repeating - the process has not been a secret, the key details of what
problem the change attempts to solve have been documented for a long
time now and absolutely anybody with a thirst for knowledge on the
matter has had many resources at his or her disposal. When I first
became aware of the documentation and read it, I certainly felt
consulted, and very soon after it became possible to indicate
approval, it was clear to me both that the promoters of the change
wished me to do so (at that point I felt "asked") and how I might go
about doing so.

As of Sunday, we are now aware, those not yet to vote yes are to
"asked" to vote yes or no. It remains unclear whether an OSMF message
is to be a part of this asking - I would tend to feel this would be a
good thing, as some mappers just wanna have fun^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H map,
and may well not know about this process at all.

Many mappers have had concerns and actual difficulties with some of
the consequences of the changes. Some of them have engaged positively
in the process to try and find an accommodation. Many... quite frankly
haven't. I started mapping with OSM in good faith and expecting good
faith from other mappers. So far I have only been disappointed by
those mappers who willfully vandalised the map or undermined it
through tainted data.

This licence change now gives every mapper the means of undermining
the map through withholding of their own data, once freely given and
now very likely a foundation of data created by other mappers, also in
good faith. I understand that many mappers feel they _can't_ relicense
some or all of their work, and that's a really tough situation. But
mappers who just plain _won't_ agree to leave their data in, even
though there is no legal obstacle to it, should strongly consider
whether they are being true to the community they claim to be a part
of.

Dermot

-- 
--------------------------------------
Igaühel on siin oma laul
ja ma oma ei leiagi üles

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