An Organic Maps fork has emerged due to broken trust.
  • sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    2·
    18 days ago

    You might know of Organic Maps, the open source app that’s an alternative to Google Maps. Recently, concerns have been raised about its governance, with many contributors questioning the project’s transparency and direction.

    Despite being advertised as a community-driven project, key decisions, including financial management, partnerships (with Kayak, for instance), and the inclusion of proprietary components in the code were made by a small group of shareholders, often without input from the broader contributor community.

    These shareholders have reportedly used the project’s donation funds for personal expenses, like holiday trips, raising serious concerns about financial transparency.

    As a result, many contributors teamed up and forked the project, establishing CoMaps, a new alternative focused on openness and being not-for-profit.

    • Joël de Bruijn@lemmy.ml
      0·
      18 days ago

      project’s donation funds for personal expenses, like holiday trips

      I do have the same overall concerns though and for me enough reason to switch the moment its possible also. But I tend to see the ‘the holiday trips’ as a symtpom instead of a problem. Later on they explained that some developers received 3 months salary worth of pay over the course of 4 years. Putting a lot more time in it during those four years. If I contributed that much for free I also would spend it on a holiday. But the problem is like you said transparancy:

      • No openness of financial transactions which I guess showing salary wouldnt be a problem and if everybody was able to see the salary was reasonable. (and I dont care what people do with it in their private live).
      • Maybe they didnt organise it that way (paying oneself for labour and tell everyone) but maybe they used it directly for holidays etc, which is a problem for the business entity they have I guess. Like my boss paying my holiday instead of my salary.
      • Reluctant to answer questions in reasonable timeframes (couple of months)
  • defuse959@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    1·
    17 days ago

    Quick heads up for anyone running verbose NextDNS configs, you’ll need to add an exception for this entry currently to start the initial download

  • d-RLY?@lemmy.ml
    1·
    18 days ago

    Good to see devs willing to do the work needed in order to draw hard lines on the capitalist leeches that divert money away from the project. I am looking forward to the traffic system that they mentioned as a future option. Would allow users that are okay with turning on those features for adding crowdsourced traffic data and stuff like marking cops posting up to get their quotas.

    Literally the only thing that keeps me on Waze is that stuff. I have to deal with a lot of interstate travel to and from work and knowing that a big crash happened so I can re-route before getting stuck is crucial. I will still make sure to have this installed just like I had Organic Maps as a good option. And to see what stuff I go to that needs to be updated on OSM and StreetComplete. Had to add all of the addresses on my street on OSM a while ago just to be able to correctly enter my address. One of those addresses that is listed as one town for mailing and is technically within the borders of a smaller one with regards to utilities and plots of land.

    • Auli@lemmy.caEnglish
      0·
      17 days ago

      The problem is if nobody uses it, there won’t be any data.

      • suoko@feddit.it
        1·
        17 days ago

        I could switch to this app if it had live traffic data. Isn’t there any shared traffic data to get some info from for free at least to begin with?