The Organic Maps project was described as community-driven, but shareholders were making a number of decisions without the community's input, and even without the community being aware that decisions are being made. While the use of donations is concerning, it wasn't the main problem. When people contribute their time and money to the project so that it can be for the entire community, but it turns out the shareholders are open to selling the contributors' work for their own profit - that becomes problematic. After Maps.me was sold, it added paid subscriptions and a crypto wallet, which destroyed the entire experience. And it appears Organic Maps risks the same problem.
The Organic Maps shareholders closed parts of the code, added Kayak advertising and there is a risk that they will sell the project for their own profit.
There was discussion about this, it's a good conversation to have. The path for CoMaps is that it will be a general purpose navigation app, that can replace apps like Google Maps, and is good for several scenarios. Although there is still work to do until it gets there, for example estimate route time estimates. The idea is that while we work on making this app for general purpose, the focus is on narrower use cases like hiking, where people often need to be offline. And as the experience improves, the focus will also change.
CoMaps is moving quickly, it appears much faster than Organic Maps did, so I'm really excited about what we will accomplish! Thank you to everyone's support and contribution!
Great question, we do have plans to create it! Since we have not yet incorporated as a non-profit, there are extra steps to set this up, and we're working on it right now. Thank you for your support, we appreciate you very much!
The Organic Maps project was described as community-driven, but shareholders were making a number of decisions without the community's input, and even without the community being aware that decisions are being made. While the use of donations is concerning, it wasn't the main problem. When people contribute their time and money to the project so that it can be for the entire community, but it turns out the shareholders are open to selling the contributors' work for their own profit - that becomes problematic. After Maps.me was sold, it added paid subscriptions and a crypto wallet, which destroyed the entire experience. And it appears Organic Maps risks the same problem.