OSM server funding

Hi all,

I think I am not the only one drawing the cautious conclusion that by the, mildly expressed, ‘changed’ payment model for embedding Google Maps into private, company and even governmental websites, the demand on OSM tile servers has increased dramatically in recent months.

I guess to a level that it affects the performance significantly, negatively.

As an enthusiast OSM-mapper, I am, of course, very glad to observe more and more trusting the reliability, accuracy and up-to-dateness of OSM.

What I am thinking of is how "OSM leechers-only, especially commercial/public organizations, could help in supporting OSM to make more tile server capacity and infrastructure available, be it by donating a fair amount of money or resources to places (e.g. universities) where mirror tile servers could be installed or even installing their own mirror tile servers.

Now I don’t have the faintest idea how to realize this, but I would appreciate any suggestions on the what and how.

Cheers

Martin

4 new cache tile servers where donated in France (2), Switserland and Germany in the past few days.
More details can be found on the OSM Operations Twitter account : https://twitter.com/OSM_Tech

You can get more information on the requirements for such servers via that Twitter account