# A possible next step towards OSM data model changes

At the end of 2021 Tobias Knerr talked to me (Jochen Topf) about the revived
EWG and its interest in maybe pushing OSM data model changes, possibly,
but not
necessarily, in the direction I talked about in my talk at SoTM 2018 in
Milan
[1].

Many of the proposed changes (or similar ones) would need a huge and
concerted
effort on the part of the OSM community over several years involving many
players. And if we stop half-way, the effort is in vain. So far nobody
has been
willing and able to tackle this project. I believe this is something we
can do
as a community, but only if there is some common agreement that we *want* to
tackle it. And we need funding for it. The scope is much larger than
anything
anybody could do in their spare time. The effort will need some kind of
project
management, some people to come up with documentation, specs, plans. And it
also needs the support of many implementors in many Open Source and
proprietary
projects. Not all of them will be able to handle this on their own, they
will
need support and, maybe, also funding. All of this will not come cheap.
In my
estimation we are surely looking at a six figure sum over several years.

As a step forward I can offer to write a study which looks at current
proposals
and do a first evaluation of the expected problems and benefits of each
proposal, the changes and efforts needed, and come up with some kind of
timeline and project plan. This can not be complete, because nobody
knows all
the software out there which uses OSM data, but it can look at the effort
needed for OSMF infrastructure and the most important pieces of software
used
in OSM stacks. The study would be mostly based on my expertise and some
limited
input from other people in the community, to get it done with a reasonable
amount of effort and cost. After that, the EWG can talk about it and decide
whether it wants to go forward with this project, what plan to adopt and
how to
fund the effort.

For the study I estimate an effort of 120 hours of work. I offer this
for the
fixed net price of 9600 EUR. Payment of the full sum after delivery of the
study. The study will be finished three months after placing of order. This
offer is valid until the end of March 2022.

[1]
https://media.jochentopf.com/media/2018-07-30-talk-sotm2018-data-model-en-slides.pdf