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.

[–] joeldebruijn@lemmy.ml 82 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

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)

[–] Creat@discuss.tchncs.de 19 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Switching is possible now, if you want. CoMaps builds have been released for a while, and are in f-droid I think since today? I have no idea about Google play store.

[–] makingStuffForFun@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I can't find it on fdroid.

[–] ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.net 22 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I had to go to the F-droid setting, click on Include Anti-Features, then enable 'Tethered Network Services' for it to show up in the F-droid search.

[–] makingStuffForFun@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Thank you!! I have it now.

[–] ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.net 4 points 1 day ago

Glad to be of help and that you're up and running! :D

[–] Creat@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 1 day ago

I just saw this post but didn't look any further into it than reading the title.

[–] joeldebruijn@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 day ago

Smartphone from employer doesnt permit sideloading. ;)