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[[File:Under_construction.png]]
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=New Maintainer Wanted=
  
[[File:What_is_OpenCellID.png|link=???]]&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;[[File:OpenCellID_how_to_join.png|link=How_to_join]]<br>
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Dear OpenCellID contributors
<br>
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[[File:OpenCellID_how_to_contribute.png|link=How_to_contribute]]&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;[[File:OpenCellID_view_the_data.png|link=View_the_data]]<br>
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[[File:OpenCellID banner main page.png]]
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I have maintained the OpenCellID project for several years now including
<br><br>
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* covering all hardware costs for 6 big servers
[[File:Why_contributing_to_OpenCellID.png|368px]]
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* covering all costs for the hosting of 6 physical dedicated servers in a professional environment (Colt and CENTRON)
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* covering all costs for software development of an Android client and all server side programs
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* covering all system administration costs
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* covering the costs of a legal dispute in Spain (which is solved)
  
'''<div style="font-size: 140%;">Cell-ID data can be used for various tasks:
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Total cash investment so far has been a serious 6 digit Euros amount plus a lot of my free time.
* '''save power on your smartphone by replacing GPS with cell-id tracking
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Unfortunately the recurring costs stay high and the time required to maintain the project alone is serious so I do not want to invest the amount of time and money in the future as it has been in the past.
* '''find the best GSM network provider at the place where you are going to move to
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* '''find a place to live with low radio emission
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* '''track assets and friends even if GPS is not available, e.g. in buildings
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* '''enjoy a very fast first time fix compared with GPS</div><br>
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'''<div style="font-size: 140%;">Have fun with being a member of a successful community!</div>
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<br>
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{| width=851px
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|OpenCellID provides 100% free cell-id data (CC-BY-SA 3.0 license); the OpenCellID database is published under a [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ Creative Commons] open content license with the intention of promoting free use and redistribution of the data.
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OpenCellID is the biggest community project world wide collecting GPS positions of cell towers that can be used free of charge for commercial and private purposes:<br>
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But there are also non-commercial issues which indicate that OpenCellID might be no longer relevant:
more than 10.000 contributors have already registered with OpenCellID contributing several hundred thousand new measurements every single day to the OpenCellID database. [http://opencellid.org/#&action=statistics.measurements&sortByRadio=4&dateFrom=&dateTo=&mcc=&mnc= Detailed statistics] are available in real time.
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* Mozilla some time ago has launched the MLS service which directly competes with OpenCellID and which is funded by a big organization I cannot compete with alone
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* We never got an offer of any developer to contribute backend software, so there is no software development momentum in the OpenCellID community - MLS is already seriously more advanced
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* We never got an offer of any expert to be part of the admin team and therefore every month I have to cover serious administration costs
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* We never got an offer of any person or entity to cover some of the costs of OpenCellID in general or to do some admin work or other contribution except data contribution
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* There is a big number of users of the free OpenCellID API but only 4 purely commercial users pay a small amount of money for using the API. This monthly income does not even cover a small fraction of the ongoing costs.
  
'''OpenCellID''' is a collaborative project to create a free database of Cell-IDs and their corresponding location area identity.<br>
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Upside of the OpenCelliD community is that there is a multitude of strong contributors of data including the CellTower Android app and others.
The OpenCellID project was primarily created to serve as a data source for GSM localization.<br>
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As of Jan 1, 2014 the database contained more than 4 million unique GSM cell-ids and 550 million [[measurements]].
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|}
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'''Taking all the above into account it was decided to either shut OpenCellID down or to sell it to someone who would like to maintain it in the future.'''<br>
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'''In case someone is interested in purchasing the OpenCellID project please let me know by sending an e-mail with your offer to [email protected]'''<br>
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'''In case there will be no solution in place until end of March 2017 I´ll shut down all OpenCellID services by the end of March permanently.'''
  
 
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Cheers Markus
 
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[https://www.facebook.com/OpenCellID.Community OpenCellID on Facebook]
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Revision as of 19:13, 1 March 2017

New Maintainer Wanted

Dear OpenCellID contributors

I have maintained the OpenCellID project for several years now including

  • covering all hardware costs for 6 big servers
  • covering all costs for the hosting of 6 physical dedicated servers in a professional environment (Colt and CENTRON)
  • covering all costs for software development of an Android client and all server side programs
  • covering all system administration costs
  • covering the costs of a legal dispute in Spain (which is solved)

Total cash investment so far has been a serious 6 digit Euros amount plus a lot of my free time. Unfortunately the recurring costs stay high and the time required to maintain the project alone is serious so I do not want to invest the amount of time and money in the future as it has been in the past.

But there are also non-commercial issues which indicate that OpenCellID might be no longer relevant:

  • Mozilla some time ago has launched the MLS service which directly competes with OpenCellID and which is funded by a big organization I cannot compete with alone
  • We never got an offer of any developer to contribute backend software, so there is no software development momentum in the OpenCellID community - MLS is already seriously more advanced
  • We never got an offer of any expert to be part of the admin team and therefore every month I have to cover serious administration costs
  • We never got an offer of any person or entity to cover some of the costs of OpenCellID in general or to do some admin work or other contribution except data contribution
  • There is a big number of users of the free OpenCellID API but only 4 purely commercial users pay a small amount of money for using the API. This monthly income does not even cover a small fraction of the ongoing costs.

Upside of the OpenCelliD community is that there is a multitude of strong contributors of data including the CellTower Android app and others.

Taking all the above into account it was decided to either shut OpenCellID down or to sell it to someone who would like to maintain it in the future.
In case someone is interested in purchasing the OpenCellID project please let me know by sending an e-mail with your offer to [email protected]
In case there will be no solution in place until end of March 2017 I´ll shut down all OpenCellID services by the end of March permanently.

Cheers Markus