[aray]

It really wasn't discussed in the article, but it has a bunch of benefits we've seen with software like ArcGIS.

When you have paid engineers using tools like OSM, they'll develop more tools for using it, build extensions. They offer valuable feedback on making it more attractive to other potential commercial users.

Having a tool like this used commercially, full-time by various teams is a catalyst, even though it's possible some of the same work would eventually be done by the open source community in time.

[pessimizer]

You mean the paid engineers at the proprietary mapping services, or those who use data from those proprietary mapping services? I don't understand the incentive that the former would have to release their tools, and since the latter wouldn't be working with OSM directly, wouldn't they be building tools to work with those other services?

A lot of paid engineers work with OSM now, don't we? Ever since google raised rates, OSM seems to be a big player.

[chippy]

ArcGIS has quite a good OpenStreetMap support / extension.

The thing is: Open Data is liked by proprietary software. Open Source software is liked by proprietary data.