Okay, so I have a question: how can open source geocoding services sustain themselves? Doesn't it cost money to gather all of that data? Where does that money come from if the service is free? I would expect an OSS geocoding service to be a) seeded with data that is out of copyright (basic geography and placenames, b) spruced up with any well-regarded modern free datasources (probably government funded), c) spruced up even more from volunteers donating GPS data.

Would a geocoding service be a good candidate for a state-run utility?