OpenStreetMap Foundation investigation into unusual membership signups [pdf]

My announcement email has a short summary:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;lists.openstreetmap.org&#x2F;pipermail&#x2F;osmf-talk&#x2F;2019-January&#x2F;005856.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;lists.openstreetmap.org&#x2F;pipermail&#x2F;osmf-talk&#x2F;2019-Jan...</a>

<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;techcrunch.com&#x2F;2018&#x2F;12&#x2F;19&#x2F;grab-maps-osm-thailand-southeast-asia&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;techcrunch.com&#x2F;2018&#x2F;12&#x2F;19&#x2F;grab-maps-osm-thailand-sou...</a> to add the context

So the solution is to have more members? Wouldn&#x27;t at least a magnitude more of new members than the detractors be needed, still leaving a wide margin of error for the detractors of the election.<p>Also, link to the page to join the OSM Foundation: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;join.osmfoundation.org&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;join.osmfoundation.org&#x2F;</a>

It&#x27;s really weird that Grab is using outsourced companies to do this when they should actually have their own very decent, accurate data sets to work with. Every Grab driver drives with their app open and a map showing. Surely they would be collecting GPS and route data from the drivers&#x27; (or passengers&#x27;) apps during the trip. I&#x27;d think this approach would be cleaner and far more accurate.

If 100 signups is all it takes for OSM to release a 22-page postmortem full of charts, then OSM has bigger problems.