
OpenStreetMap Foundation investigation into unusual membership signups [pdf] - MRPockets
https://openstreetmap.lu/MWGGlobalLogicReport20181226.pdf
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stereo
My announcement email has a short summary:

[https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/osmf-
talk/2019-Jan...](https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/osmf-
talk/2019-January/005856.html)

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tfaruq
[https://techcrunch.com/2018/12/19/grab-maps-osm-thailand-
sou...](https://techcrunch.com/2018/12/19/grab-maps-osm-thailand-southeast-
asia/) to add the context

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aboutruby
So the solution is to have more members? Wouldn'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.

Also, link to the page to join the OSM Foundation:
[https://join.osmfoundation.org/](https://join.osmfoundation.org/)

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labster
I wouldn't mind joining, but I have no idea who to vote for for the board.

~~~
aboutruby
This is the 2018 election:
[https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Foundation/AGM18/Electio...](https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Foundation/AGM18/Election_to_Board)

Candidates give their answers to the same series of questions.

Looking at the current board is pretty interesting:
[https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Board_Member_Bios](https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Board_Member_Bios)

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thatcloudguy
It'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' (or passengers') apps
during the trip. I'd think this approach would be cleaner and far more
accurate.

~~~
black-tea
The GPS data is only half of it, though. Much more valuable and difficult to
obtain is the metadata, ie. the type of way, width, surface, quality etc; the
name, any official government names and/or local names; access rights;
lighting; seasonal restrictions etc etc

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

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theoctopus
These are not normal account signups, they are signups to become an associate
member ([https://join.osmfoundation.org/](https://join.osmfoundation.org/))
which can vote in foundation elections.

~~~
spac
Normal members can participate to the election too, according the website. The
differences between regular and associate member are 1) the associate’s name
and address is not publicly inspecatble, while the regular member’s is; 2)
Associate members cannot vote on resolutions.

~~~
Doctor_Fegg
Sure. I think the point is that these aren’t OSM contributor “signups”,
they’re Foundation memberships. The Foundation is not as big a deal in OSM as
it is in Wiki(m|p)edia because the project is intentionally low-budget and
hands-off.

~~~
sp8962
Even that is not really comparable. The WMF does not actually have any
members, and only has a superficial pseudo democratic shim (if that is good or
bad is a different discussion though).

The "alarm" is caused because concerted action of roughly 10% of the OSMF
membership could easily tip the current wobbly balance one way or the other,
and there is no guarantee that the current "hands-off, low budget approach of
the OSMF would survive such an upheaval.

