[maxerickson]

I don't have any insight into how they are choosing, but they are investing in improving OpenStreetMap in many places:

https://github.com/osmlab/appledata/issues

[GeekyBear]

Here, Bing, and Apple have all pitched in to help OpenStreetMaps improve their processes and their dataset.

[maxerickson]

What's Here done?

Microsoft has long made Bing imagery available for tracing, it's only recently that they have done much with data.

None of the companies have really touched "processes", because OpenStreetMap doesn't really have any formal processes.