Google Map Maker Kerala Mapping Party
Google MapMaker is a Google Maps dependent app/service that allows you to add local roads, points of interest, buildings or landmarks onto the map of the place. The process of doing this is called ‘Mapping’. Anyone with a Google account can use Mapmaker and make edits and adds to the maps. Edits made by new users won’t be published in real-time and will be held for moderation. That is, some ‘experienced’ user will have to approve the edit; this is done to ensure quality of edits and prevent manipulation.
This is completely community-driven (just like many other awesome stuff on web) and the success lies in the magnitude of participation. It is with this objective “Mapping Parties” are organized. Interested people come together for a day or half and do the mapping of some particular place, decided in advance.
The first Mapping Party in Kerala is to be held in Thiruvananthapuram, this February.
- Date: 5th February 2010, Friday
- Venue: Hotel Residency, TVM
- Details & Registration: http://sites.google.com/site/tvmmappingparty
- Seats: 100 seats. First-come-first-served.
Update: The event was nicely carried out and here are the photos from the event
Though the party will be a bit focussed on Mapping Thiruvananthapuram, demos & talks would benefit anyone interested in the concept (which is already a success). The party is expected to benefit the attendees a lot as they may organize local mapping parties at their places.
Little more..
Google is hosting Mapping competitions. The first one was the “Latin America Mapping Competition” which was concluded on 15th December 2009. And they’re now running a “Global Mapping Competition” with a prize money of $50,000 sponsored by UNICEF. The main objective of the competitions, apart from boosting overall mapping activity, is to map universities, schools, hospitals and medical clinics with high quality.
In a recent post at the official Google Map & Earth blog, the idea of landmarks based navigation was discussed. Quoting from the original post -
We discovered that street signs or names tend to be less important than landmarks such as civic buildings and gas stations. A friend giving you directions might tell you to “Turn left at the school” or “Go past the convenience store”. In India, we have a lot of great landmark data available through user-entered “Points of Interest” in Google Map Maker.
Our new algorithm determines which of these landmarks are most useful for navigation, based on visibility, importance, and closeness to the turns that you’re making. We now combine landmark data, counted turns (“the 2nd right”), intersection names, and road names, and try to use whatever information is most relevant and useful.
More mapping parties means more mapping activity. More activity means more data. More the data, merrier gets the Google’s algorithm. Won’t you love to navigate around with directions like “take the 2nd left after you see a tree leaning over the road” 
Thumbnail photo credit: bluman
Never have i heard about Google’s Mapping. The post was really informative. Great job, and thanks!
And, isnt it great a Google sponsored event organised in Kerala?! We are looking forward to hear from Ishtika more about the event.
i like to hear more from you