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Friday, April 1, 2011

My Google Geo User Summit Singapore Experience

I've been in Singapore the past week for the Google Geo User Summit together with eight Filipino mapping enthusiasts from all over the Philippines. We were a huge contingent with a total of 10 Pinoys (plus the famous Brian Bautista from Google).

My mapping efforts are not comparable to what Wayne, Dante, Leonel, Theo, Lakan, Allan, Avel and Orman have done. I've been focusing my mapping efforts in my own neighborhood and learned a great tip from Wayne a few years back -- take a video of your neighborhood while driving through it and then start mapping! That's what I've been trying to do and have received a great compliment from one of the moderators because he said I was placing really important info through Google Mapmaker (car shops/talyers, tailors etc.). Yay!

The contributions of Filipino mappers have gone a long way. It's been used for crisis response and the elections and as Avel mentioned in his presentation, "Nobody gets lost in South Central Mindanao!". And it's really great to see other communities in other countries do the same thing. Ed Parsons, Google's Geo Evangelist, mentioned in his opening speech that mapping has changed tremendously in the past decade. Back then you had to be a cartographer with 2 degrees just to do maps. Now everyone can be a mapper!

The summit was a fun experience! I finally got to go on a river cruise in Singapore. Meet mappers from other countries. Listen to other communities share how they've used maps in their own countries (Avel, Lakan and I shared what's been done in the Philippines). Hear expert mappers give feedback on the platform. And now, the Pinoy mapping enthusiasts are planning some mapping activities in the Philippines!

Day Zero Photos



Day One Photos



Day Two Photos

3 comments:

  1. Sooo inggit, hehehe!

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  2. Aileen, I have a question. To map a particular area ba, we just have to go to Mapmaker and add the info, like what we did during the mapping party before the elections? I'm traveling to my parent's hometown, and I was dismayed that there is hardly anything in the map.

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  3. @Sheng may mapping party na magaganap sa inyo!

    @Nina yes, you can edit using Google Mapmaker. What I do is I take vids while in a car and then map when I have time. You might want to host a mapping party in your neighborhood! I have details in my next post :)

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