Mapping RP through Google

MANILA, Philippines - Making maps is fun.

Take it from Rally de Leon, a 38-year-old Electronics and Communications Engineering graduate who now calls himself a “social entrepreneur.”

Since discovering the Google Map Maker for the Philippines last November, he would spend days making edits, rest for a day, then go back to map editing again. On Google Map Maker, Rally’s “turf” is Rizal. His edits can now be seen in the towns of Angono and Taytay and portions of the poblacions of Binangonan, Cardona, Morong, Baras, Tanay, Pililla and Teresa.

He hopes to encourage more people and the government as well to help build accurate maps, especially in the provinces and the rural areas.

In a press conference recently, Google bared that since the launch of the Google Map Maker in the Philippines, there are now tens of thousands of edits made by Filipinos that can now be seen on Google Maps.

This, according to Derek Callow, marketing head of Google Southeast Asia, reflects the overwhelming enthusiasm of Filipinos to the Google Map Maker, an application that allows users to edit map data.

Callow admitted that the Philippines is one of the most challenging places to map because of the diverse topography of its more than 7,000 islands, which explains the dearth of available local map data for a number of years.

“Because of the collaborative efforts of local map enthusiasts, we are beginning to see the ‘physical face’ of the Philippines getting clearer over time for the global community to see,” Callow said.

Platform

The Google Map Maker provides a platform for local users to locate, draw, label and accurately render existing tourist destinations, and create maps of unchartered areas. According to Google, this provides new commercial opportunities for local residents and businesses in a locality.

“It is important that local users keep the edits coming in because having accurate map data helps promote the country’s viability to foreign investors and tourists,” said Dante Varias, a 56-year-old civil engineer who is among Google Map Maker’s top contributors.

Varias attested that the application is so user-friendly that it doesn’t need special training to start editing.

“When I discovered Google Map Maker, I immediately started enjoying the process of editing the tiles of Cavite so much that after only 37 days I had already added over several thousand edits on my own,” he said.

Wayne Manuel, a Filipino student in Singapore and another top contributor to Google Map Maker, started on the application adding streets and establishments in Tuguegarao, Cagayan where he was born and in Baguio City where he later lived and grew up. “It started out like a big jigsaw puzzle with many pieces missing. But when I saw the roads, street names and landmarks coming together, I felt very happy for my country and it encouraged me to contribute more,” he said.

The pride of helping build a map for one’s hometown is also the prime motivation of Bernard Arellano III, a call center agent who had contributed thousands of edits on Guimaras and Iloilo.

“The mission continues and I hope even more Filipinos will join us on the Google Map Maker to improve the online map of our beautiful country,” he said.

Callow said Google sees the application as continuing to evolve and the key thing for the Philippines is to get rural areas and the small cities on the virtual map.

Very much like Wikis, or the software that allows users to freely create and edit webpage content, the beef against collaborative map making is the capability of ordinary people to create accurate maps to be made available to the public to use.

‘Wisdom of the crowds’

Callow said that as in other social software, the Google Map Maker draws from the “wisdom of the crowds” for this endeavor.

“The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations” is a book written by James Surowiecki and first published in 2004.

Callow explained that the theory behind the so-called “wisdom of the crowds” is that based on certain studies the average or collective thoughts or work of people independently working or deciding on an issue or project is likely to make certain decisions or predictions better than individuals or even experts.

He added that the map is being used by everyone and if there are contentions to the current map available, users can make edits to enhance or improve on it. There is also a system of moderation among users within the local community in every locality, which serves as a check and balance if the map is indeed accurate or not.

The Google executive stressed that there is no business model for Google Map Maker. “As with any other Google product, we focus more on what users need rather than on making money. This is purely about giving value. If you notice, a lot of searches online have a geographic component in it,” he said.

Callow mentioned about searching for dry cleaners, for example, in the cities of Sydney or Singapore. Aside from getting the webpage or the physical address probably of dry cleaning services within the area, some searches now include the map showing where these dry cleaners are located.

“We just provided additional benefits,” he said.

Callow also pointed to CNN and other media organizations which now use Google maps to pinpoint locations of where major news events are happening. Through Google Maps API, he said users could embed maps in webpages and add content to them.

He admitted though that Google has partnered with many organizations all over the world for Google Maps and it is not just the contributions of individual map editors which power it now.

Copyright issues, he said, depend a lot on the geographic area or how the map will be used, which vary from case to case. The legal terms and provisions are always specified when users start to use or download the services within the Google Map and Google Earth APIs.

For Philippine map enthusiasts, Callow has only one message: Keep the edits coming to give the Philippines an accurate virtual map.