Google Mapping Event in Lahore

Last Saturday, a Google Mapping Party event was organized at the FAST-NU campus in Lahore. The driving force behind the event was Khurram Siddiqi who is a faculty member at FAST-NU. Google was represented by Badar Khushnood, Google Country Consultant for Pakistan.

I’ve always had a keen interest in location-based services. Back in the summer of 2008, when there were were no Google Maps or Google Map Maker, I developed a prototype location-based app. In November 2008, I organized World Usability Day 2008 where we highlighted Google Map Maker for Pakistan by featuring a live video conference from India with its creator Lalit Katragadda. Fast forward to 2010, and Lahore is now the fastest mapped city in the world using Google Map Maker. Amazing.

Many parts of Lahore and Pakistan have been mapped providing a lot of value to citizens and organizations within the country. But a lot more still needs to be done and improved upon. So it was with this aim that Saturday’s event was organized: to create mainstream awareness about Google Map Maker and also discuss some of the social and technical challenges involved in making Google Maps a better service.

The event consisted of the following main activities and was well-worth attending if you’re interested in location-based services, urban planning, and maps:

• An general introduction to Google Maps by Badar Khushnood
• An open-ended question-answer-comments session
• A presentation by Khurram and Sarah, an urban planner and designer, on how location based info can help in providing social services
• A hands-on labs with practical guidance on using Google Map Maker

…followed by a post event dinner.

And now onto some aspects of the event that I’d like to highlight:

Google Mapping Champs
Faraz and Jabran – two young chaps from Pakistan have done a huge number of edits on Google Maps. In fact, as far as I know, Faraz has the largest number of edits: a staggering 48,000 of them!! (he also happens to be in residing in my former hometown: Glasgow, UK). I wish the promotional leaflet for Google Map Maker distributed at the event would feature Faraz’s record holding 48,000 edits instead of some person’s measly 6,000 edits. (Yes, some people actually read promotional leaflets – see image on RHS)

National and Political Issues
There were some passionate discussions on who owns the data on Google Maps that is being provided by Pakistani volunteers and what if Google switches the service off. Personally, I really think it’s a pertinent question (but one that was not within the scope of the event). What if? After all, Google is a private enterprise, and it’s in the business of making money (albeit not in an ‘evil’ way), and its incorporated in the US, and governed by US laws, and subservient to US courts. What if the US authorities, one fine day, find it politically expedient and necessary that Pakistan should not have access to its maps? Ever heard of the ‘Axis of Evil’? Now, that might sound a bit paranoid, but its certainly a possibility.

A Suggestion for Improving Google Maps
Now that’s the big question – how to improve the service? Answer: Obviously, by improving the density of information. How can that be done? Here’s one possible model: The event (mapping party) held on Saturday was really a general purpose event that covered a number of different topics and aspects of the Google Maps service. To increase the density of information, what is really needed are more localized events organized at the mohalla (neighbourhood) level in collaboration with local people. And these events should be held all over Pakistan, focusing on small cities, towns, even villages. A day-long event focused just on the actual activity of mapping by a group of local people is the way to go. And then repeating this exercise in different places on a nation-wide level. In the years’ to come, this will pay off in a real big way for the public of Pakistan and probably monetarily for Google too.

I hope someone from Google or elsewhere can take the above idea forward. I’m personally ready to volunteer for this. Any Googlers and Mappers listening?

New year resolution

It’s the new year which means renewed hopes, new goals, and of course the obligatory new year resolutions.

As far as this blog is concerned, my new year resolution for Experience Matters is that I will be conducting a usability review / customer experience audit every week – this could be a usability analysis of a web interface, a review of a company’s service, or a case study of a product from an end-user experience perspective. So, if you would like to see something covered on this blog, send me any ideas or suggestions by leaving a message in the comments section or email me at imran@experiencematters.pk.

And a spanking good new year to ya all!