It’s your chance to build better maps for India and get rewarded for that. Google announced India’s first ever mapping competition ‘Mapathon 2013‘, join in to make India’s map comprehensive and detailed as possible.
Google Mapathon 2013 is an India-wide competition which starts on February 12, 2013 and culminates on March 25, 2013, open to anyone who lives in India. You can help Google by creating better maps for India, by adding knowledge of your neighborhoods through Google Map Maker. On your great effort in building better maps for India, Google will be rewarding the top 1000 mappers with Android tablets, smartphones, gift vouchers and Google merchandise.
You may have tried the Google Map Maker, a tool from Google which allows users to add more detail to Google Maps through a few simple clicks. Using Google Map Maker, you can select a specific area on Google Maps and add new information based on your own local knowledge or by referencing the satellite imagery on Google Maps. With just another click, you can save and submit your input and once the submitted edit has been verified, the new information will be added to Google Maps. Take a look at the following videos for better idea of Google Map Maker –
“Google Map Maker was first conceptualized in India, a country where even paper maps have historically lacked in details. Four years ago, a group of Googlers in India led by Lalit Katragadda, Country- Product Head, decided that it was time to team up with users to improve our maps for India in a dramatic way. The core belief was that users know their neighbourhoods, villages, and back yards better than anyone else, and so we designed Map Maker as the tool people could use to update these details onto a digital map. Map Maker is now used across the world and today, what started off as an initiative by the Google engineers is now a project that citizens across India can participate in through Mapathon 2013.” said Jayanth Mysore, Senior Product Manager for Map Maker on official blog.
Join Google in mapping India and start by adding in those places you consider important — such as your favorite local tea stall, roads or a nearby hospital or by simply updating details of places already on Maps. Registration for the competition is now open and you can sign up at: Google Mapathon 2013.