Google mapping my hometown

While I might not have sufficent domain knowledge or patience to contribute to Wikipedia, I’ve been a regular contributor to Google Map Maker. So, once I got home, I took an afternoon off to go around my hometown with my sister and videograph the main street of Thiruvalla. Unfortunately, most of Thiruvalla is covered by a giant cloud but I still managed to add quite a bit of detail to the map including banks, ATM machines, and hotels. It was heaps of fun

The other neighbourhoods I’ve been mapping are the Kamal Cinema Complex in Safdarjung Enclave and my old haunt of JNU. Much more content has come into Google Map Maker since it first came online a few months back. However, Wikimapia still rules the roost, once you get past the geo-spam, and figure out how to use its rather limited search capabilities.

Another collaborative project that I want to work on once I get hold of a GPS enabled device is OpenStreetMap. These are just some of the ways that one can give back to the Internet what one takes in other ways such as using Wikipedia. And I hope more of my fellow countrymen (and women) would turn into givers as much as takers:-)