I’m Ravindu Samarasinghe from Sri Lanka. By profession I’m an IT Consultant for Capital Market software products. I was a Google map maker years ago. Back in the year 2012, I started my first map contributions through the Map Maker program. Later I joined the Local Guides program.
Being a Local Guide means a Way of Life for me. It has combined two of my passions for me. I am an outdoor person who loved to travel, go on hiking trips, camping, mountain climbing, kayaking, snorkeling, and scuba diving (list made from my travels: Best 9 Camping Hikes in SL). It also makes me really happy when I could find a way to help others, be assistance to somebody, do community services. Being a local guide given me the opportunity to combine both the “Traveler” and the “Helping Hand” inside me. When I travel now, the first thing I do is finding ways to contribute to Google maps. Whether there are places along the way that are still not included in the maps. Whether the Street view is available there. Whether 360 photos are available for the place. Then I get ready for the trip. Plan additional little detours if there are places to add to maps along the way. If possible I also arrange a meet up so that I could share my experience with other local guides.
By the time I finish a trip, hike or dive now, I also have contributed a lot to the maps through photos, reviews, new roads and place additions. When I stay at a small hotel or hostel I talk to the owner and volunteer to create a virtual tour using 360 photos. You can’t describe the amazement and joy on their face when they see the virtual tour of their hotel on maps. One small hotel owner later called and thanked me, saying that he sees a significant increase of customers after I added 360 images and a virtual tour. I was over the moon with that news.
I combine my community service work with mapping. I organized a beach cleanup on Sri Lanka Independence day. We were able to remove a lorry full of plastics from the Crow Island beach. It was the best Independence day ever for me.
I did a project with my friends to Provide water supply(digging tube water well and pump the water) and build a toilet system for a poor rural village school in Wasgamuwa. Then we did a session for them educating how to use toilet facilities and good sanitary practices and habits. These kids didn’t have running water or proper toilet facilities and also didn’t know how to use them. I won’t forget their happy faces when they saw the running water at the school and the new toilet system. Their school was not on Google maps. So I added their school to the maps with few photos. They were kids from the primary section, so they didn’t have much understanding of Google maps but I show them how we can find places with maps. Hopefully, we will see some local guides from there in the future.
I also work with my work colleges and friends from local guides to raise funds to donate a Portable ventilator to the National Hospital of Sri Lanka. Doctors from the hospital said that this new portable ventilator would help to save 10 more lives per month. Our efforts probably have saved close to 100 lives by now.
Currently, I’m volunteering to make an application for a charity organization who promotes mindfulness among school children and the public to prevent stress-related issues and promote good mental health. I’m using my Local Guide mapping knowledge in building this system. This system going to track the progress of mindfulness programs hundreds of schools around the country. Knowledge and experience I gathered being a local guide paying it dividends to my community through these projects.
These days I’m working with my fellow local guide friends @AnuradhaP and @kasunaaa to create a Google Mymap including all the Pharmacies around the country which are authorized to operate during the curfew period(curfew going to be imposed for weeks ). Sri Lankan government has issued a list of 800 pharmacies that could be open and do deliveries to homes. Our objective is people to find the nearest such pharmacies using this custom Google Mymap.
Being a Local guide means making friendships, bringing distant friends together, making great partnerships. Through the local guide program, I got to know a lot of new friends from various parts of the world. One of such great friendships I was fortunate to build was my Local Guide partner in crime @kasunaaa . We knew each other before even before our mapmaker days. But the great friendship we have right now was built through the Local Guide program. Being local guides made us understand our similar interests. Helping each other out in our meetups made us mango buddies. Now I @ravindus and @kasunaaa we do almost all our local guide adventures together. Together we have hosted 15 meetups so far- Meetup Journey of Two Local Guides .We have gone through some interesting adventures during our local guide expeditions which build a lifelong trust and friendship. If it weren’t for local guide program Kasun and I would have been just two people who only know each other from school days. Being a Local Guides build us a lifelong friendship. @IlankovanT @Rumal95 , @Yukthi_Isuranga , and @SupunW are few other very good LG friends I was fortunate to make because of Local Guide.
Being a Local Guide means kind of a sickness or an irrevocable addiction for me. Wait for it… wait for it… Yes, it’s a sickness, an addiction in a really really GOOD way. I used to spend a lot of my free time playing mobile games, scrolling social media. Becoming a Local Guide turned those unhealthy habits upside down. Now I use that time to studying 360 photography, Experimenting with virtual tour software, checking on possible map updates, reading interesting posts on and writing posts for Local Guide connect, planning meetups and finding new ways to contribute to maps, the list goes on. I always check my Gmail to see whether my map edits are live, whether anybody has commented on my new posts in Connect. Two of my meet up posts were featured in Best Meetups articles for two consecutive months and also on one Friday Favorites post.
- Underwater Meetup Hikkaduwa was in January 2020 Best Meetups post by @InaS and
- Sri Lanka Independence Day Beach Cleanup meet up in February 2020 Best meetups the article by @VasT and
- Friday Favorites post by @MortenSI
Few of my other posts.
- Southern Highway Blue Line ~200km of Street View
- How to become a Diving Local Guide - Join the LG Seal Team
- How Street Arts bringing a Country Together
- The best hike, waterfall hunt, and cave camping
- SL Highway Blue Line ~ 50km of Street View
With all the above, being a local Guide means being myself, doing what I love, doing community service, make positive changes to lifestyle, meeting like-minded people, building life long friendships, learning from friends all around the world, getting appreciated for who I am and for what I do, serving the world with my contributions, keeping the maps up to date and relevant. I feel that… mmm no, I know that being a local guide makes me a better person for myself and the world.
Cheers…!!!
Ravindu Samarasinghe
My Profile
My List: 7 Restaurants for your First Date
Find my Connect Live 2020 Application Video
your contributions to Google Maps is awesome