Two months back me along with my batch(a group of 16 students) went for a field trip to Penumatcha, a small village in South India.
Our first task was to map the entire village(every detail mattered) so we divided ourselves in groups and started mapping, soon we realised that none of us knew the local language and the villagers spoke in Telgu. We had to be dependent of Other sources. Being a local guide I advised the group to use google maps for cross-checking the information.
One confusion that became a mystery was that a medical store(with pictures) was listed in the town but actually it did not have any medical stores in that area, it initially created alot of confusion among members so I decided to go on field to verify if its there. we also cross-cheked it with the local governance(Village-Panchayat) and they confirmed that there is no such medical facility.
I went back to the place shown on the google maps and took a few snaps and reported it immediately.
Soon the edit was accepted by the google team.
Later on in our discussions when everyone was talking about this I told them that as a local guide I requested the google maps to make this edit and they did it. They were very impressed and thanked me for my contribution, also many of them joined the local guide programme after sharing this incident.
This edit was very important for me to reinforce that Iām contributing to something which helps millions of people everyday.
As a design student, I always look for details, accessibility, customer touch-points, infrastructure, service,etc and google googl guide has helped me to make it as a habit wherever I go. Now I always look for such things and how I can contribute to make maps truly accessible and inclusive. This has also helped me to consistentlyremain a top local guide of my area.
Here are a few snaps from the field visit to the village.
