Local Guides Connect 2020 Application - What does the Local Guides program mean to you
A Multi-Year Passion
It’s 2020, and I look back to many years ago when I just got my first “smartphone”, trying to get the GPS to work on a Nokia phone - it was terrible back then. Then Google launched Maps, and then Nexus phones with photosphere capability. I spent countless hours going around painstakingly and slowly taking photospheres one section at a time and uploading them manually. It was super futuristic to be able to take 360 photos with just my simple phone. I did this in Singapore, in India, and anywhere I went. My friends remarked that it looks quite silly to spend 5 minutes rotating around in one spot in the middle of the shopping mall. I said, this is the coolest thing over, and after this, my name and profile photo is on Google Maps.
Years later, I have countless photos on maps, and countless 360 photos too.
Evolving community
From the very first ghetto Google+ communities, to the current Local Guides Connect, I’ve been through it all. The country communities grew, changed, evolved and melded with the larger international community. New people joined and left but the spirit stays the same - to contribute, to connect and to enjoy our passion together.
We’ve been through Hangout video calls, in-person meetups, Connect Live events, and many other initiatives. Some stuck, some didn’t. But we all grow richer in experiences for it.
Expanding friendships
I’ve made some pretty good friends from the meetups. I’ve known cool locals with really interesting jobs with the national parks, national museums, indie tour agencies, etc. It’s always interesting to see a new face, and hear their story, and tell them your story.
I’ve made even more international friends from Connect. It’s a community where only the most passionate, most helpful, and even possibly most eccentric folks are found. We have somehow made this a large focal point in our lives, dedicating countless hours into this passion, and are super super super eager to share and discuss it with others.
We are constantly in contact on WhatsApp, Telegram and Instagram. It’s still funny to get the random message from an overseas visitor to Singapore asking if I am available to meet up.
New avenues of sharing
I started sharing on Google+, then on posts on Connect. This year, I have started a new thing - Youtube. During our regular chats on Telegram with some other folks, I find that I still have lots of deep discussion information that is perhaps difficult to convey on Connect, and there’s never enough time during Meetups to really go deep one-on-one etc.
I have years of experience in contributing, and lots of advice I can give. Thus I have started a new YouTube Channel called Fun with Maps. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNOZnWMUA4Say3U4ZJUa6uA/ In this channel I am going to go from basics to advanced, from how to start off with your first review, all the way eventually to getting lots of views and top levels.
It’s been really challenging learning how to film myself, how to edit videos, add in screen capture of my phone maps app, and to make it interesting too. Lots and lots to learn. I am level 1 here, with so much more to learn!
I think it’s satisfying to maybe finally share out all the knowledge that I have bottled up inside me, and also to see what are the questions that people will be asking, and responding to that and helping them out as we go along. I feel that sharing my knowledge on Youtube will allow me to reach a larger audience, to do it in a video and hands-on demo format, and explain alot of thoughts and decisions behind the scenes.
On to more fun
We would never have lasted this long if we didn’t truly enjoy and have great fun while being Local Guides. Here’s to many more fun and delightful times with the app, with our friends, and with the big wide world out there for us to continue to explore!
