My name is Alyona. I can probably be called a novice in the community of Local Guides. I learned about the community about a month ago when I received an invitation to fill out my application to Connect Live 2019. And after that I began to call myself the proud name Local Guide.
Who was I before?
Before that, I was just a person who posted my impression more often on Google maps than on Instagram. The typical situation is when we are in a restaurant, and my friends make beautiful food photos on Instagram, I usually took photos of the menu and interior for Google Maps.
And all the friends asked why are you doing this?
And you know, for quite a long time I could not answer this question. I liked it when, after each small trip and uploaded photos, I received a notification that my photos are becoming popular, and they have already benefited 1,000 people! And this is really cool feeling. I was proud of it. And joked to friends that this is my little good deed.
But then came the invitation to the Connect Live 2019. And it turns out that many of the guys working with Google maps have their own big idea. That people are looking for the best coffee in Delhi, or the best symphonic music in Tokyo. And this was a discovery for me. I just posted up-to-date information about the places I visited. So I thought for a long time what could be my big idea of working in Google Maps. And just a few days ago I found it.
The day before yesterday, I look at information on large plastic islands in the Pacific Ocean. But in my city, unfortunately, the culture of sorting garbage is not developed. We do not have special containers for elementary division of garbage into plastic, paper, etc.
And if you want to sort the garbage, then to do this, you need to look for special places, know the schedule of their work, etc. And it stops many people. Since I have been sorting paper and plastic waste for more than a year and donating batteries from my home and office to special places, I thought that I could share this information with people who also come to the idea of sorting garbage. And they begin to look for recycling points in our city.
Thank you for inviting me to Connect Live 2019. It pushed me to take a fresh look at my work as a local guide and find my great idea of working with Google maps.