I take photos almost every day and I travel quite a lot. Due to that fact, I have quite a big collection of photos which I wanted to share my collection with someone. There are many stock websites, but it wasn’t an option since I wasn’t seeking any profit. I just wanted to feel that someone can make some use of something that I just store in my cloud without any use in it.
Since I work as a teacher, I often use Google products in many ways to make my lessons better. Google Maps is obviously one of them. So, I have decided to add some of my photos to Google Maps so my pupils could use them when we were doing a travelling project. It was very simple to do. But as it often happens: everything starts with a simple action and one can never predict the outcome.
The feedback I got in many ways made me continue to share and engage not only as a photographer but as well as a person who can contribute in many different ways and share some experience.
As an example of some non-trivial actions is my pattern of commuting. Since I often have to commute to different places to my work, I use Google Maps to build my route. And it feels good to share my experience to help to build more efficient routes.
I also have a passion to edit information in my neighbourhood because it feels good to make this true LOCAL difference. It can be a simple update for the opening hours during holidays of my favourite store, but still, it makes a difference. And I could experience it myself.
I live in a great community with charming people, so we often chat in an elevator. My neighbour shared his amazement that Google Maps knew that his favourite grocery store has special opening hours during the holidays and wondered how they can track all the stores in the world this way. And I had an answer.
Yes, each local guide is only part of many thousands army that helps to make the product better. But this does not mean that an impact a separate one of us does is insignificant. We often fall for the myth that the things we do have to be enormous to make any difference. With Google Maps I’ve learned that it doesn’t.
That’s how my story as a local guide started. But it definitely has a continuation.
Kiryl Shantyka