Due to the COVID-19 outbreak around the world, Bangladesh is also facing a very hard time. A proper digital map is still not available for rural areas and remote places in Bangladesh. Citizens can’t find info & places on the map during emergencies. Also, Digital services and support can’t be availed without a proper map. Aid from Govt or NGOs also needs a good map to reach people. Digital Quarantine can’t monitor properly even using Telco data for lack of proper mapping.
In this situation, Local Guide @PavelSarwar & Arif Nezami came forward with a unique idea to improve Google Maps adding new emergency services, edit update information, and make spam-free maps. They have approached their idea to the Access to Information (A2i) is a Government department and A2i agreed to do this. The name of this campaign is #BangladeshChallenge.
#BangladeshChallenge- the objective of the campaign is to encourage the youth of Bangladesh to mark emergency and necessary locations known to them. Through this initiative, we asked people to mark - pharmacies, hospitals, clinics, Mobile money Agents, etc. or any other important category/landmarks in the Google maps and Bangladesh Challenge’s website. In this lockdown situation, it will help people to get engaged for a greater national cause and to fight COVID-19 by getting emergency supplies using the maps. It was launched on April 08, 2020, and has continued until 30th April.
Zunaid Ahmed Palak, State Minister for ICT Division, Ministry of Post, Telecommunications & Information Technology, People’s Republic of Bangladesh inaugurated this campaign.
Launching video of the Bangladesh Challenge Campaign.
Outcome: Proper digital map will be created for the whole Bangladesh including remote areas and enrich Google Maps. A total of 31087 youths participated and provided 42993 Locations data in different categories. Out of all participants, 3902 were Local Guides.
In the initiative, there were different contributors, mainly segregated into - Organizer and Partners. The main Organizer was Access to Information- A2i, Information and Communication Technology Division, Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology, Grameenphone, Preneurlab, Youth Hub (Local Guide Pavel Sarwar is the co-founder), Bangladesh Scouts.
Community partners were Google developer group, Local guides Bangla, Google crowdsource, Women techmakers, Google business group, OpenStreetMap community.
Video Message from one of the core organizers.
Pavel shared with me the whole idea and asked to join me. As a Good citizen of Bangladesh, I am proud to be part of this campaign. I have shared about this campaign on our Connect Moderator forum and Hangout. Thank you so much @TraciC for inspiring me from the beginning of this Campaign.
Pavel has involved @ShafiulB for this particular campaign. Thank you Shafilu for your great contribution to society. Members from the Local Guides Bangla community played a vital role to assist the whole campaign.
Specially @ShahMdSultan FoysalBD @bdmafuz Farhan21 SalehMdSoyaib @SolaimanHossain Motiur_Rahman MS_Pathan Naiem
Access to Information- A2i is a Government department that had several meetings with the Google Maps team in Singapore, I and Pavel also present those virtual meetings. They gave us full support during the campaign and till now support.
Especially our State Minister of ICT Division appreciates the Local Guides for assisting in this campaign.
Video Message from State Minister of ICT Division
Process:
- Users directly mapped in BangladeshChallenge platform.
- Users mapped in Google Maps or OSM
Training & Promotion: We did several Facebook Live Sessions to provide training and to promote this campaign and several virtual training sessions about Local Guides program and policy, Google Maps. We have reached 3198299 viewers and the core organizer also did Television and newspaper promotion. Organizers also created many video tutorials about how to add places, edit info, rules, and policy about Maps and Local Guides programs. The government published those tutorials from the Government e-learning platform muktopaath.gov.bd
Facebook Live Sessions from organizers pages.
Mapping Checking:
- Auditors categorized mapping inputs as followings:
- OK
- Not Sure
- Wrong
- Duplicate Entry
- Already in Map
We are now bulk uploading only OK entries on Google Maps through the Google Maps team provided panel.
Protect spam Activity: We have called and checked when there was confusion in inputs. We encouraged people to provide spam-free information.
Certificate: There are 3 kinds of certificates: 1. Top 100 2. Expert Mapper (Auditors) 3. Normal Mappers
Winner Gifts: Core Organisers will provide gifts.
Feel free to send your feedback regarding this campaign. I would like to know what you are doing for your community to fight against COVID-19.
I registered and was seeing the campaign updates regularly on the group.