A few weeks ago one article caught my attention: a group of travel guides is launching a tour round Moscow center in VR glasses. The augmented reality feature was needed to let the visitors appreciate the buildings that were conceived at various eras of Moscow history, but were never built (e.g. a tremendous 400m high Palace of Soviets with a grand statue of Lenin on top of it or a huge government offices building right on Red Square). This idea totally excited me with its authenticity: it seemed so easy and yet so disruptive. Only imagine how different Moscow would look like with a help of augmented reality glasses!
And then - somewhat suddenly - I realised that I personally have been “augmenting the world” since I joined the Google guides community. For me these augmented reality glasses are Google Maps with all the activities happening inside them (lists, recommendations, photos, etc). All these contributions on Google Maps (and my contributions included, of course), even though concise at times (and sometimes not very informative), they share an important purpose of making a world around us more intricate and intriguing, putting us into the context of what is happening around us and, more fundamentally, helping us feel at home - in familiar coordinates all over the world.
And that’s what keeps me sharing on Google Maps and raises (a little bit) my self-esteem… 