It was August 24, 2016, when a series of earthquakes destroyed the heart of my country. Norcia, Accumoli, Arquata del Tronto, Castelsantangelo sul Nera, and Visso are just a few of the names of the villages razed to the ground.
The immense tragedy was all over the news; the rescue machine had moved quickly. It was a huge area, and sometimes difficult to reach. Images of the destruction reached every home through the news. Images showing before and after the earthquake. The after was easy to see, but the before was often told through Street View images, taken directly from Google Maps.
It was those very images that set my thoughts in motion. We are talking about medieval villages, often with narrow alleys, where Google cars couldn’t pass. My first thought was: those images could be used to rebuild those places. The second, sadder thought, was that there weren’t enough images, because Google couldn’t have been everywhere.
“I need to talk to Google,” I said to myself. “I need to convince Google to create a historical map with all the available images, those posted on social media, on the web. All geolocated and available for the reconstruction.”
“How do I talk to Google? And how do I say it so that it’s easy to understand?”
So I created a video and published it on YouTube. Obviously, almost no one saw it. But a person who did see it contacted me, saying: “What a great idea. There is a community born just a few days ago, surely they will listen to you.” That is how, in September 2016, I knocked on Google’s door.
And Google opened its door to me. At the time I didn’t know who the person was who had opened it; I only knew she had the Google logo in her avatar, and that her name was @Traci .
That community was, as you can easily imagine, Local Guides Connect.
What happened next was simply incredible.
On December 10, 2016, the Local Guides Volunteer day was held on Connect. I was leaving for Norcia with @AntonellaGr , and a van full of aid. @manulele81 , a Local Guide from Norcia I met here on Connect, was our contact. He had helped us organize the cargo, telling us what was needed. We had launched a fundraiser for contributions, and at 4 in the morning we were ready to leave.
Entering an area hit by an earthquake is like entering a war zone: collapsed houses, blocked roads, people who have lost everything. But it is also a place of great solidarity—volunteers at work to distribute aid, prepare meals, pitch tents, and do everything that is necessary in a situation that can last for years.
What can I say, we fell in love with that rugged, ancient territory full of history. We fell in love as people but also as Local Guides.
So we went back again and again and again, for years. At first, we traveled through the destroyed areas to bring aid, then we started to take care of the territory, repositioning commercial businesses on Google Maps, and creating events to bring local companies together with those from other areas.
That urgent need to bring order to a deeply disrupted map is precisely what forged my path moving forward. Helping to re-map relocated businesses and tracing detours around blocked roads laid the foundation for the rigorous Community Moderator I am today—driven by a deep commitment to map editing guidelines, adding missing roads, and meticulously merging duplicate points of interest so that the map perfectly reflects reality.
Perhaps it is no coincidence that, while we were taking care of the territory, Google Maps was taking care of us.
After 10 years, we are still here.
Thank you, @Latika_Malhotra , for offering us this journey through time: Connect turns 10! 🎂 Join the time capsule ⏳ To remember where we started, to not forget what moved our first steps. I have loved Connect from the first day I entered it, and from the first day my love has been reciprocated.
