It was many years ago when I fists started editing Google Maps. Georgia on the map was just a blank spot back then, without any roads, towns, big cities or anything among other already developed maps of nearby countries. Later Google allowed enthusiasts like myself to make contributions via Google Mapmaker. I still remember the emotion I had when I discovered I could make edits, which later would turn into map features visible to anyone around the world. I was so proud to realize that these edits would have been helping so many people in the future to get around, find things they would be looking for. My contributions turned into my little hobby and soon I became one of the top contributions for and from my country:
After Google Map Maker was closed I switched to Local Guides and now trying to do my best to improve local map via this new “platform”. I enjoy doing what I like and at the same time helping others with my - lately not as many but still - contributions.
Fortunately there are lot more contributors now then there were many years ago. That’s very important in terms of development of an electronic map for such a small country, as it is Georgia. But still, many doesn’t always mean better. Map errors and bad edits also doubled since the old times. Unfortunately some of the contributors (probably due to the language barrier) don’t have availability or maybe are lazy to read instructions and not always improve maps as they’re supposed to. There are many language related issues, which I’m currently trying to fix. I am doing my best to make local map be available in English - for foreign visitors and users, as well as in Georgian - for local residents, who are relatively newcomers to internet, electronic maps and not necessarily English language speakers.
Since many contributions are either only in English, or Georgian, or wrongly edited (English version of the map could have Georgian names and vice versa), I am trying to add missing translation of the name and if wrongly named - fix as much as I can.
I would also like to mention, that besides the fact that I enjoy and find it very important to have place names properly available in different languages, I think major problem that needs to be addressed in Georgia, is accuracy of roads and navigation. When Google Map Maker was available, this was what I was enjoying the most to edit. Now this opportunity is gone and still not available for my region. Before it’s back, I believe that language-related issue is second most important thing requiring attention of a Local Guide and that’s why I think all my efforts to be focused towards this direction will help many to navigate through Google Maps in their preferred language and not be frustrated when selecting their preferred language of the map and still see places in another unidentifiable-to-them language.
Here I would like to encourage other Local Guides to work in the direction of improving language versions of the maps and ask them to be carefull when submitting their edits, pay attention to which language version are they working on and add names (and content) in appropriate language.