I started the local guide programm few years back, back then it was just curiosity, then it became a hobby, then a passion.
I enjoy adding informations to help stores having a presence online or to complete their informations, but even doing something that small can really help peoples and i got a story to tell.
Last year (2018) i did it while i was shopping for sport goods in Switzerland when i told the staff i couldn’t find them on maps, they told me they tried for almost a year to be on google map, and their location was the old one just at the end of the street, so i got out of the store and did some magic, few minutes later the store location was moved to the correct place, and the owner was so happy telling me how he tried so many time that he offered me 20 % off anything i would buy in the shop.
But you have to understand, map isn’t only something for business and shops, you have to see it from a neutral point of view (swiss pun attended .Maps enable people to be connected and to find things that they wouldn’t be able to find otherwise, shops, location or info
There is a key element to the survival of map, it’s the local peoples / local guide it’s important to know that maps rely on them for this, sure you got the google car that can map the street, but the informations can change so fast you can’t rely on it, only local living nearby are the solution.
but there is so little they can cover and the world is so big, this is the situation every local guide find, we can’t all go on vacation all the time to add information in place where no one go.
we need to remind people and to tell them that by taking a few minutes in their day, they will help other big time.
some of them already take so much pictures of their food, they just need to switch to another app and take some picture of the area and that’s it.
Because like i said, any information that you put online will help others, and that’s the next story.
If you ever come in the arrondissement in paris i live in, you would be surprise on how many pictures i took, how many information i filled in and i am still impress on how many people looked at it.
But my great passion is hiking, this is where street view was (and still) important for me, the first time i went in the mountain, not knowing what i would find, they were some picture here and there, but most of then were old, or the angle it was taken made it difficult to know where you were, so i started mapping everything, doing 360 on almost every corner, in less than 3 years some pictures up there have been seen more than 500 000 time each, it’s crazy !!!
Because even in the most lost spot on the globe, on a hiking trail you can help people without moving to know how is the area, what is there to been seen, what is around it.
In the wild by doing this you can help agency spot difference about the environment or construction, you can even save digitally some structure.
On the mountain i go to, there is a fort that was made more than 100 years ago (1909 is carved on the rock) that structure is falling apart, i remember it was still intact the first time i went up there but time do its thing, i took many picture inside but back then my phone kept crashing when it was combining the pictures i tried more than 10 time, i think i spend almost an hours trying, i planned on going back again this year and add more. ( last year weather made it impossible to go that high)
so go out there, convince people to help, and maybe one day you will be able to plan a trip only using maps