2022
Hello from Canada.
My name is David Flack, now a level 6 Google Guide with over 5000 views, and currently a musician.
In earlier years I was a teaching assistant in the Geography Department of Brock University in courses such as Cartography and Geographic Information Systems. I was involved in G.I.S. at Brock ever since it began teaching courses in this new area. I had always had a love of maps and was quite happy to discover the potential that Google had given people in using digital maps. As we developed our new curriculum, I was involved in research projects using G.I.S. and attended a few conferences such as OSU-Map-for-the-PC in Ohio.
After retiring I took up the guitar, started playing at open mic's, made several connections with other musicians, started writing songs, formed a band called "David Flack &
the Paradigm Shifters" and recorded a 14 song CD in 2016 and a 3 song EP in 2018.
Around the same time as I started my musical endeavours, I also started writing Google reviews. At first these were mostly of cafe's where I would stop in for a coffee or venues that would be hosting live music. There was a good feeling about leaving a comment as to how great the coffee was or how friendly the service, a comment that would still exist in the time after my visit. My time was spent quite often listening to other musicians and it was wonderful when there were opportunities to share ideas. Currently I must have between 200 to 300 facebook friends who are musicians that I either met online or at festivals or open mic's or cafe's. I enjoy being able to hear from them and know when and where they are playing. Similarly, writing Google reviews seems to connect me with people I know who might consider stopping at that same cafe or going to that venue. I like to get the message out as to what places are particularly good, just as in the lead song of my debut CD, the lyric is "We've got songs to sing with messages to bring". As time went on, my reviews expanded into all kinds of other places. Not only do I feel I am helping other potential clients, but also being able to give feedback to establishments that I hope will improve what they have to offer. I, myself, have often checked out Google reviews to see whether I should attend a certain venue or eat at a certain restaurant.
It's all good.