2022
I am Anuradha Piyadasa from Sri Lanka. This is the story of my journey as a local guide for the last twelve months, which has changed lots of things in my life.
What I did before ….
If you like to know how I became a local guide and what I did before, you can read this post on the Local Guides Connect, which was featured on the Connect.
Continuation from last year…
As I mentioned last year, still I am working as an IT specialist, with more focus on GIS applications in the public sector in Sri Lanka. The Sri Lanka Archaeology Website(https://www.archaeology.lk and https://www.archaeology.lk/sinhala/) is still active, and still, it is the most popular archaeology website in Sri Lanka, which helps lots of people. From last year we are awarding the Gold Medal for the best student with the highest meritorious skills in the Archaeology and Heritage Management Special Degree at the annual graduation ceremony of the Rajarata University of Sri Lanka.. We are so proud of this achievement. This idea came to my mind while contributing to the Connect. I was so fascinated by the compliments I get through the Connect from others for my contribution. I thought I should do something similar for the field of archaeology in Sri Lanka. I think this is one of the best things I did in my life.
The Google Transit work continues, and we are in the final stage. We did twelve months fieldwork and collected information for 537 bus routes and over 5,000 bus stops. Now we are fine-tuning the data we collected. It will be online very soon.
March 2018: Felt like a “Local” in a foreign country and felt proud about my contributions
This year March, I visited Palm Springs, CA for the first time. This journey has showed me the true value of the contributions made to the Google Maps by volunteers. From the time I left the home it helped me. On my way to the airport, there was a heavy traffic in the normal route, and I asked from the Google Maps the directions. It gave me a better alternative. Then there was over 10 hours transit at the Hamad International airport. I was wondering what I should do. Again the Google Maps with 360 photos came to help me. It showed me the places of art works, cafeterias and resting places in the airport. I went through some reviews and selected best places to see with in the airport. The resting place was selected based on the reviews on Google Maps, which directed me a very quiet place.
As soon as I landed the LAX airport, I opened the Google Maps. It gave me all the location information I needed. This time I was using public transport and Google Maps was there to help me. I was amazed by the amount of information it gave me. It is a different Google Map with lots of information, it is a completely different version compared to one I used in Sri Lanka.
In Palm Springs, I visited the many places, and before I go to those places, I walked through them to familiarize the locations using the Street View and 360 photos on the Google Maps. I also got a discount coupon for Lyft from Google for ten trips. Thank you, Google. Since I used the public transport regularly in this trip, I also contributed few places with 360 photos. This is one place I contributed. It is the bus halt at Flyaway Bus Halt at Union Station, LA which take you to the LAX airport.
Flyaway bus halt at Union Station, LA
This trip has showed me how my contributions to the Google Maps help others. How I help them to feel like a local. Thanks to Google Maps, I felt like a “Local” in a foreign country, and it made me proud that I am a part of it.
Change in the way I contribute to the Google Maps….
When I visited San Francisco last year, I learned a lot about contributing to the Google Maps. It is not just adding /editing places or uploading photos. I realized there is a lot to do. After the summit, I thought to contribute to the Google Street View, giving answers, and writing reviews.. This does not mean I am not focusing on adding Archaeological Sites, still, I love to do it, and I will keep on doing it. I thought this would help millions of people to make their day to day decisions on travel.
Drawing blue lines on the Google Maps around my city
This is one of the best things I did in last few months. When I checked the Google Maps in my area, some roads did not have Street View images, and existing ones were more than 2 years old.
This is a tedious task and uploading 360 videos take long time. This is my Street View Car 😊.
It was fun, and I feel proud when I see Google Street View images with my contributions.
Allowing others to see the world around me as I see…
I bought a 360-camera last year while returning from the Summit and I did not use the camera regularly. After I returned from the Palm Springs, I thought I must add more 360 photos to the Google Maps to help others to feel like a local and see the world around me as I see. So far, I have added over 350 new 360 photos with some auto connected tours to Street View and Google Maps. Here is a one photo I uploaded.
The Reviews: Lockers in Colombo Fort Railway Station
I was not focusing on writing reviews earlier, expect adding information about archaeological sites. When I started to write reviews, I not only helped others, I also came to know about things I did not know about the places around me. I normally asked from the people working in a Point of Interest if there is anything I want to clarify. I was a regular user of Sri Lanka Railway, and I never knew there is a locker service at least in one station in Sri Lanka. While I was preparing to write a review about Colombo Fort Railway station, I came to know they are having a locker server and they charged US$ 0.30 per day. So I realized that writing reviews will not only help others, it will also help us to learn about those Points of Interest.
The Local Guides Community
A logo: Third place, member of a large community
This is the logo I designed for the “Clean the World” project initiated by Ermest as a Local Guides community project.
This was shortlisted, it received the third place based on the votes of fellow local guides. I was so proud about this as I contributed to a project by this large global community. I felt like, I am a member of a community that concerns lot about future generation of this planet. This was one of the key highlights in my local guides community contribution this year. Thank you @ErmesT for giving this opportunity.
Inspiring the future Heritage Managers….
It was my dream to record all the archaeological sites in Sri Lanka. I cannot do it alone. I decided to train the heritage manager to record archaeological sites in Google Maps and make them members of the Local Guides community. I conducted few knowledge sharing sessions with heritage managers. The Galle Maritime Archaeology Unit is providing training programs to the university students every year, and they have selected this knowledge sharing session as a part of their annual training program. The knowledge sharing session I conducted in May 20, 2017, to the students of the Department of Archaeology, University of Kelaniya was a memorable one. It was the first time some students came to know about 360 virtual tours and how they can use it for their archaeology related projects. Here is the recap video, it was an amazing experience.
Signature Trend : A post that helped lots of Local Guides Community members and made me proud….
I have created few video tutorial on Connect to help the community members to help them to use the connect more efficiently. The one on Macros in the connect forum is one example. The video tutorial I created on adding signature to your Connect profile was a special one. It has created a trend in the connect to add signatures to community member profiles. It helps them to tell more about them and share special things they have done. This tutorial was mentioned in the Local Guides Connect summit 2017 post by @TraciC. Still, I am getting personal messages thanking me regarding this post. There are Local guides still tagging me if they face any issue regarding their signatures. I feel proud about this post, and it keep on telling me that I have helped fellow local guides.
Meetups: Telling Stories, attracting new people to the Connect
As a community member, I love to host meetups and tell the meetup story using different ways. I love to tell my story using video recaps and photos. I think it would attract more people to the Connect. From last April I have hosted 12 meetups and participated in few meetups hosted by others. There are few memorable meetups. The “Dambulla Photo Fly“ was an amazing meetup I hosted and I enjoyed it lot. The “Pinnawala Photo Walk” is another one. In this meetup, I used Google Tour Builder to tell the story of meetup. I think it is a very good way to tell your story. I hope lots of local guides would use it. The recently concluded “Kandy The “36” Walk” is another one. I missed the kids… The 2017 and 2018 “Vesak, Kids, Local Guides and Sky Lanterns” are two meetups that stands out from rest.
Wait...wait... Am I going to add every meetup here? Of cause every meetup was special. Please see the “Anuradha: My Meetup Map” to get an idea about the meetups(over 20) I hosted and participated. This map is a work in progress.
If I am not going to tell about the “Yosemite Meetup” hosted by Sonia and “The Sailing in the San Francisco Bay Meetup” hosted by Karen during the last years summit, I am not telling the truth about my memorable meetups. Those two were amazing experiences for me. The memories will last forever. The friends I came to know through the “Yosemite Meetup” are very special. Still, we are in touch. I hope it will last for our lifetime. I still remember the videos we did for @OSAMA , @HelloSamsonR and @LucioV just after the “The Sailing in the San Francisco Bay Meetup”. Sometimes when I close my eyes, I am sailing with all of you in San Francisco bay. Thank you @SoniaK and @KarenVChin for organizing these memorable meetups.
If you want to see my contributions to the Google Maps, visit my profile. If you want to see my contributions to the Connect, visit my Connect profile. I do not know about sharing Street View profile. I have contributed 420 photos and 5452 photos from the videos I uploaded to the Street View.
This is my favorite Local Guides photo of the last year.
I also love this one.
If I am going to talk about the Google Maps, Local Guides program and the Connect, I will keep on writing… I must stop now… I am only having few hours to post this and make my application video… 😊
By the way still, I am using the same laptop, with two more stickers. 😊
