2022
This meetup was the second knowledge sharing session carried out under the Knowledge sharing sessions for Local Guides in Sri Lanka 2017 initiative. This was organised for the Galle Local Guides and Google Map users who wants to join the Local Guides Program.
The meet-up was held at the Southern Province Road Passenger Transport Authority, and It was mainly attended by the staff of the authority and few other local guides.
At the begging of this session, we discussed the day to day use of the Google Maps and how it can help us to plan our trips. Most of the participants were not aware of the features available in the Google Maps, and they were surprised to see the features available in the Google Map.
I took a simple example to demonstrate the power of Google Maps. I asked them to give directions to Anuradhapura from Galle. They were telling the traditional route or well-known route. I asked how many hours it would take to travel from Galle to Anuradhapura via that route. They said seven and half hours. Then I just search the directions on Google Maps from Southern Province Road Passenger Transport Authority to Anuradhapura Railway Station. The travel time was five hours and twenty-one minutes.
I just saved more than two hours from their next trip to Anuradhapura.
They were jubilant and they want to know more about the Google Maps. I explained most of the features in the Google Map and then I changed the topic.
I simply asked how you can help Google Maps to improve the services provided by it. They said by adding/editing location details, adding photos, etc...
I told them it was correct and I said there is a program called Google Local Guides, which will help you to add information to Google Maps through fun activities. Then I started the Google Local Guides presentation.
I customised the presentation available for the Community Moderator, and I translated most of the parts to Sinhala. Thank you @TraciC for this excellent presentation. The flow of the presentation is really nice, and I used the flow to demonstrate how you can contribute to the Google Maps. They really liked the presentation.
I have to do few changes to the translated presentation, and once I complete it, I will share it with everyone. @TraciC I hope this will be a good starting point to attract more Sinhala speaking Local Guides.
Finally, I showed them the live traffic feature of the Google Maps, and as most of them are involved in the Public Transport planning, they were interested in this feature. They were talking about creative ways they can use it for public transport planning. Generally, they conduct surveys to calculate the travel time between two locations. Once I showed this, they said they were going to use it on an experimental basis to get the travel time between two places in different time periods in a day. It may save lots of time and money for them.
They also said sometimes they get real-time complaints from passengers about delays in travel time. They stated that they would use Google Maps Traffic feature in future to see the actual traffic on the road to get a rough idea about the delay(Is it due to heavy traffic or are they delaying deliberately?).
After the knowledge sharing session, they were doing some map editing.
The Google Photo Album of the meet-up with some 360 photos(Which are not that good since I did not have a monopod).
It was a really nice experience to share knowledge about Google Maps and Local Guides program. When you are sharing your knowledge, it will also let you learn new things and look at the Google Maps and Local Guides program in different angles.
Again, thank you @TraciC for the well-prepared presentation on Local Guides program.
