A couple of weeks ago, we noted the massive enthusiasm for the HERE Map Creator programme coming out of South East Asia.
We’ve talked before about the incredible achievements of Indonesian community members. Today. We’re going to focus on three more countries in the area: the Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand.
Focus on the Philippines
Image credit: Pichugin Dmitry
Christian Moscosa and Patrick Torres have recently been awarded Map Master status in the Philippines. We asked them what made the country unique.
Christian says: “The Pearl of the Orient, or the Philippines, is also known as the country that contains 7,107 islands. This beautiful country surrounds [visitors] with very colourful places, a very kind and hospitable people, awesome beaches and land formations. Also delightful foods and a tropical weather. It’s more fun in the Philippines.”
Patrick explains that it’s a tricky place to map, though, for two particular reasons:
“There are rules, especially for private and government-owned places, that makes map-making challenging. But it is [mainly] the Philippine’s structure, being an archipelago consisting of 7,107 islands, that makes map-making really challenging.”
Christian and Patrick both originally got involved through Microsoft events in the country, but their enthusiasm has stayed strong over many months. Why?
“Mapping is not just putting all your favorite places [on the map], rather [it’s] uncovering things and places new to you and sharing them with other people which makes it really fun,” says Patrick.
The sense of a lasting contribution also helps, says Christian: “I enjoy seeing the changes that I and my friends made to HERE maps on the mobile phone.”
Mapping in Malaysia
Image credit: Zhu Difeng
Over in Malaysia, our Map Masters are Azrul Nisyam and Lim Che Chien. The two of them have together contributed 43 per-cent of the community changes to our maps in Malaysia.
Azrul explains that his country is unique because of, “its diversity of food, race, language, culture, nature and religion. Basically, my country is known to have a multi-cultural society with a high diversity of flora and fauna, making it a country like no other.”
“Most parts of Malaysia are still covered with tropical forests,” Azrul tells us, which can make it hard to see both roads and POIs on satellite images of the country, and to find the places they’re trying to map.
But it’s not just the forests. “We have lots of mountainous area that haven’t been explored. In additional, the government regulations also limited the map making in getting an exact coordinates for validation,” adds Lim.
And then the really fast pace of urban growth adds an extra layer of challenges. Azrul explains: “For example, last February I mapped a particular residential area with just a few POI and then [within a] few months the housing area expanded into several residential area and a new mall was built.”
Lim notes that house numbering is often eccentric in Malaysia: “The house numbers are not in any ascending or descending order.”
Topography in Thailand
Image credit: Iakov Kalinin
This fast growth of urban areas is a common theme across South East Asia, as our Map Masters in Thailand, Apimuk Choenaksorn, Nattakan Chantarumporn and Worawut Khantee, have discovered.
“The speed at which the maps are being updated is a challenge …things are constantly changing every day,” says Apimuk. Thailand’s status as a transit hub for much of South East Asia means there’s always expansion and growth in the cities.
A lack of central planning or record keeping can also add to the challenge. “There are no city plans. Roads were built [because people decided to do so],” says Nattakan.
But Nattakan adds that it’s not just the urban landscape that’s tricky, though. The farming practices of the country can add their own difficulties:
“Rice farming is widely done in Thailand and each plot has ridges. Ridges look similar to roads so we must … stare at the screen and determine which one is a ridge and which one is a real road. This is the challenge!”
Each of our Map Masters got involved for different reasons, though a desire to make a change and contribute to their country unites them all. This is Worawut’s story:
“I have been a Nokia Lumia user and follow [local] news updates [about the community]. One day, I spotted an invitation to attend a map activity for HERE Thailand. I realized that the areas around my vicinity are lacking on the roads and places information and so I decided to attend this activity. What interests me was there was a ranking done for each contributor each month in this mapping activity organized by HERE and that was what enticed me to get involved as I like challenging and fun activities.”
Apimuk expresses a sentiment that many of our community members share:
“If possible, I would like to make the maps in Thailand the best quality map. [One] which is safe, precise, correct and updated freshly for navigation users … I feel happy and a great sense of satisfaction when people make use of the points I’ve added to help navigate to their destination.”
Making a difference
So what has been the impact of our Map Creator communities in South East Asia? Across the three countries, they have plotted over 7000km of new roads and an astonishing 50,000 plus new Points of Interest. Community members, and particularly our amazing Map Masters, are literally transforming the way their countries look.
