The Google Mapping of Malaybalay City

I was one of the participants of the Google Map Up workshop held in Green Ridge Apartelle, Malaybalay City last August 25, 2011. The map up was organized by Engr. Bonzenti Panganiban, the blogger behind Contour Blog and President of the Bukidnon Photographers and Bloggers Society. The workshop was conducted by no less than the celebrity bloggers of SocSarGen region: Avel Manansala (www.gensantos.com), Dr. Remo Aguilar (http://tacurongcity.net), Alexis Chua (www.alexischua.com), Nanardx Zee (www.southcotabato.org) and Xyrilloid Landicho (www.xyrilloidlandicho.com).

Coming to this workshop, I never really had any idea about Google Mapping. Though I often used Google maps on my travel research and aprraisal-related works, I never thought that there are things I can do beyond simply viewing the maps.   

The very first thing I learned in this map up is how erroneous the present Google map of Malaybalay City is. Half of the area has blurry resolution while most establishments in the city proper are misplaced. In fact, some commercial buildings which are supposed to be located along the highway are placed along the Sawaga River (nyahaha!).

In this workshop we were taught how to edit, move and add places, roads, establishments and other landmarks and use the GPS technology  to make the Malaybalay City map more accurate. Google Mapping is fairly easy to learn, more so because we were taught by the experts who are also known as the Google Mapping Advocates.   

At the end of the workshop, more than 100 map edits were approved. We were also given free snacks, lunch, t-shirt and stickers, all courtesy of Google.

My heartfelt thanks to the SocSarGen Bloggers for helping us with the mapping up of Malaybalay City. And Congratulations to Engr. Panganiban and the rest of the Bukidnon Photographers and Bloggers Society for the success of its very first group project. Next in line will be the mapping up of other towns in the province. Very soon, no one will ever get lost in Bukidnon!