Map Creator Spotlight: User Story

Dear Map Creators,

 

Following on from our first User Story feature in our monthly newsletter a few months ago where Andrew Gransden, one of our top users, first featured, we’d like to introduce the new user story ‘Spotlight’ post here on the Discussion Board every month. First of all to thank you for your contributions but also to know more about our members and understand their passion for cartography and Map Creator. This month, we are pleased to put Francis Bryne from Ireland in the Map Creator spotlight. Read Francis’s story below…

 
My name is Francis Byrne and I work and live in Letterkenny in the northwest of Ireland, where I have been living for the best part of 10 years. I work as a Technical Systems Analyst, which is probably part of the reason why I enjoy working on the Here Map Creator, as I enjoy the challenge of analyzing and finding missing features on the map that no one has spotted previously. Also, as a SatNav user, I also like to ensure that the HERE maps are as up to date as possible, since I fully appreciate having accurate maps to drive by, particularly in housing estates! I’m married with two young children, who ensure that I am always kept very busy when I’m at home, from 7am to 8pm at night!
 
I started making edits in Map Creator about four years ago. I received an invite from Nokia Maps (I think HERE Maps was called back then) to submit edits on their map creator as I had regularly submitted map corrections to them by way of uploading screenshots with typed in ‘notes’. The region I live in is very rural and at the time in particular, many of the smaller roads were missing, including some very new housing estates. I think it’s so handy to be able to submit updates yourself, as it makes it far easier to highlight what is missing or needs to be updated, rather than trying to describe it in text format or submitting a handmade jpeg. I can even do some of the updates via the Mobile Map Creator now, which I also installed on my phone last month.
 
I’ve found that the Map Creator online app has been enhanced quite nicely over the last year – one of the really nice enhancements is being able to directly add a roundabout. No more 8 or 10 small lines to approximate one! Being able to add house numbers is a plus. Also the recent addition of correcting speed limits is a nice touch, especially since many roads in my town have changed speed limits down to 30km/h, which were not yet captured on Here maps.
 
What really drives me to enter in edits is seeing the changes I made appear on HEREWeGo maps and also on my Garmin’s SatNav – knowing that the little changes I do online really does get noticed and included (even if it sometimes takes some time!).
 
I’ve found the new Facebook group for Map Creator users to be very helpful and to see other members’ questions – and to know that there are others out there like me! To any new user to the community, the guides to helping you get started are useful (I’ve used them myself). To start making your own ‘imprint’, I suggest looking at a rural area or somewhere where there are new housing estates. Add in the satellite imagery and trace a rural road. I’ve added a lot of updates through these kind of searches – and next thing you know, you’ve spent an hour filing in the gaps and knowing you’ve made a contribution that map users may be thankful for some day.
 
I’m looking forward to seeing what other enhancements Map Creator may bring – seeing your overall ranking in a given country would be nice (currently you get a world ranking) and possibly seeing a counter showing how many of my edits have been accepted as changes, to really emphasize the fact that these little edits do really make a difference.
 

 

Thanks a lot Francis for your time and your Map Creator story!

 

If you would like to share your experience of Map Creator, the world of cartography and be interviewed by the team, please contact us at the following e-mail address mapcreatoruk@here.com or join us in our Facebook group