Google launches contest to improve mapping of India
updated 06:20 am EST, Fri February 8, 2013
Mapathon 2013 to use Google Map Maker for crowdsourcing
Google is looking towards accelerating its crowdsourcing cartography efforts by offering prizes to participants in India. The Mapathon 2013 event from February 12th to March 25th will provide gifts, including devices and Google-branded merchandise, to the top 1000 users of Google Map Maker in India.
Map Maker allows people more familiar with a location to supply edits to Google Maps, in cases where government-supplied data and Google's own mapping efforts have either made a mistake or simply not covered an area. Recently, results from a multi-year project to map North Korea were added to the main Maps index, including a considerable number of roads and landmarks.
The top participants in the project will receive Samsung Galaxy Note 800 tablets, while Samsung Galaxy S II GT I9100 smartphones, gift coupons, Google Mapathon t-shirts, and certificates will be received by those lower down the rankings.
