Join Google Map Maker Summit Mindanao & Map Your World!

I am pleased to announce that a series of Google Map Maker Summits will be held separately in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao this month of April in cooperation with the Department of Tourism.

This is to purposely help Philippine tourism and disaster preparedness all over the country with the use of  Google Map Maker.

[quote]Google Map Maker allows you to add and update geographic information for millions of users to see in Google Maps and Google Earth. By sharing information about the places you know, like businesses in your town or places in your school campus, you can ensure the map accurately reflects the world around you. Your updates will be reviewed and once approved, will appear online for people from all over the world to see.[/quote]

The three Map Maker summits are envisioned to kick-off MapUps or Mapping activities and/or initiatives for tourism and health establishments in their respective regions.

It is open for FREE to all mapUp organizers, mappers, government agency workers, tourism stakeholders, business establishment owners and just about anybody (students or professionals) who are interested in mapping their local communities. [quote1]

The Visayas leg will be the first to be conducted on April 12, 2012 at the University of La Salle in Bacolod City.

The island of Luzon follows on April 14, 2012 at the University of Baguio in Baguio City.

Then on April 21, 2012, Saturday, it will be Mindanao‘s turn to host the Map Maker Summit, at the STI Campus, J. Catolico Avenue, General Santos City, from 8:00 am – 5:00 pm with the help of the Soccsksargen Bloggers.

A Google Geo Advocate Team will be facilitating the three summits and some will be flying in from Singapore and India.

Part of the agenda of the day-long workshops are Practical Sessions on the use of Google Map Maker and separate orientations on Panoramio and Sketch Up.  Aside from these, there will be sharing of stories from Map Makers and Mapping advocates from all over the country.  Of course, LUNCH and SNACKS are courtesy of Google.

It will surely be fun!

We are very glad that GenSan has been chosen to host the Mindanao leg on April 21 since three Mapping parties have already been conducted here courtesy of the Soccsksargen Bloggers – in December 2009, May 2010 (mapping precincts) and May 2011 (mapping evacuation centers).

If you have time to spare and want to volunteer to help map out tourism spots in your localities, among other areas, register now to join the summit nearest you, by clicking on any of these links:

• VISAYAS – Register here.
• LUZON –  Register here.
• MINDANAO – Register here.

By the way, attendees to any of the Mapping Summits will receive a FREE SHIRT similar to the one below plus other Google swags!

Remember, attendance is FREE!  Be sure to bring your own LAPTOPS.  And yes, SMART will be providing the wifi connection.

So what are you waiting for?  Register now to any of the Google Map Maker Summits and go help MAP YOUR WORLD!

For more announcements, please join the Mapping the Philippines mailing list and follow the page here.