More detailed road maps for areas outside Metro Manila?

[Serge Gregorio]

I just have a question for the people behind Google Maps.  While plotting evacuation centers in Laguna, I notice that the road map doesn't have all the roads in it.  I assume the situation is the same for other provinces in Luzon.

Does Google have plans to have a more detailed road map?  What are the obstacles or challenges to having a more detailed road map?  I do have hard copies of maps of Laguna and other provinces, but they are, I assume, copyrighted by commercial map makers.
 
Serge

[Franklin Naval]

Anyone, especially those in the more remote areas of the Philippines, are able to map out their areas by using Google Mapmaker:  http://www.google.com/mapmaker

In fact, most of the areas that are mapped out are actually done by other volunteer mappers throughout the Philippines.  This tool has been out for at least a year.

All you need is a gmail account and internet access.   Using the tool is free!

After you upload the layer with the roads, Google will review and approve after a short time.   This might be the process.  Aileen can probably clarify.

So, it would be great to also get the word out to school and other organizations of this very useful tool.  It's worth talking about with your educational institution connections, Serge.  

-Franklin

[Serge Gregorio]

Ah okay... thanks for the info, Frank!  Will check out the mapmaker tool in a while... yes, it's something to consider.

I already have with me both hard and soft copies of CEAP (Catholic Educators' Association of the Philippines) schools throughout the country.  Some of them might be used (or are in use) as Evac Centers or Donation Centers.

If anyone's interested to help map these out, I can create a Google Doc spreadsheet with the info.

Serge

[Franklin Naval]

News organizations would benefit with better detailed maps, as well.  We've seen several news organizations making use of the Google maps.

Jun, is your mapping team a dedicated team within GMA?  Would it be possible to extend their abilities to do help map out other parts of the Philippines with Google Mapmaker? 

-Franklin
Sent from Mandaluyong, Man, Philippines

[Aileen Apolo]

+mapping the Philippines gorup

Hi Serge,

There are volunteer mappers across the country and here's their Google Groups -

http://groups.google.com/group/mapping-the-philippines

We can probably tap them to help out.

Hi Mappers,

The typhoon Ondoy/Pepeng volunteer developers are asking if your group can help in tagging additional information on Mapmaker. This would greatly help in refining the information that they are tagging for the disaster map. 

Many, many thanks.

Cheers,

Aileen 

[Jun Verzola]

Hi Aileen--

Just a humorous aside.

At the height of Pepeng's triple assault on Northern Luzon, I was
asked by a volunteer, "Sir Jun, di namin makita sa Google Map ang
Abra-Kalinga Road." He was assigned to pin NDCC landslide events that
day, and was spending so much time looking for the Abra-Kalinga road.

Since I'm from Abra and have visited Kalinga quite a few times, I'm
somewhat familiar with this road. So we shifted to Satellite image
mode, zoomed as inward as possible to recognize more familiar terrain
and ground features, if not the road itself, and I tried to
approximate the road's twists and turns with a segmented-line tool,
thus connecting Tabuk to Bangued. It's still there... an artifact of
our quite rudimentary level, for now.

I was quite surprised myself at the paucity of road and village info
in these parts, since I seem to recall that in Google Earth, there was
a wealth of point markers at the barangay and village level, which I
could not see in Google map.

I'm really quite interested in map matters (it will be the subject of
my next blog).

--
Jun Verzola
GMANews.TV
+63 920 905 8092

[Aileen Apolo]

Hi Jun,

Hehehe, he probably thought everything would be there :) It's quite tricky to trace routes using the satellite image sometimes, also experienced having to connect a road in our village which was "disconnected" by a tree which covered the road. My edit got moderated! LOL, but I explained that I've lived here since birth so I'd know hehehe.

The place markers, did you check those out via Mapmaker? The info might not have been included yet in the last data push that's why it's not yet on Google Maps. 

There's a lot of resources online which you may want to follow, here are some:

http://google-latlong.blogspot.com

http://twitter.com/googlemaps

And you might want to join the local group, they have lots of interesting threads -

http://groups.google.com/group/mapping-the-philippines

Let's do another Manila mapping-meet-up. Maybe we can do this for GTUG this month together with the mappers.

Super duper thanks for the generous and tireless efforts of everyone :)

Aileen

[Aileen Apolo]

Thanks for your thoughts Eugene.

Serge, what do you think? 

On Sun, Oct 11, 2009 at 10:00 AM, Eugene Alvin Villar <sea...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Aileen and Serge,

If you want, you can use the OpenStreetMap (OSM) tiles as another base map layer (e.g. like the Map, Satellite, Hybrid) (but you'd have to use the Google Maps API directly instead of using the Google My Maps service).

OpenStreetMap is another volunteer mapping project like Google Map Maker. Volunteers there generally use GPS loggers to trace out roads and the project has more map coverage in some areas where Google doesn't have high-resolution satellite imagery like eastern Laguna and some Cordillera provinces.

If you know Google Maps API, check out this page to see how to access the OSM tiles: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Slippy_map_tilenames

To see if OSM data is suitable for your use here are some comparisons:

Dagupan City is better in Google Map Maker:
http://tools.geofabrik.de/mc/?mt0=googlemapmaker&mt1=mapnik&lon=120.34201&lat=16.04152&zoom=13

Baguio City is better in Google Map Maker:
http://tools.geofabrik.de/mc/?mt0=googlemapmaker&mt1=mapnik&lon=120.59521&lat=16.41089&zoom=15

Sta. Cruz Laguna is better in OSM:
http://tools.geofabrik.de/mc/?mt0=googlemapmaker&mt1=mapnik&lon=121.41335&lat=14.27436&zoom=13

San Pablo City is better in OSM:
http://tools.geofabrik.de/mc/?mt0=googlemapmaker&mt1=mapnik&lon=121.32391&lat=14.06948&zoom=14


I think you should use both and switch to one or the other if there is better map coverage.


Hope this helps,
Eugene

--
http://vaes9.codedgraphic.com

[Serge Gregorio]

Aileen

This is great news.  Hope to hear from their group soon.  I know many netizen friends who'd like to help out but are not comfortable working with maps OR are not familiar with the area (e.g. Northern Luzon) OR both.  =(

Serge

[Aileen Apolo]

Hi Serge,

We just need to reach out to them and give specific instructions, I know there are several who just joined the group to help. I guess we need a list to get things rolling. So far we need this:

1. Moderating the aggregated data (I just don't know how, so hopefully Dan sheds light on this or maybe you can)

2. Tagging areas that need help via the disaster tool -- is this ready for public consumption?

3. Tagging areas on Mapmaker

Aileen

[Nick Doiron]

I agree entirely on getting MapMaker and OpenStreetMap involved.

Dan and I have been working towards setting up a page on disaster-tool.appspot.com using the Maps API.  The page hasn't been connected to the database yet, but you can try the interface using MapMaker and OpenStreetMap tiles: http://sugo-katta.appspot.com/geoTest6.html

Google Mapmaker and Open Street Map could be added to the mapplet as overlays, but we might be limited in the number of areas we can cover.  I'll look into it.

Nick

[Dan Cedric Delima]

Hi Aileen,

Nick was able to modify the code so that Disaster Tool can be embedded.  Its not perfect as of the moment, but it would allow it to be browsable.

I'm uploading that version for embedding as of the moment.

As for the moderating, depending on the volunteers desire to clean-up the data i'll spouse up somewhere so that they can moderate the data (which would look just like spreadsheets).

Thanks.

Dan

--
http://debug-life.blogspot.com

[Franklin Naval]

Volunteers could also help with finding and filing bugs (issues, problems, usability suggestions) on the app.   If they don't feel comfortable with submitting on the project hosting site, they should just email the group.

-Franklin

[Franklin Naval]

Here's the link:
http://code.google.com/p/disaster-tool/issues/entry

Should be easy enough to follow through the pre-filled form.

-Franklin
Sent from Manila, Man, Philippines

[Nick Doiron]

Update on getting OpenStreetMap and Google Mapmaker in the mapplet:

OpenStreetMap overlay working in the mapplet - you can turn it off and on with a new checkbox under the Visualize tab:

http://www.google.com/maps/mpl?moduleurl=http://sugo-katta.appspot.com/neoMapplet35.xml

For Mapmaker data, I think the only way to show it is to have the official Google mapplet and our mapplet checked at the same time

http://maps.google.com/maps/mpl?moduleurl=http://www.google.com/mapmaker/mapfiles/s/mapplet.xml

---

Nick

[Dan Cedric Delima]

Impressive work Nick.  I'll update the deployed version again a bit later.

Dan

--
http://debug-life.blogspot.com

[Serge Gregorio]

I tried mapping some schools in regions 1 to 5 (including CAR) (which may be used as evac centers or donation centers in the future).  Out of 30 schools in my sample list, I can only plot 12... not a good ratio.

Aside from asking volunteers to reconstruct detailed maps using Mapmaker, do we have other (quicker) options (in getting detailed road maps available via Google Maps)?  Is approaching or talking to commercial mapmakers an option (i.e. has anyone tried this before)? 

Serge

On Sat, Oct 10, 2009 at 5:15 AM, Aileen Apolo <aileen...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Isa]

Hi Serge,

A simple and quick approach until detailed maps are available:
1. Hand draw the detailed road map, or use a drawing/CAD tool. Add descriptive text as needed to explain.
2. Take a picture
3. Post it in Google Maps in the closest location possible. instructions for posing pics are here
http://maps.google.co.uk/support/bin/answer.py?answer=68480

Hope that helps.
Isa

[Nick Doiron]

Making maps may be easier with the aid of OpenStreetMap and http://www.walking-papers.org/

It allows you to print out a map from OpenStreetMap, make notes, and then scan it in as a guide for editing OpenStreetMap.

Nick

[Serge Gregorio]

Thanks Nick, Aileen, and everyone for the helpful suggestions!

Serge