Welcome & Help Map Sudan !

[France Lamy]

Welcome to the Sudan Mapping Group & Happy Holidays!

Why are you here? It's because you are interested in helping and sharing some of your knowledge, right? Or perhaps you are just curious, so please wait & read the mapping appeal below! See.. now you are here because you want to map Sudan, let's start !!

This "Sudan mailing group" is great way to share ideas and tips for mapping Sudan, divide mapping tasks between us, monitor progress...and get to know each other.

Cannot wait to read you on this forum.

 

France

 

************************************************************
Greetings,

The United Nations, Harvard University, Google, and the NGO Enough (co-founded by actor George Clooney) have just launched a project using imagery, field reports, and Google Map Maker to conduct human rights monitoring along the border between North and South Sudan.

The Project site is live at: http://www.satsentinel.org/;
Full stories at:

http://ca.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idCATRE6BS00W20101229
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2039887,00.html

If you have knowledge of the local area over Southern Sudan, mapping expertise, or want to take action – it’s the time!

Call for Action:

Help build a better map of Southern Sudan using Google Map Maker - your local knowledge and mapping contributions on  schools, hospitals, and landmarks, along with their local names, will be extremely useful to support human rights monitoring and reporting. More specifically, over these areas of interest (see attached kmz), provided by our colleagues from the Sudan Sentinel project -- let’s map extensively:

towns and town names (multiple names especially)

roads (in-town roads as well) and trails

displaced persons camps

cultural landmarks

geographic landmarks

schools

orphanages / shelters etc

hospitals

community centers

border crossing points

nomadic camps,

markets and large gatherings of cattle

For more information – please contact France Lamy (fl...@google.com), Jabran Rafique (jabran...@gmail.com), or Faraz Ahmad (fara...@gmail.com).

Note: this mapping appeal will be revised as the data needs evolve, we will keep you posted.

I believe that this is an amazing opportunity to demonstrate the power of community engagement through mapping. And I am hopeful that this will inspire you to get involved.

Thanks, and all the best for 2011 !

[momodou]

Hi have been mapping roads but not knowing the names of the villages
there seems no way to mark them , Normadic camps or cattle on Mapmaker
any one know a way
Regards
Momodou

On Dec 30 2010, 4:12 pm, France Lamy <fl...@google.com> wrote:
> Welcome to the Sudan Mapping Group & Happy Holidays!
>
> Why are you here? It's because you are interested in helping and sharing
> some of your knowledge, right? Or perhaps you are just curious, so please
> wait & read the mapping appeal below! See.. now you are here because you
> want to map Sudan, let's start !!
>
> This "Sudan mailing group" is great way to share ideas and tips for mapping
> Sudan, divide mapping tasks between us, monitor progress...and get to know
> each other.
>
> Cannot wait to read you on this forum.
>
> France
>
> ************************************************************
> Greetings,
>
> The United Nations, Harvard University, Google, and the NGO Enough
> (co-founded by actor George Clooney) have just launched a project using

> imagery, field reports, and Google Map Maker<http://www.google.com/mapmaker>to conduct human rights monitoring along the border between North and South

> Sudan.
>
> The Project site is live at:http://www.satsentinel.org/;
> Full stories at:
>

> http://ca.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idCATRE6BS00W20101229http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2039887,00.html

>
> If you have knowledge of the local area over Southern Sudan, mapping
> expertise, or want to take action – it’s the time!
>
> Call for Action:
>

> Help build a better map of Southern Sudan using Google Map Maker<http://www.google.com/mapmaker>- your local knowledge and mapping contributions on  schools, hospitals, and

> landmarks, along with their local names, will be extremely useful to support
> human rights monitoring and reporting. More specifically, over these areas
> of interest (see attached kmz), provided by our colleagues from the Sudan
> Sentinel project -- let’s map extensively:
>
> towns and town names (multiple names especially)
>
> roads (in-town roads as well) and trails
>
> displaced persons camps
>
> cultural landmarks
>
> geographic landmarks
>
> schools
>
> orphanages / shelters etc
>
> hospitals
>
> community centers
>
> border crossing points
>
> nomadic camps,
>
> markets and large gatherings of cattle
>
> For more information – please contact France Lamy (fl...@google.com), Jabran

> Rafique (jabranrafi...@gmail.com), or Faraz Ahmad (faraz...@gmail.com).

[France Lamy]

Hi Momodou,
We are exploring ways to engage with sudanese volunteers (Sudanese diaspora,
students and civil society in Sudan) for them to provide local names, for
roads, settlements, etc. Next week, we should have a concrete plan in place.
In the meantime, let's continue mapping what we can, naming will follow.

Re-nomadic camps, cattle area...I would think that local knowledge is
required, for both mapping and naming. Anyone else have suggestions?

Thanks Momodou,
France

[Fareed Zein]

France, team, Indeed features such camps & cattle areas require local contribution which I hope to engage next week when I am in Sudan. In the meantime, I agree we should continue adding what we're able to.   Many thanks to all   Fareed Zein  --- On Sat, 1/1/11, France Lamy <fl...@google.com> wrote:

[momodou]

Hi France
Thanks for prompt reply I came across afew isolated small villages and
what looks like the Massai Corrals i add link Hope I am not wrong
http://www.google.com/mapmaker?hl=en&gw=55&ll=5.01642,31.469666&spn=0.002517,0.003956&t=h&z=19&iwloc=2_0&editids=CD4g0OVrxVhU5fdad7
Ment That There is nocatagory for cattle on MM
Momodou

> >http://ca.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idCATRE6BS00W20101229htt...

[Leonard Ouma]

is currently mapping Malakāl, Tonga, Upper Nile and is appears i need a moderator after drawing many roads in the area.France please do something.

--
Regards
Ouma Leonard
Department of Geospatial and Space Technology
University of Nairobi
254726451403

[France Lamy]

Thanks Leonard!
The moderations backlog should be down by end of day. Please continue
to keep us posted on any issues that you face, and we will try to
address these asap..
France

--
France Lamy, Ph.D.
Program Manager
Google.org
Mountain View
+1 (415) 736-1031 (direct)
+1 (415) 690-5129 (cell)

[Raza]

Hi Momodou,

An appropriate category to map a shelter for cattle/livestock would be Animal shelter, Animal related business, Market or Farmer Market depending on the type of place. However, as the feature you mentioned is inhabited by people, the category Campgrounds seems to be most apt. It can always be changed to a more accurate category later.

Thanks,
Raza 

[momodou]

Tanks Raza
Thats what I ended up opting for
Momodou

[Ben]

Hey guys,

out of interesst. Do they have a decent 3G or edge (or normal broadband) coverage in southern sudan? Like mapping souther sudan is one thing but could people easily access it there too? 

Ben

[Fareed Zein]

Ben, Yes, there is broadband service in Southern Sudan. In fact I am sending this Email using one.   Regards,   Fareed --- On Sat, 1/8/11, Ben <benjamin....@googlemail.com> wrote:

From: Ben <benjamin....@googlemail.com> Subject: Re: Welcome & Help Map Sudan !

[Edmund Resor]

Internet Coverage in Southern Sudan:

Almost everyone use VSATs with shared and pretty good download (0.5 to 1.5 Mb/s) and slow upload (about 65 kb/s) unless they have a lot of money to spend.

• I would estimate about 200 systems, at least two in each of 10 State Capitals, about 50 in Juba, and the others spread around the rest of the country.  
• Probably all of the State Capitals and several other large towns such as Nimule and Yei have Internet Cafes charging about $1 per hour.

If anyone has time, interest, and energy to research this I can show you where to look and what lists to join to get more data.  I would do it myself, but I am recovering from a herniated disk and can only do so much keyboarding even using my iPad.

We should do a map layer showing Internet Cafe's and other access for each operator willing to publish their location.  (For those operators who want some privacy, we can publish the towns where the systems are located and just say private.  Privacy is limited in an African village when you need to have solar panels and/or a generator and a 1.2 meter satellite dish.)

There are also probably about 2,000 to 10,000 people with Thuraya satellite phones in Southern Sudan and about 50 - 500 portable Inmarsat BGan systems.

3G is limited, if it is available at all.  There may be some GPRS available over some 2G GSM systems.

All for now, Ed

--
Edmund Resor
Development Advisor, Diocese of Torit, Sudan
www.DioceseofTorit.org   www.KuronVillage.net
New York City Home/Office +1 212 873-5464

[Ben]

Thanks for your detailed answer. I was just wondering. My experience from most southern African countries for at least the last one two years is that you can get edge/2G almost everywhere where you have normal network coverage. I love to see that happening. But I wasn't to sure about southern Susan. Another thing that I hve experience is that far to many locals ( even with smartphone) don't know to little about the possibilities of there own networks. And it's not even the price but the simple spread of information. I've seen more people using mobileinternet effitiently in Zimbabwe ( you can managed to Facebook the whole with about a dollar) thn in Malawi where you only pay a quarter of the price. And even staff of international organisation often knows far to little about the mobile Internet. So if there is any mobile Internet in south Sudan people could try to post manual and instructions (settings) here and informations about prices and coverage.
How to use phones as a modem etc. And spread the information there.

[Ed Resor]

The problem with EDGE is that it requires at least one dedicated time slot on each sector where service is going to be provided.  That reduces the voice capacity on that sector.  Having invested in and worked on GrameenPhone in Bangladesh and several GSM systems in Somalia and Somaliland, I can tell you from an operator's point of view rolling out EDGE is delayed until it is needed for a competitive advantage to hold onto and capture high revenue users who use EDGE.  This will happen faster now that so many people have data capable phones.  It has probably already happened in Northern Sudan and probably will be included in the contract with Ericsson for a major upgrade to the Zain network in Southern Sudan.

That said, I believe text messaging and Internet over VSAT is what people still use for 98% of their data needs, but I will correct myself in this forum as soon as I can get more data.

On Sun, Jan 9, 2011 at 6:32 AM, Ben <benjamin....@googlemail.com> wrote:

Thanks for your detailed answer. I was just wondering. My experience from most southern African countries for at least the last one two years is that you can get edge/2G almost everywhere where you have normal network coverage. I love to see that happening. But I wasn't to sure about southern Susan. Another thing that I hve experience is that far to many locals ( even with smartphone) don't know to little about the possibilities of there own networks. And it's not even the price but the simple spread of information. I've seen more people using mobileinternet effitiently in Zimbabwe ( you can managed to Facebook the whole with about a dollar) thn in Malawi where you only pay a quarter of the price. And even staff of international organisation often knows far to little about the mobile Internet. So if there is any mobile Internet in south Sudan people could try to post manual and instructions (settings) here and informations about prices and coverage.
How to use phones as a modem etc. And spread the information there.
 

[Emanuele D'Arrigo]

On Monday, January 3, 2011 4:01:06 AM UTC+1, France Lamy wrote:

The moderations backlog should be down by end of day. Please continue
to keep us posted on any issues that you  face, and we will try to
address these asap..

A moderator is also having issues with my mapping of villages and sub-localities because I named them as "unknown". I responded that in the context of this project and helping the local population it's probably best that villages and other features are placed on the map first and, eventually, more details about them are added and the features become more refined. I'm not sure if he's gonna like this though. I do wonder if Google MapMaker (and the community associated with it) is geared toward more developed countries where local knowledge can flow into the map at a much higher rate. I.e. the fact that the interface -wants- names seem to hint that you should only add features if you have first hand or reliable local knowledge about them. If this concept is enforced by moderators not accepting features named as "unknown" (either rejecting them or leaving them as "Pending") how are people from far away countries supposed to help with the mapping effort? Isn't a map with correctly traced, albeit unnamed, features better than a map with no features at all?

Manu

[Reza Feridanian]

HELLO. to all
 I will work hard to help you, in the case of Sudan map.jag take care of the three cities overall. who have said I do 6 hours a day for Mapmaker every day. I am now retired and love working with the map, it is my hoby. moderator RAZA know who am i. I maper from Iran . i hopp Do my best. My map Area is Vila shahr in iran- Esfahan
i be happy if you send me yours view .
Best Regard
Reza

[France Lamy]

Thanks Reza - this is great!

If you want to map Sudan - a good resource are the "Building a Better Map of Sudan" pages that we just launched last week. It aims to guide mappers target their efforts.

Keep us posted on your progress and of any issues that you may face.

Cheers,
France

[Reza Feridanian]

I try do my best (already do 3 city) .i havn´t any name or map.

[Reza Feridanian]

hello france I tried mapa, I have a problem, when I mapa some roads that publish, after rest second some mapare must approv.kan I get more mealy called to disable. if possible..
best regard
REZA