Meeting the Community, Waze Style

This week we report on the first ever self organised meetup in South America. The Costa-Ricans took that bold step, and they are not alone: The Croatian community had a meeting of their own.

We also have France's own milkyway35 talking a little about himself and his relationship with Waze. Yes, it's complicated :)

Wazers are Doing it For Themselves

The Costa Rica community had a self organised meetup this week - the first of it's kind in Central America. The meetup was held in San Jose, at the Radisson hotel, with 17 Wazers participating.

It's customised

The 7 local champs organised the event as a sort of editing workshop, guiding new editors and engaging in a meaningful and helpful dialog about Waze and the community' role.

Another community that had it's own independent meetup was the Croatian team. They met this week in an inn, for a day of good food, drinks and Waze. One of the highlights was customised stickers: Every Wazer got a car sticker with his user name on it.

The Croatians had special guests - two country managers from neighbouring Slovenia. In March, the tables will be turned and the Slovenians will play the host to their Croatian friends.

Meetups are a great way for community members to get to know each other and discuss issues and ideas. Beer and customised stickers always help. Organising a meetup? Let us know how we can help, and share your stories with the community.

Wazer Spotlight:

milkyway35, French global champ

milkyway, getting some energy

What do you do when not editing maps?

I work for a French Telecom company as an IT security engineer, trying to secure the Internet.

Which car do you drive?

I drive French branded cars. One is a 307 Peugeot, the other is a Citroën Grand C4 Picasso.

How long have you been a Wazer?

I started using Waze in March 2010.

How did you get hooked on Waze?

Before using Waze, I was a TomTom user. Because of the price of the map updates, and their poor timing (twice a year), I was looking for another solution: To have an up to date map on my GPS. TomTom MapShare was just an expensive joke. Then I discovered OpenStreetMap, which was good as a crowd sourced up to date map. But there was no GPS functionality. And Waze was there, GPS client, crowd sourced map, updated periodically (one a week if I remember well). It was THE App I was looking for.

What's your favorite part about the community?

I love the way everyone in the community collaborates with each other to improve our favorite App. There are a lot of interesting people in the community.

..And the worst part.

The worst part is the definition of the word 'soon' for the Waze Team ;) I guess you know what I mean... We are still waiting for states/provinces in the World infrastructure and after a quick check in the forum in April 2010 we can read: "we're finally very (very) close to adding state / province / region"

What's the funniest Waze story that happened to you?

I've been interviewed by a national TV channel about using Waze to avoid traffic. It was a big surprise for my friends and family to see me on TV. I got lots of text messages and calls and everybody joked about 'Highway to Hell' which played when I entered the car.
You can find the replay here.

What's your best Waze tip for newcomers?

First of all, a warm welcome to all newcomers.
I'd say to newcomers that Waze is crowd sourced. So if something does not exist, create it. If something goes wrong, fix it yourself. Waze is yours.

What do you listen to when driving your car (aside from the Waze app messages, of course)?

If I have to name a song, I'd say "Highway to Hell", the best song to hear while driving. But indeed, following the speed limits, we should not be in a rush to arrive to Hell.