Waze - Editor Community Blog: Upgrading New York City - the Ultimate MapRaid (and the Benelux meetup!)

Upgrading New York City - the Ultimate MapRaid (and the Benelux meetup!)

We had an amazing MapRaid in New York City - check out the numbers below to see what a group of committed editors can do.

And speaking of committed - the Benelux community had a great meetup in the Netherlands, and in this week's Wazer spotlight you'll find Costa Rica's felohidalgo. Enjoy.

The Raid on New York

The Waze community in New York City just finished an amazing raid on all 5 boroughs. About 60 editors(!) went ballistic on the map for two weeks, starting November 10.

A combined force of champs, mid-level and new editors, led by orbitc, went to work and managed to update over 8K places, solve over 13K URs and edit over 125K segments. The result - a great improvement to the map in a very short time.

New York, a busy metropolis, was full of update requests and places, and the MapRaid was exactly what it needed. It was also a chance for local editors and champs from all over the country to cooperate, get to know each other, and exchange knowledge and mapping methods. All in all, an amazing success.

Rumble in the Netherlands

The Benelux community had a great meetup in the Netherlands, not far from Amsterdam. about 30 editors attended, including global and local champs and area managers.

Benelux rocks!

The 3 Waze staffers who attended talked about future plans and about the community. The champs had presentations as well, discussing places, closures and the all important mentoring program.

The meetup went great, thanks mainly to the champs who helped organise it and contributed their time, knowledge and energy. And as far as we know no one got high :)

Wazer Spotlight:

Future feature: Waze dog!

felohidalgo, Costa Rican Global Champ

What do you do when not editing maps?

I am a forestry engineer but I run a construction business with some relatives and I also make appraisals of properties to a bank.

Which car do you drive?

I drive a Jeep Compass

How long have you been a Wazer?

I started around June or July 2011.

How did you get hooked on Waze?

My wife discovered the app but there were no roads near our house (Empty map). I have some knowledge of GIS so she showed it to me, and we found out that roads could be uploaded using the app itself, so I begun driving around using the "Paving tool". After a couple of days I found the famous Cartouche, and after this I spent thousands of hours drawing Costa Rican Map. I used to take the computer with me to bed and edit until very late in the night. Sometimes I still do it....

What's your favorite part about the community?

The community itself, I enjoy sharing stuff with the champs: we have 5 different chat rooms, where we talk between Latam Champs, Global Champs, Local Champs and Costa Rican Editors too.

And the worst part.

Hard question.... probably the people who cheat, they don't care about the map or the community, they live with a constant hunger for points.

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

One time I was driving back from the beach to our house with my family. there were two possible roads, and Waze told me to take the hilly road, which was longer, very wavy and steep. Well my wife disagreed with Waze and forced me to get on the freeway. a little while later we found out why Waze insisted on a different route - a car accident. The road was closed, so we got stuck in traffic for 4 hours, 3 hours more than what it would normally take. After that my wife acknowledged that Waze is always right and that we will always follow Paulina´s orders (Latam Waze voice).

What's your best Waze tip for newcomers?

Patience!!! after more than 3 years of been part of this amazing project, I try to make them feel good but I also try to make sure they understand that this is not a war for points. Cause that rush can be a problem for the community - when you run you make mistakes.

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

I hear pretty much anything but there is a Caribbean Singer name Walter Gavitt Fergusson, he sings Calypso which is a very relaxing rhythm.

That's it for now!