LebGeeks

Hannibal

Member

Waze! Any mappers out there?

Hello world,

I'm trying to find some fellow waze users in Lebanon.
Waze is a multiplatform real time mapping app which, when done, will feature an interactive navigation system that would predict any traffic jams, road blocks, police traps, accidents ahead, through collecting some data from all users who can very easily post stuff from their phones while on the go..
check it out! www.waze.com
Due to what i'm guessing is legal paperwork and the goal of having a map that can be changed in real time, they ended up not using any well known pre existing maps such as google or bing, which is the main reason why i'm calling out to you guys: waze's maps are drawn by the community.

it works like this:
you're driving, and find a place where there are no apparent roads, you tap on the "pave road" button and draw it using your GPS coordinates. since gps isn't all that reliable, the map is uploaded to waze where u can check it online and fix it manually over a satellite photograph of the area, about a week later it is reviewed and processed and made available on the live map. it's pretty easy is what i'm saying.

of course at the stage we are now(a whole mess of criss crossing red lines, even worse than the state of our actual roads), navigating is barely possible and the best way to start is to just go online and start fixing up stuff.

My point is, having enough people, if each one of us maps his own neighborhood, we'll end up with a constantly updating and completely free navigation system we can all use.

I recommend checking out the videos and tutorials available on many waze forums, and please join only if interested. If not just check in every once in a while to see if the maps are becoming more usable so that you can start navigating.

Also, I have a Sodetel connection which for some reason refuses opening the "update map" screen. I bypass that by tethering my 3G connection for the initial load then switching back to wifi once the web app is loaded.

Post back if anyone's interested!

judabne

Member

Re: Waze! Any mappers out there?

I recently learned about waze and I started using it two days ago. I live in Brummana and study in Roumieh, and I'm glad to know there are other mappers near my house as it already knew some roads.
I paved two secondary roads to try the application, and I am still waiting for them to appear in my drives so I can edit them.
I will keep you updated how things work out.
BTW I just noticed that you posted this in 2011