Google is trying very hard to cover the previously unmapped parts of the world with their Map Maker service, launching in places such as India that thanks to strict government regulation aren’t typically mapped well. Map Maker, which ropes in the wisdom of the masses to create and edit maps of the world has now launched in 45 African countries. Definitely an impressive goal to try and cover much of Africa, especially since internet access is extremely limited in many of the new countries. But by utilizing the local knowledge of African citizens that do have to opportunity to connect to the web, Google is enabling the continent to be mapped in a way that wouldn’t otherwise happen. And this is huge, because most NGO’s and aid organizations are currently limited by the lack of navigational resources in many ravaged countries, often spending much-needed dollars on creating their own maps. I think this could take a while to succeed, but congrats to Google for attempting something no one else has.
The new African countries available at Mapmaker are:Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Morocco (including Western Sahara), Zambia, Zimbabwe.
via google latlong
