Editors Community Newsletter
January 2020
Hello Editors!
Happy new year and welcome to the 2020 Editors Community Newsletter!
This newsletter is the 5th in the series - it marks a full year of quarterly updates!
2019 was full of exciting developments here at Waze's Communities;
Together, we released the Toll Prices feature, changed the Global Champs selection process, launched the Community Led Webinars program and much more.
Read on for a summary of the Meetups we held throughout 2019 and community stories from the last quarter of the year.
Waze Communities Team
2019 Meetups
In 2019 we had the pleasure of meeting the community in 1 Global Meetup, 5 Mega Meetups, 32 Local Meetups, 72 Waze Cafes, 4 Carpool Meetups and 22 Carpool Cafes!
Reach out to your community manager to join a Meetup in 2020!
Inspiring Community Stories
Australia navigates to safety thanks to local community
In Australia, the fire season started early. Many communities were rocked by devastating bushfires. The Waze Australia community decided to help and activated a Virtual Emergency Operations Center, based on the USA VEOC model in order to unite editors towards helping affected communities. Local road closures and emergency shelters were identified and added to the Waze map, routing Wazers safely around dangers to evacuation centers. During this emergency, the Waze Crisis Team and Waze MTE processes helped by running an advertising campaign and sending push notifications to educate users about crisis navigation in the app.
Want to learn how to prepare your community for a crisis? Use this white paper and contact crisis team - waze-crisis@google.com
Help yourself by helping the community
Walter Denis Bravo Timana from Colombia worked in the Police force. One evening, during a shift, he was shot. A bullet injured his spinal cord, leaving him paraplegic. His family kept him going through the difficult recovery process but he felt his life was empty, until he encountered Waze map editing. He started changing street names and adding places, which kept him busy and allowed him a good night's sleep for the first time in a while. Gradually, Waze editing became Walter's emotional therapy. He met new friends in the community and was promoted to Local Champ. Walter, we're proud of you!
Belgium goes back to school
In Belgium, children start their school year in September. While finding their way to school for the first time, they often get lost and sadly, sometimes, get involved in accidents. To stop this, the local community showed in-app alerts around school opening and closing times.
The alerts were shown near schools, requesting drivers to be careful. Nearly 3,000 schools were mapped in less than two weeks!
Thanks to petervdveen and ArTsLeOpS these were shown in the app via a CCP feed. Inspired by a government campaign, this wonderful community effort raised awareness and might have prevented accidents.
Want to learn how to add alerts for your local community? Read the manual Glodenox, our Belgium Coordinator wrote!
At the Aisle, turn right!
Kirsten and Steve are map editors who met at a Waze Cafe thanks to the community in Michigan and have recently gotten married :) Kirsten: "Waze map editing has me thinking about more than just myself - 'what kinds of things can I do to make the drive easier for those around me?' In a time where everyone feels like someone is in their way or did them wrong, it's nice to be a part of a community that's connecting drivers in a positive way".
Wishing the happy couple a bright and traffic-free future!
Tweet by groom @Anorestes
Wazer Spotlight
Featuring a Top Contributor: Silvio, who recently celebrated 10 years of Waze Map editing!
How did you start editing the map?
I heard there's a new navigation app where users create the map; I downloaded Waze and saw that the Italian map was just a red line between Milan and Bergamo. I started paving new roads and then edited and connected them. I am still doing it!
Your role in the community:
Coordinator, Global Champ, Beta Leader, Mentor.
Advice to the new editors:
Get in touch with your local community to get involved in special events, MTE and crises.
What can other communities reach out to you for?
Editing, growing and supporting new Communities.
Silvio invites editors and communities around the world to contact him for community related advice and consultation.
Waze News
Toll Prices Feature
The Toll Prices feature allows Wazers to view and compare toll prices in order to decide on a preferred route. As one of the most requested features, it was a wonderful example of how powerful our communities are.
A year after starting work on this feature we are close to completing a worldwide implementation! Community members mapped toll roads around the world and are updating prices which are shown in the ETA card. The feature received extensive press coverage and is proving to be a favorite among Wazers. The feature is now open in more than 30 countries.
Read more about the Toll Pricing tool here.
No toll prices in your country? Reach out to your Community Manager!
Awesome Articles
Check out some articles about our amazing communities' impact in English, Portuguese, Indonesian, Spanish, French and Italian!
We want to hear from you :)
Want to share your community's awesome story? Want to be featured in an upcoming newsletter? Want to tell us what you think about this newsletter? It's all right here in this form!