Earlier this year Google had to shutdown their Google Map Maker product due to some malicious edits that were submitted and managed to make their way through the review process. When they took action, Google indicated they needed some time to refine the process to help ensure inappropriate edits did not make it into the platform. In an announcement made yesterday on their product forum, Product Manager Pavithra Kanakarajan said they are ready to start re-opening Map Maker in August.
In an interesting twist, Kanakarajan says the company has decided the best way to achieve the level of moderation desired is to move much of that work back onto the community. She notes that
“of all the defenses available to keeping our maps clean, the interest of a community of well-intentioned users, is among the most reliable and fast.”
In an effort to bring some order to the process, Google will identify “Regional Leads” who will serve as the human reviewer of submitted edits after they have gone through Google’s automated filters. On occasion, Google employees may step in to moderate edits, but this is expected to be the exception.
To get things going, Google will identify potential Regional Lead candidates and invite them to apply for the role. Once Regional Leads are identified, Google will move to re-open Map Maker for edits in those regions. This means the platform will be re-opening in phases as the leads are identified and assigned.
At least initially, when the number of editors is expected to be rather small, Google anticipates the process of edit approvals to be a bit on the slow side. They ask users to be patient while the Regional Leads process the incoming edits for their areas.
source: Google Map Maker
via: 9to5Google
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