Help Chile and Haiti Earthquake Relief Efforts by mapping with Google

Google is inviting people (you) to map Haiti and Chile in Google maps using "Mapmaker".
In a nutshell, you use the hybrid view to see existing mapping over top of satellite imagery.  Where you see a road that isn't mapped, you click click click and "connect the dots".

Easy to get started (30 mins of learning curve and the rest is productive).  Edits are moderated by other mappers who offer tons of helpful suggestions. The mapmaker help is also quite useful.

I like to think that since these updates are almost real-time, anyone with Internet access has very up to date maps provided by an army of volunteers. (like you) (the army wants you).  Certainly this is faster than the update submission processes offered by map providers like tele-atlas. .

I like to think that somebody on the ground there might be benefiting from my additions to the maps for those areas.  Certainly the folks affected by the Earthquakes aren't in a position to do this.  As relief agencies try to reach different areas, they will benefit by the identification of "alternate routes" provided by mappers.  I suspect that even improving the accuracy of road mapping helps with navigation as the detail of the roads improves to look more like the actual road network.

In Haiti, it is shocking and interesting to see the poor infrastructure in place, the haphazard manner in which housing and buildings are constructed and laid out. The way highways end at rivers and cars are forced to drive through rocks and water to carry on.  To see crops piled on the ground rather than stored in silos and dozens of other  interesting cultural insights you will gain as you stare down on Haiti from the sky. Particularly shocking are the crowds you may see around trucks filled with relief supplies, the tents crowding the American embassy and Port au Prince airport, and the painted SOS and HELP US evident on many roof tops.

In Chile, thoughtful engineering is evident for highways, mitigation of rock-slide hazards etc.  Central planning for neighbourhoods, minimum standards for buildings and other signs of disciplined development are clearly seen from above.  Satellite imagery is currently from BEFORE the earthquake, so don't be fooled into thinking the 8.8 quake did not damage.

So if you can use a mouse and like using maps, you can make a real difference thanks to the Google tools. (of course Google is gaining valuable map data in the process.)

Cheers, Have fun!
Greg.