By the Waze » community building http://www.waze.com/blog Driving 2.0, and then some... Sun, 25 Jul 2010 13:47:03 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 en hourly 1 Waze on Google’s Crowdsourcing of Traffic http://www.waze.com/blog/waze-on-googles-crowdsourcing-of-traffic/ http://www.waze.com/blog/waze-on-googles-crowdsourcing-of-traffic/#comments Fri, 28 Aug 2009 22:08:43 +0000 Noam http://www.waze.com/blog/?p=521

When we use the term crowdsourcing it implies active participation by humans with smart phones. Regarding Google’s recent news, this is a very important difference from their use of the term crowd-sourcing which engages a phone to provide data about humans.


We launched our crowdsourced daily driving app (traffic, turn by turn navigation and live reports) because current traffic and map technologies are flawed. We want to disrupt the entire method of collection and open it up to people as a free service. Since then, lots of folks are adopting this approach. This is incredibly validating. It will be a race.


At waze, we believe that the strength of the “crowd” is more than just as a passive source for  data collection.


We are dedicated to engaging the community for the good of all its members.  Wazers are helping build our service from the ground up, by editing the map, reporting events, adding pictures and text, sharing their GPS points, validating traffic, testing new releases, giving us feedback, helping each other on the forum and a variety of other community actions.  With this vibrant community, we aim to build a better service than just colors on a display map.


So…  as we work hard on our next release that will be full of the community’s suggestions, comments and needs – we would like to thank our wazer’s for their participation and assure you that, to us, you are more than a cheap data point.  We are doing our best to incorporate your feedback into the upcoming release and look forward to building, together, a superior service.

]]> http://www.waze.com/blog/waze-on-googles-crowdsourcing-of-traffic/feed/ 3 Getting the most out of waze http://www.waze.com/blog/getting-the-most-out-of-waze/ http://www.waze.com/blog/getting-the-most-out-of-waze/#comments Sun, 19 Jul 2009 08:58:15 +0000 Alli http://www.waze.com/blog/?p=226 Between the feedback we’ve received on Twitter and the Android Market, we’re happy to see that people understand that the waze community is a work in progress. It’ll take a little time until there’s a critical mass of users in your area, but stick around! Once you’re part of an active driving community, you’ll see how much more the app will have to offer.

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For the app to provide its full value, a few things need to happen:

 

One – you gotta help us spread the word! The more people wazing in your area, the more useful the application will be. You’ll be able to communicate with other drivers when stuck in a traffic jam, you’ll get super-reliable traffic updates and a whole lot more…

 

Two – you gotta get out there and drive! The cool part about waze is that the more you drive, the better it gets. It’s smart like that. By just driving with the app open, you’re automatically helping to build the live maps (teaching the map what streets are one way, where the turns are, etc.) that the rest of the community will benefit from, too.

 

It’s really fun for us to see people get excited about waze and to encourage others to get involved to build the community in their areas. Check out some of the comments we’ve seen on the Android Market so far:

  • “Download if you’re in Seattle, this is only gonna be useful if we all use it; needs a bigger community. Fun, tho.”
  •  “Looks great and it has a whole lot of potential.”
  •  “Missing part of road, but there is where we the users come in 2 make it better by adding and editing street.”
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