Community reorganization

[floppyrod84]

This might just work. Has this anything to do with the other new beta stuff, and will that be integrated with this somewhere?

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

[felohidalgo]

How do we apply to get involve? as community manager or as waze expert?

[davipt]

I want to seriously respond to this topic.
I'm CM in the Netherlands but work most of waze in other countries

(...)

What is my specialty??

George

Speciality of going to other countries and lock segments as rank5 and give me plenty of work as the only one capable of unlocking them? joking, thanks for the edits, but the locks weren't necessary.

[davipt]

My hope is that Waze staff will evaluate each Country separately as each Country presents unique situation, challenges and number of members. Also in this day and age I think it would take just a few minutes chatting/talking to every applicant to see if they are fit

Of course they will, each country is different. Look at the case of India, and my case in Portugal. We are so small that have only 2 CM's and even then we had to ask for CM before reaching the 200K (but nearby), or else nobody could fix stuff from the "tourists" rank 4 and 5 visiting the country.

On the other hand the forum count should be analyzed carefully, because it's true that some country forums are almost dead, but I don't think an iPhone or Android expert should become one unless there is participation on the client announcement threads forums, or an editor/navigation expert that doesn't subscribe or at least have a look at the global map forum.

[davipt]

Hi davipt

As I mentioned in India there are lot many users who are not aware of Forums as such or in other words there are few users who are actively working to make Indian maps more user friendly and economical. To give you an example I have introduced Waze to my 5 friends (all driving freaks) but none of them are using forum or wiki or for that matter WME they just go on drive! When I told them about forums, they were like its very theoretical or might be they found it very confusing.

There are so many Indian UR just mentioned as General Map Error without any details about the error or updates required. This is the lack of information or I might call it BASIC awareness among the users using the app.

I might be wrong but this was the actual situation which I came across.

I'm sure this is the same that happens in every country. Here in Portugal I can count with my fingers the number of minimally active users on the forum. We are now getting some forum traction (the fingers on the second hand) mainly because of some promotion on the Waze Portugal Facebook page. But of course every driver still likes to report general errors without descriptions and create radars everywhere.

I just don't understand why you think this reorg idea could affect this forum behavior. Quite the contrary, having more people with official knowledge actively participating on the forum will hopefully capture more general users into it. I can imagine having only adrian from waze trying to manage the whole forum from Portugal, Brasil and a lot other spanish language countries and the effort for him. Now me and another user try to help as much as we can, and that's the reorg idea - to officialize those helpers.

[davipt]

Shirli,
I think this policy will restrict the new users using the forums as they will have to depend on local and professional champs to get any type of advice or make a point of suggestions. As in India there are lot many users are not active on the forums, after going through this policy they will/might restrict themselves of using forums. For forum think it should be very open and transparent base of communication and platform for exchanging the ideas. Lets keep Waze as a pure form of economical and safe driving experience.

Where have you read this? I read clearly that not much will change, and in particular the usage of the forums for new users should even improve as they can now get answers not only from other "more senior" users and (sometimes) waze or champs themselves as always, but from people that now may get access to further and more reliable information. For me it's just delegation from the small number of official waze dedicated to each country to a larger set of trusted power users. It can only get better!

[cherianchris]

Shirli,
I think this policy will restrict the new users using the forums as they will have to depend on local and professional champs to get any type of advice or make a point of suggestions. As in India there are lot many users are not active on the forums, after going through this policy they will/might restrict themselves of using forums. For forum think it should be very open and transparent base of communication and platform for exchanging the ideas. Lets keep Waze as a pure form of economical and safe driving experience.

Where have you read this? I read clearly that not much will change, and in particular the usage of the forums for new users should even improve as they can now get answers not only from other "more senior" users and (sometimes) waze or champs themselves as always, but from people that now may get access to further and more reliable information. For me it's just delegation from the small number of official waze dedicated to each country to a larger set of trusted power users. It can only get better!

+1

[bz2012]

Somewhat in the same line as my previous posts, I think that WAZE could make the various new forums much more useful if they were 'readable' by everyone while only the "designated experts" could write to them.

It would give those of us that were not considered to be experts in some particular field a chance to learn from the experts by observing the experts in action. In fact, some probably should be 'required reading' for new AMs and CMs.

And, as people often have 'hidden talents', if someone sees a topic being discussed and has some worthwhile information to contribute, they could PM the information to one of those involved in the discussion and perhaps save time, money and even, since directing people through traffic involves life and death decisions, perhaps even saving lives.

Keeping the groups 'closed' seems to have few benefits and the costs, though they may often be unknown, seem rather high.

If all of these factors have been carefully weighed and considered, then good communications would suggest that explaining the reasoning behind the decisions to the community would make the transition smoother.

[bz2012]

I see your point and agree. But I think that's what breaking the US into regions is suppose to do. Instead of 50K users trying to tell Waze of a problem, we report to a region manager who is in contact with one person from waze. A chain of command.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Agreed.

I guess what I am trying to say is that for each type of information flow, a careful look at 'what needs to be communicated', 'from whom', and 'to whom', will often make it clear HOW the information can be best communicated.

Also, it is important to improve the 'signal to noise' ratio of some communications channels.
The automatic map problem reports are an example of 'poor signal to noise ratio' because many of the reports are 'noise'. The ARE some reports that ARE useful, but clearly the problem detection criteria need refinement.

Improving communications with users so that they use the hazard and map problem reporting properly is another area where looking at the communications channels available may provide an insight to where changes can be made that improve things.

[bz2012]

One form of expertise that should be covered (and does not seem to be) is 'communications'.

If you look carefully at many of the problems that WAZE has, they amount to communications problems.

There are several different channels of communications involved. Many of them interact.

Much of the time, the WRONG channel is invoked when a problem is noticed and rather than quickly solving the problem, it escalates.

Let me mention a few of the communications channels.

The MAP itself is the most important communications channel. It allows 'the end users[the drivers]' to receive timely instructions so that they can cope safely with all the problems of navigating a massive implement of death and destruction from one place to another safely. It MUST be the primary focus of everyone's efforts. Of course, the GPS reports of the vehicle's location travel over a communications channel and must be kept 'up-to-date'.

As the territory is always in a state of flux, the MAP is never the territory and the map must be adjusted constantly to reflect changes.

By editing the map, the editors are using a communications channel. They communicate with the drivers and they communicate with other editors. They communicate with the programmers that write the editing software. The importance of these communications channels can not be over stressed. The 'rules' for editing have two functions: 1) to inform the editors HOW to make necessary changes so that the drivers get the proper cues, and 2) to allow the editors to communicate with other editors the information the editors need when they are called upon to modify the map to match changes in conditions.

Then there are the forums. They remind me of a room full of people milling around and conversing in small groups. Some are very useful, others just add background noise and make communications more difficult.

There is also PM, e-mail, and other channels. Sometimes these are used effectively but often they are neglected. If I find a new editor making mistakes, my first communications effort is to PM them and bring the mistake to their attention gently, educating them as to the right way to do things and why.
When I see someone in a forum asking a question about a problem attributable to some particular editor, my first impulse is to PM the editor and alert them to the problem. Some editors have disabled PM. This cuts a very important communications channel.

The vast volume of traffic seems to have caused WAZE to shut down some important communications channels as they seek to streamline things. This Community reorganization appears to me to be an effort to bring these communications problems under control.

Perhaps looking at things in this light will help some to see the situation in a new light and may even bring some new and better solutions to mind.

When looking at our problems, as someone once said "what we have here, is failure to communicate!"

Let us all do our best to find the fastest and most effective way to communicate at each particular point.