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Community reorganization

Post by shirlig
Hi Wazers,

As you all may have noticed - over the last year our community of Wazers - users, map-editors, area managers and other devoted participants - has been growing dramatically.
From less than 10 millions users at the beginning of last year - we are now approaching the 40 million Wazers world-wide.
Some communities and regions grew 5 times bigger compared to last year; our maps coverage, content and data size has doubled itself every 3 months; and the Waze community of editors kept the pace by adding more then 50k members.
In order to support such an amazing growth, We've been thinking recently of ways to optimize the communication flow and increase the availability of info for the community at large.

Here's what we would like to achieve:
  • Create better communication channels between the community and Waze team
  • Better communicate Waze's agenda and plans
  • Increase the voice of the community in determining Waze's agenda
  • Increase the availability of information resources
  • Allow more users to get more involved with specific areas of interest such as Navigation,
    Mapping, Social Media etc
  • As part of the plan, we will also upgrade our forum's platform to allow better performance and new interesting plugins
Please note that this "reorganization" is actually not very different from the existing structure. The idea is to reorganize the community based on the existing structure by introducing clearer rules, roles and communication flow between the community and Waze team, to improve the efficiency of our work together.

To do that, we'd like to start by introducing a new communication flow in the forums.
Community reorganization.png
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  • Each active community will have its own "Local Champs" group. Local champs are the leaders of the local communities.
    Local Champs will participate in the local champs forum, self management of area managers and help with other community projects.
    Out of the local champs group, one user will be the "coordinator". The coordinator will be in direct contact with the Waze team for assistance on issues that can not be solved locally.
  • Each local champs group will consist of the more experienced users in its community. The size of the group will be proportional to the number of local active editors'.
    i.e, a community of 500 active editors will include a minimum of 5 local champs. This number will grow proportionally to the growing number of active editors.
    The local champs group will have the rights to add as many new users as they see fit.
Entry to the local Champs' group requires:
  • 6 months of Waze- seniority
  • editing level 4
  • 300 forum posts
->more criteria based on quality indicators will be added soon.
->These criteria do not provide automatic access to the champs' group. Each request to join the group will still be verified individually.

Under this new reorganization, users with expertise in certain areas can apply to be "Experts".
For example "editing Experts", "Android experts", "iPhone experts", "navigation experts", "beta editor experts", "points experts", "social media experts," will now have moderator permissions over the relevant forums and their coordinators will have direct contact to relevant team members at Waze.
We're open to expanding the range of "Experts" to include any new expertise that you may have in mind.

->Experts will be subject to the same entry level as local champs.

->Global Champs are the leaders of the global community. They will discuss high level issues in the Global Champs forum and work on high level projects.
They will be both Local and Global Champs.

The entry level to the Global Champs' group is:
  • 12 months of seniority
  • editing level 5
  • 600 forum posts
->more criteria based on quality indicators will be added soon.
->These criteria do not provide automatic access to the champs' group. Each request to join the group will still be verified individually.

Communication flow:
  • Local issues will be discussed in the local forums.
  • Local forums will be monitored by the Local Champs.
  • Professional forums will be monitored by the Experts.
  • Local Champs can raise issues to Global Champs.
  • If intervention by the Waze Team is needed – the coordinator will contact the community's rep from Waze Team.

Each community will have their own dedicated Community Manager from the Waze Team who will be working with them on their local issues and needs.

The community managers will be in touch with you in the local forums in the upcoming days and will explain how we proceed.
We will soon share a form in which users who want and feel that they can be experts or coordinators can apply. Moreover, we will ask you to mention if there are other community members that you find qualified for one of these roles. We will review your answers and will chose the coordinators and experts based on applications as well as user experience.

We believe that this reorganization will help us provide better community support, and a better understanding of the community wishes and priorities.

Looking forward to hearing your feedback!

Thanks,
Shirli
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Post by sk2380
Heisa123 wrote:I want to seriously respond to this topic. :mrgreen:
I'm CM in the Netherlands but work most of waze in other countries

I have make the map of waze in Suriname and have ​​contacts there with users,
https://world.waze.com/editor/?zoom=2&l ... TTTFTTTTFT
I work at this moment in Luxembourg and the borders of this country.
https://world.waze.com/editor/?lon=6.11 ... TTTFTTTTFT
I have there contact with users .

Now I am working in French Guiana. There lies the whole map broken.
https://world.waze.com/editor/?zoom=1&l ... TTTFTTTTFT

I also work in a number of other areas where I often go on holiday like this.

https://world.waze.com/editor/?lon=-13. ... TTTFTTTTFT

What is my specialty?? :geek:

George

A Universal Manager!


http://www.waze.com/wiki/images/7/76/Wa ... 00k_4c.png
http://images.apple.com/global/elements ... /india.png
AM : Maharashtra, MP,TN, AP, Goa. iphone 5 iOS 6.0.1 Waze : 3.5.2
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Post by sk2380
aigarslv wrote:
jasonh300 wrote:
aigarslv wrote:I think that 300 forum posts is a bit big number. Especially if you are applying as Android or iPhone expert!
Being heavily active in the forums needs to be a condition for being any type of expert. If you're not known to the community, and accessible via the forums, you won't be able to be an effective expert.

I am known to community ( I edit map, drive a lot, report as much as I can) and I help users as much as I can (I am available to community via PM and I also check forums when I have time). However for Latvia 300 posts is a big number and I do not want to SPAM post for numbers... Or spend my whole life in front of monitor...
Guess what - if I post 1 reply/post per working day - that is makes ONLY 260 posts in one YEAR. And of course PM's don't count.
+1000

This is what I was talking of .... You are absolutely right my dear friend.


http://www.waze.com/wiki/images/7/76/Wa ... 00k_4c.png
http://images.apple.com/global/elements ... /india.png
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Post by sk2380
davipt wrote:
sk2380 wrote: 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.


Hi,
davipt


Thanks for the clarifications... Hope we get best of this reorganization,

Hope to see you around.

Thanks.
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Post by sk2380
davipt wrote:
sk2380 wrote: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!

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.
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Post by sk2380
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.

Regards,
Sk2380.


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Post by shirlig
xteejx wrote:I'll be cheeky and ask for a name badge with UK English super person then please lol
Do I get any super powers like being able to fly or invisibility or anything? ;-)

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Maybe extra-visibility rather than invisibility :lol:
I'm not sure about the flying powers though ;)
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Post by shirlig
Hi all,

Following the introduction of the reorganization plan, a few questions came up and we would like to address them:

What is The role of coordinators and experts?

The Coordinator is a sort of an ambassador. He will be a part of both global and local champs' groups, and will be in an ongoing and direct contact with the Waze team.
With the help of the community manager from the Waze team, he will help promoting initiatives and issues that are important for the local community that he represents.
He can also contact the community manager regarding unsolved issues that require Waze's intervention and to inform us if there are any burning issues that require our attention


The Experts are more like "ministers"
of their relevant expertise. The experts are users who accumulated a high knowledge level in a specific area such as editing, translation, routing, iPhone etc and have the will and the ability to take an active role in the community by helping others where they can and help elaborating issues that need to be addressed.

What does it involve?
First, it really depends on the area of expertise but generally:
* Experts will be moderators of the relevant professional forum and have access to the local champs group of their community.
* Experts will be informed by Waze of news and updates which are relevant to their expertise, For example a client experts will be in the loop about new features on the way etc.
* They will have direct contact to relevant Waze team members like mapteam supervisors, qa testers, product members, social media etc (as much as possible)
* If there are relevant tools that we can provide, the experts will have access to them. For example, bugs list from our bug system will be accessible to client experts.

* Experts will handle (with the tools and contacts they have) high level issues and other problems that couldn't be solved locally.

Some clarifications about experts:
* A user can have multiple expertise (he can be for example coordinator,client expert & social media expert)
* Each area of expertise can have multiple experts from different communities.

* The official requirements to become an expert:
6 months of Waze- seniority
editing level 4
300 forum posts

Of course these requirements are not set in stone, we wouldn't like to block enthusiastic and motivated users who wish to contribute with their knowledge from participating. We will consider any request separately - so please don't hesitate to apply even if you don't quite meet the conditions


Some of you asked what's the amount of time that needs to be invested in these roles:
It really depends on how much activity there is on the specific forum, it not suppose to be different from the existing structure, just now the experts know they are managing the forum and they are the professional authority for any questions.
And of course they can communicate with waze team easily,

I hope that's answer the main issues, i'm here for any anther thing you need:-)
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Post by Scorp42
aigarslv wrote:
jasonh300 wrote:
aigarslv wrote:I think that 300 forum posts is a bit big number. Especially if you are applying as Android or iPhone expert!
Being heavily active in the forums needs to be a condition for being any type of expert. If you're not known to the community, and accessible via the forums, you won't be able to be an effective expert.

I am known to community ( I edit map, drive a lot, report as much as I can) and I help users as much as I can (I am available to community via PM and I also check forums when I have time). However for Latvia 300 posts is a big number and I do not want to SPAM post for numbers... Or spend my whole life in front of monitor...
Guess what - if I post 1 reply/post per working day - that is makes ONLY 260 posts in one YEAR. And of course PM's don't count.
Agreed. 1 post per working day is 260 posts. But of course.. your also stating that you would help an average of 1 person per working day. Which makes me think someone else may be a better fit. Personally, id change the criteria a little. Instead of '300 posts' id say '300 quality posts' :) lets face it... a post of "+1" PROBABLY SHOULDNT qualify.

We have all seen the results of what happens when people are promoted based entirely off numbers... country managers who used extended tools get edit counts.. and still cant figure out how to do basic edits.. and other assorted issues. I say we should raise the bar, not lower it.

Just my two cents, of course.

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Post by Scorp42
This seems like a great idea.

I"m curious, along with the better channels of communication and Waze's agenda, will there be opportunities for the core Waze team to give us actual editing rules and guidelines?

I'm thinking of things like:
Road naming conventions (I-75 S vs I-75 S)
Major/minor highways
When to split/unsplit roads
A list of TTS shortcuts used in the client (so we can stop trying to figure it out)
Landmarks (when and what to mark)
Etc...

I think the community has done a great job of coming up with guidelines, but for the sake of consistency, it'd be great to hear from Waze about how some of this should be handled or what future plans may affect those items.

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