The Hindu : Front Page : Now, help upgrade maps and get paid for the effort!

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Sunday, Oct 12, 2008
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Now, help upgrade maps and get paid for the effort!

M. Rajeev

Hyderabad: SatNav Technologies, a city-based leader in geographic information systems, has launched a ‘Citizen Mapper’ programme, in which customers or lay users can help to upgrade its maps of different cities across the country, adding information about new Points of Interest (POI).

For every POI notified by customers, SatNav will credit Rs. 5 into their accounts, which they can use to buy or upgrade map databases to fuel Global Positioning System-based phones or other navigation tools.

Mail feedback

Users can visit the site www.roadsofindia.com and find information on roads from one place to another in India. It will indicate POIs en route: hospitals, ATMs, malls, theatres and hotels. If, during their journeys, they come across new points or changes in the points indicated, they can mail their feedback to SatNav – and be rewarded for their efforts. A customer notifying 200 changes in his/her locality will be entitled to Rs.1,000. SatNav has already recruited 150 ‘Citizen Mappers’.

“With our customer base set to increase from 15,000 at the end of the last financial year to 1.2 lakh in the next financial year and POIs set to cross 30 lakh, we are hopeful of recruiting about 20,000 mappers by the end of the next fiscal year,” says chief executive officer Amit Prasad.

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