Google Mapathon Result Delay "SOLVED"

Date:7th August 2013

Hello Everybody As You All Know Few Months Back "Google Maps" Conducted A Mapping Contest In India.

The Name Of The Contest: Google Maps Mapathon 2013
Duration Of The Contest:
"Begins In 11th Feb 2013"
"Ends At 25th March 2013"
"Results To Be Declared On 23rd July 2013"

You Might Be Thinking Why I'm Writing A Post In The Month Of "August" When The Contest Already Ended And The Results Has Been Declared ?

To Answer This:
Lets Begin With A Brief Info. About Google Maps Mapathon 2013 Contest.
Google Maps Mapathon 2013 Is Not Just A "Contest" Its A Way Google Provided To The Participants Who Want To Contribute Their Effort To Make Indian Maps Better.

It Was A Very Long Contest And People Did Their Best To Reach To The Top Spots Because Of 2 Reasons:

1. To Get The Prize Promissed By Google.

2. To Contribute Their Effort In The Right Direction Which Automatically Made Many Corretions In The Past Google Maps And Added So Many New Data To Google India Maps.

But The Most Shocking Part About This Contest Came To "Light" When The Contest Began To End.

(Few Media Channels And Online News Sites
Reported That Mapathon Is Against Indian Map Laws Which Is Governed By A Body Known As SOI (Survey Of India).

That Was The 1st Time I Heard About SOI.

But The Contestents Din't Lose Hope And Completed The The Event And Thought Its A Matter Between Google And SOI & Before 23rd July 2013
(The Winners Announcement Date)
Everything Will Be Alright And Google Map India Team Will Be Able To Publish The Results Of Mapathon 2013 Contest.
(Because The Contest Ended On "25th March 2013")

The Shocking Fact No.2

On The Result Announcement Day (23rd July 2013) Every Participants Were Eager To Know Where They Stand.
Many Of The Participants Prayed Others Kept Saying To Themselves
"Please Please Please" Make My Effort Count.

Then The Excitement Begins A Period Of Wainting As Nothing Was Being Updated On The Mapathon Site By Google About The Winners On 23rd July 2013.

The Participants Began Asking About The "Results" On Google Maps Indian Fourm And On Facebook Google Maps "Unoffcial Page"

Somebody Said, They Will Declare The Result On 24th July Instead Of 23rd July As Google Maps "Time" Is Maintained In USA And That Is Why The Winner List Will Be Declared On 24th July 2013.

The Participants Thought They Already Waited So Long (4 Months+) So There Is No Harm In Waiting For One More Day.

24th July 2013 Came Mapathon Page Presented With A "NOTICE" That Says:

#########################################
Dear Mapathon participants -

It is the 24th of July and all of us are eagerly looking forward to announcing the winners of our first ever nationwide Mapathon! We are eager to recognize the winners while celebrating the work done by all of you as a large community that cares for your neighborhoods. However, we are sorry to inform you that we all have to wait just a bit longer for reasons explained below.

As you may know, towards the end of the Mapathon, the Survey Of India (SOI) had expressed concerns over the data added during the contest. Specifically, the SOI wanted to review the data that was added during the Mapathon to make sure that it is safe to publish without revealing information that it considers sensitive. Towards this end, we had provided them the data that was added during the Mapathon, but have not yet heard back.

Since we can move forward only after receiving their approval, we are unfortunately not in a position to announce the results of the Mapathon yet, as originally planned. When we do hear back from the SOI, we will announce the results of the contest.

We feel your disappointment. Indeed, we were hoping that we would be in a position to announce our winners today, which is the reason we did not pro-actively put out any notification about a potential delay. We will continue to persistently follow up with SOI and hope to announce the results at the earliest.

Sincerely,
The Mapathon 2013 Team

#########################################
After Reading This Notice:
The Participants Were So Angry That They Started Sharing Their Views With One Another And Everyone Started Asking What Is Going On ?

Its Been So Many Months And This Is What We Got.

Most Of The Participants Including Me Thought Its (SOI) Who Are Doing All This Thing And We Thought SOI is Acting Too Sensitive About Mapathon.

If Today Also You Open The Google India Mapathon Site:
https://www.google.com/mapmaker/mapathon/india2013/

You'll Get The "Same Notice" Which Has Been Published On 24th July 2013.

The Turn Around:
I Decided Its Enough Someboday Have To Take The Stand And Make It Clear Whats Going On ?

So I Decided To Talk To SOI (Thinking That They Are Bad People) And This Is Why They Are Not Allowing Google To Display The Result.

(By The Way I Got Their Phone No. From Their Official Facebook Page And Their Official Site)

On Saturday (3rd August 2013)I Called SOI The Very 1st Time:

When I Asked Them About The Result I Was Informed By The Representative Of SOI To Call On Monday.

Then On Tuesday (6th August 2013 At Around 2:10 P.M.) I Called Them The 2nd Time.
(It Was Their Lunch Break Time) And The Person From SOI Told Me To Call After Sometime To Talk To Them.

So I Waited For Around 35-40 Minutes And Again Called SOI:
This Time I Presented My Questions To SOI Representative And They Listened To Me And Told Me That I Should Talk About This Matter With:
SOI Technical Secretary:

They Told Me 2 Names Of SOI Technical Department:
1. (Mr.Rao)
2. (Mr. Padha)

I Asked Them The Phone No. Of The SOI Technical Department And They Were Very Kind In Providing Me Their Phone No.

I Called The "SOI Technical Department" And Raised The Question Of Mapathon Result ?

Then I Heard The Most Shocking Fact:

The "SOI Technical" Department Head Said:
They Don't Have Anything To Do With The "RESULT OF Mapathon 2013 Contest"
"They Have Not Stopped Google To Display The Result Of Mapathon 2013 Contest"

I Told Them That According To The "NOTICE" Posted By "Google India Maps Team"
(Who Conducted This Event) They Are Unable To Post The Winners List Because They Are Waiting For The Approval That Supposed To Be Given By SOI And Then Only Google Is Saying To Publish The Winners List.

SOI Technical Department Replied
"They Have Also Read That "Notice" Published By Google On The Mapathon Site:

(And He Told Me They Have Not Stopped Anyone To Publish The Result Of The Mapathon Contest)

Their Duty Is To Verify The Data And They Are Doing Their Job.

So The Question Arises,What Google India Is Doing ?

Why They Have Not Published The Result As SOI Does Not Have Anything To Do With The Result Of Mapathon Contest.

If Any Authorized Member Of Google India Map Is Viewing This Post I Request You To Talk To The SOI If You Don't Trust Me Or This Blog Post And Ask Them The Same Question I Asked:

Is SOI Stopping Google To Publish To Result ?

Their Answer Will Be "No"

So I Request The Google India Team To Publish The Result As Soon As Possible Because Its Already Too Late.

Hope This Post Solved Many Questions That Were Un-answered For So Many Months And Days.

In The End I Like To Thank SOI For Giving Me The Correct Details.

(We Trust Google And The Valid Participants Expect The "Same Trust" From The Search Giant)

The END
#############################################################################