IQALUIT
If you spot a troop of athletic cartographers traipsing the streets of Iqaluit and sporting a funny-looking backpack, smile; you're on Google Map's camera.
A Google employee models the company's "trekker" camera device. Iqaluit will mark the first time the new technology will been used in Canada. The bulbous blue camera backpack was used last fall to map the Grand Canyon (pictured). - photo courtesy of Google |
A team of Google staff will capture the Nunavut capital this week as the multinational Internet behemoth adds to its growing database of global ground-level maps.
Several businesses and notable public buildings may be photographed from the inside, too, if they choose, giving Iqaluit "the full street-view treatment," said Aaron Brindle, a spokesperson for Google Canada based in Toronto.
Considering the billion or so hits Google Maps gets every month, it's a no-brainer for Brian Twerdin, manager of the Grind & Brew, to have Google capture the inner decor of his coffee shop and pizzeria.
"Absolutely," he said. "I think it's good for tourists if they want to zoom in and see the setup of it. It's nice to see what's inside the building as opposed to just what's outside the building."
While Google Maps has now mapped Whitehorse, Yellowknife, Inuvik and Cambridge Bay, it's the first time an Arctic community has been captured in the winter.
"To really understand Canada's Arctic you have to see it and experience it in the winter," said Brindle.
"Our goal is to create the most accurate, comprehensive map of Canada and Canada's North. We want that map to reflect back to people the world that they know. We really want it to be representative of the communities that we visit."
Coming to Iqaluit during the wintertime makes sense but also poses logistical hurdles. To overcome those wintertime hurdles is another first.
The team will be using a "trekker" - a camera device worn like a backpack with a bulbous blue multi-lensed camera above the wearer's shoulders.
It's the first time the new technology has been used in Canada. It has been used once, last fall, as the Google Maps team trekked and visually mapped the Grand Canyon.
"They take their mission very seriously and we put resources behind it," said Brindle, who is a proud Googler, Canadian and occasional trekker-wearer.
"Contributing to the Google Map of the Canadian North has been my number one priority since I started at this place."
Google's first trip to Nunavut was last year in Cambridge Bay.
Brindle said his team worked with Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated representative Chris Kallok, who suggested the team visit.
In addition to collecting street-view imagery of the hamlet, Brindle, Kallok and a small team hosted a "map-up" session in which community members were invited to gather in a room and edit the Google Map of Canada's North.
The goal was to include landmarks and practical points of interest - banks, arenas, for example - to improve the usefulness of Northern maps.
"We're very committed to truly improving our maps," said Brindle.
"We want information to be universally accessible to all our users and we want it to be relevant and up to date, so bringing street-view to the capital of Nunavut makes sense if you think about it on those terms."
Working with the Cambridge Bay framework, the Google Maps team is working with the City of Iqaluit and other community partners such as Kallok, who will fly in to help host an Iqaluit map-up information session on March 20 at 6 p.m. at the Iqaluit library.
People can come see the trekker and ask questions about the Google Map process.
Mapping will begin March 19 and should take about three days.
Google blurs faces and licence plates before they go online.
Businesses interested in being photographed inside are asked to contact Brindle with Google Canada.
