Google Data

Cities are exploring creative ways to get themselves on the virtual map. Some, such as Chula Vista, California are asking local residents to help. Others, like Mishawaka, Indiana and Poznań, Poland are running contests with cash awards to entice modeling support. While the approaches vary, what’s clear is that cities see the value of a digital representation that is publicly available on Google Maps and Google Earth.

The City of Poznań announced the results for its competition last week. The goal of the organizers (as outlined on the competition web site) was to model specific buildings on the old imperial route through the city. The route contains lots of heritage buildings that the city is eager to promote, including royal palaces, opera houses, the old market area, and other historic buildings.

The Poznan competition was uncharacteristically short – November 22 through December 19 – interested parties had to act fast. Word of the competition quickly spread to others in the geo-modeling community. Entrants possessed a range of experience, but (not surprisingly) several experienced geo-modelers participated. These included Marcin Kruk (nevermor) and Supermodelers Filip Michałowski (Athinaios) and Tomasz Szular (tomcioZG).

The city hasn’t indicated how many entries were received, but it recently announced the winners. Entries were received from as far away as the United States. The competition was supported by the local Google office, who provided prizes to the winners in addition to the cash prizes that were awarded by the city.

Local geo-modeler tomcioZG had this to say about the competition: “I'm happy with this contest and glad that someone in Poland is trying to organize something like this. I only wish the duration were longer – I submitted my last model seven minutes before the end of the competition!”

He went on to say: “I know that this competition was to determine interest, and I think City Hall should be pleased with the result. I checked all the models and they are made really well. After the competition I spoke with an employee of Poznań City Hall, who told me that if all goes well, they will hold this year a new contest.”

The city is still in the process of publishing the models to the 3D Warehouse. Some of the results can be found in this collection.

Posted by Bruce Polderman, Product Manager