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We want to give a big thanks today to the Tbilisi Transport Company (TTC) for sharing geo data with us and supporting our project TbiliCity. They have made large contribution of current bus routing and bus stop data, saving us, and potentially other organizations, the pain of reinventing this wheel - a wheel originally paid for with public tax payer money. This is what we are having to do with marshrutkas. Hey, if not us, who would do this?

Over the last several years I have heard thousands of complaints and questions by disappointed Georgians and foreigners alike who, while researching Georgia online sooner or later stumble upon the question: Why is Georgia not on Google Maps? Where is Georgia on Google Maps? These questions became increasingly pointed at Google representatives themselves following the Georgian-Russian conflict in 2008.

At last, we’ve finally packaged up our Georgia map data! I’m particularly excited, as this represents the culmination of over a year of work by hundreds of people, and the result is one of the best, and certainly the most up to date map that exists of Georgia. It’s truly amazing how so many people have come together to work on this project, mapping their own towns and regions with the local knowledge that no one else could possibly have.

This video shows over a year of work, as our mappers gradually expanded the map to cover an immense amount of space.

This is part two of a three-part series about online maps in Georgia. In my previous installment I explained a bit of the evolution of online maps, and briefly described some of the key players including, Google, Microsoft, and OpenStreetMap. When discussing online maps I like to draw a clear distinction between tools and data. Google Maps, for example, is a tool. Engineers have spent countless hours developing this tool so that we, the users, can search for addresses and businesses, can get directions, can put maps on our websites, and a myriad of other functions.