It wasn鈥檛 a typical day in the office for members of Google鈥檚 Street View team as they roamed around a small Nunavut hamlet on Thursday in an effort to build the most comprehensive and accurate map of Canada鈥檚 Arctic.
But the Google team wasn鈥檛 alone.
Residents of Cambridge Bay have been recruited to help Google map the remote community.
鈥淗igh above the Arctic circle, it鈥檚 a place reachable only by plane or boat,鈥� reads an Aug. 22 blog post by Google Canada. 鈥淯sing the tools of 21st century cartography, we鈥檙e empowering a community and putting Cambridge Bay on the proverbial map of tomorrow.鈥�
The mapping efforts began Wednesday and will continue Thursday throughout the village of 1,500.
The current Google map of Cambridge Bay appears as only a handful of streets.
The tech giant is using a 鈥淪treet View Trike鈥�, which can maneuver around the gravel roads and into tight spaces too narrow for cars to photograph the area. Google is also using 鈥淚nnerspace鈥� kits to take pictures indoors.
Meanwhile, community members will offer their local and cultural expertise to add to the map.
鈥淭here are 4,000 years鈥� worth of stories waiting to be told on this map,鈥� said Google Canada in its blog. 鈥淭oday, we鈥檙e setting out on an ambitious mission to tell some of those stories and to build the most comprehensive map of the region to date.鈥�
Helping the Google team is Chris Kalluk, a Cambridge Bay resident and mapping expert.
The Google team met Kalluk in September during a Google Earth outreach workshop in Vancouver where participants learned to edit Google Maps data using the online tool Map Maker.
On Wednesday, Kalluk hosted a community mapping event where village elders, local mapping experts and high school students used Map Maker to add new roads, rivers, lakes, as well as the local hospital, daycare and golf course to the Google map of Cambridge Bay.
鈥淭his is a place with a vast amount of local knowledge and a rich history,鈥� said Kalluk in a press release. 鈥淏y putting these tools in the hands of our people, we will tell Nunavut鈥檚 story to the world.鈥�
Kalluk will be trained on how to use some of Google鈥檚 equipment to map surrounding communities.
Cambridge Bay elder Anna Nahogaloak said it is important for those outside Nunavut to be able to see Canada鈥檚 largest and most northern territory.
鈥淧eople are always asking how we live, how we survive. They鈥檙e always asking about everything. This will help them understand and learn more about Nunavut,鈥� she said, adding that it鈥檚 important for the locals to contribute to the mapping process.
鈥淭he land is everybody鈥檚 land. We all share it. It is especially important for children who are always learning and trying to understand the world.鈥�
Google said it's the farthest north their team has ever travelled and the logistics proved to be a challenge. Materials had to be shipped in by air and the weather has been unpredictable. The trip was planned rain or shine.
Despite the challenges, Google鈥檚 managing director in Canada Chris O'Neill said in a press release that the company is happy to be able to provide a glimpse of life in Nunavut.
鈥淐anada鈥檚 Arctic is one of the most incredible and remote places on earth. We鈥檙e proud to be able to show the world this spectacular landscape and share a part of Canadian culture few people have ever seen.鈥�
The search-engine giant said it will take a few months to process the imagery taken in Cambridge Bay and publish it on Google Maps.
With files from The Canadian Press
