In some way I think I knew it was coming and so hurried up my efforts to appear to be hurrying it along.
Once I’d written the song, someone passed it on to a friend and the next thing you know the Time Magazine blog, Techland called me about it asking “Is there a video we can link?” And of course I’d been meaning to do one… so I spent an hour or two putting this together, they wrote a nice piece and linked to it and tweeted about it which caught the attention of someone at Google Maps who got to play the hero and fix it practically while we watched [while at the same time entreating us to use the “report a problem” link as if that’s all we had to do in the first place]. So the system works, sort of.
By that I mean that people who can be adorable and agitate politely to get their problem fixed by making use of their high placed connections can really get things done. Was the world ever any different? I’d feel slightly better if I felt that I’d improved the overall system and not just my place in it, but I think being any sort of activist means always remaining a little dissatisfied. It’s pretty cool to see my town in the right place again. I dropped the local paper’s editor a note about it.
“people who can be adorable and agitate politely to get their problem fixed by making use of their high placed connections can really get things done.”
Yeah. T’was ever thus. Congratulations on your landed status, though, and on using adorableness and connections for a good cause.
Also, I originally read this as “my long underwear nightmare is over,” and thought it was maybe an almost-summer-in-New-England kind of post.
Actually it’s still in the 40s at night here so we’re still in long underwear land but I don’t see it as much of a nightmare.
I also initially read long underwear nightmare. And yeah, being an activist means pretty much never really being satisfied with anything. I have enjoyed watching this saga, though, if that’s any sort of consolation.
I’ve reported problems with maps twice in the last few years and both were fixed within a couple of weeks. Most recently the house of a member of my bookclub was placed about 5 blocks from the actual location. I did use the ‘report a problem’ link and it was fixed relatively quickly. However… her house is located about a 20 minute drive from Google headquarters. I do wonder sometimes if our geographic area gets a little more attention than rural Vermont.
The nightmare is not completely over. Go to http://maps.google.com/ and zoom into the northern section of Lake Champlain. Yup, its still there. Proudly floating in the lake. Which proves the old adage…. I don’t know what it proves.
Nthing the “long underwear” read. Also, the local paper printed the story of the song, including the lyrics last Thursday, but you knew that.
In response to Mary Ellen, I have been using the “report a problem” for 3 separate errors in Vermont, and after nearly a month, I am getting messages saying I am right and that there is a problem, but no fixes ever seem to occur. *shrug* Throw some of that Mountain View magic our way?