After a number a successful local challenges, #CompletetheMap now goes global. All you need to do to participate in the largest Mapillary challenge yet is to make sure your city is registered. Kick-off on 11 December!

The Global Leaderboard can be found here.

Over the course of 2017, #CompletetheMap has become a popular way to coordinate the way the community works together to capture imagery. We’re now opening up #CompletetheMap globally to everyone who would like to participate. Between December 11th and January 31st, anyone around the world will be able to capture images in a grid location of their choice and track their progress relative to other contributors taking part.

Since May, we’ve run #CompletetheMap in cities like Ottawa, Berlin, Moscow, Bengaluru, Kyiv, Brasília, and others. Many more locations have been nominated by local contributors who have been keen to run their own #CompletetheMap challenges. Often these contributors are in smaller cities, or not based in a city at all. They may be the only Mapillary member in their area, but they would still like a tool that enables them to plan and track the imagery they are collecting.

The capture challenges will look similar to this challenge currently running in Brazil. The selected location will be divided into zones that change color as coverage is added.

With this in mind, we’ve decided to run a global #CompletetheMap challenge, encouraging people to contribute in their area, while being able to compare themselves to other cities and towns partaking in the challenge. If you’re not familiar with #CompletetheMap already, make sure to check out our earlier blog post on that outlines the concept.

How it will work

Global #CompletetheMap will work much the same way as previous challenges have. Participants will capture images in the challenge area, with the aim to cover all unmapped roads and paths within each zone. The process will be relatively similar to other #CompletetheMap challenges, with some additional characteristics to make it fun and functional at a global level.

Consistent challenge area

Every grid will have a fixed area of 50 km² to make the challenges comparable to one another. Some places will have more roads than others, but the requester is choosing the central location—so it’s up to you to design the challenge you would like.

New scoring system

A global leaderboard will allow you to compare your local contributions with other participants. The leaderboard will have a new scoring system that will take into account multiple elements of contribution. Here are the variables that make up the score:

• Unique kilometres (UKM): this is the total distance of sequences contributed in areas with no previous coverage. For example, if you drove for 10 km and 7 km of it did not have existing imagery, your UKM for that drive would be 7 km.

• Images: the total number of images the contributor has uploaded during the the challenge.

• Participants: this is the number of people participating in your local challenge. The idea is to encourage and reward collaboration.

The formula to calculate the score is as follows:

Score = (total UKM contributed + (images/1000)) * (1 + (count of participants/10))

Here is an example of what the final score would look like when you factor in unique kilometres, images contributed, and a multiplier for the number of participants in the local challenge.

How you can participate

1. Ask us to set up a challenge for you by submitting a request with your desired location here.

2. Tell others about the challenge and invite them to contribute in your area.

3. Begin capturing imagery within your chosen area from December 11th onwards.

4. Maximise the number of unique kilometres, images, and participants to increase your score.

5. Check the Global #CompletetheMap leaderboard to see what other localities globally are up to and how you compare.

Important dates

December 1st: register your location for Global #CompletetheMap. Registration for is open throughout the challenge, but keep in mind that the later you register, the harder it is to catch up to the early birds. Note: You do not need to register yourself, only the location you would like to be included. Participants will be counted automatically by contributing in the challenge area.

December 11th: the challenge begins. All images in the challenge areas from this date until January 31st will be counted. Note: if the location is registered later, contributions will only be counted from the date of registration onwards.

January 31st: the global challenge closes and the winner is announced.

That’s all you need to know to get started.

We’re excited to engage Mapillary contributors, no matter where they are. If you’ve missed out on other challenges because there wasn’t one in your area, this is your chance to create your own and map the places you’re interested in at the same time as others around the world. Join in and let’s make it the largest Mapillary challenge yet!

/Ed