Time To Put More Of Newtown On The Google Map; Meet & Greet/Workshop Planning Session Scheduled For Saturday

Residents are again invited to put Newtown on the Google Earth map, thanks to the recently announced 2012 Google Model Your Town Competition.

In what has worked for Google over and over again, this current modeling competition is free to enter but the $25,000 payout to the winning local school district is huge. The only real requirements to enter the contest is to create an online Google profile and securing access to a computer with the plethora of free Google apps optimized for 3D structure authoring.

Successfully uploaded entries will reside on the 3D layer in Google Earth in virtual perpetuity for the entire world to see.

Newtown residents are planning to meet this Saturday, November 19, from 2 to 4 pm, at C.H. Booth Library. The meet and greet event was set up by Scot Wilson, who organized local efforts in the competition last year, to share tips from former contest participants and to kick off modeling team selections. The 2012 contest is open to anyone with a Google ID. You do not have to be a Newtown resident to attend Saturday’s event. The public is welcome to attend

“Google seems to be on a tear to link customers and business owners together in new and engaging ways. If you haven’t played around with Google Earth yet, chances are you’ve used Google Maps to find an address, accessed Google Places to write a review of your favorite places, or made use of the Google Map API in your GPS guidance system,” said Mr Wilson. “Maybe you’ve downloaded smart phone apps like Gas Buddy or bestparking.com for price point selection.

“The key to categorizing these distinct locations into usable business types, places, and features is to provide real-time data combined with visual feedback,” he continued. “Google provides free 3D building toolkits, like Google Building Maker, to create 3D cities on the fly. That particular software is launched from within any web browser. The Building Maker app stores a vast collection of saved orthographic images optimized to supply prospective modelers examples for creating online vector-based structures from scratch. Unfortunately, Google only releases Building Maker data from the world’s most populated city centers.

“Smaller towns, like Newtown, may have to wait a long time before Google will furnish the engineering technology needed to seamlessly photograph and cover the whole American landscape,” he said.

A handful of Connecticut residents were not willing to wait for Google input and decided to throw their own hat into the ring in a bid to garner the coveted supplementary school budget prize monies. Newtown has the largest collection of 3D structures on the Google Earth 3D layer outside of Hartford, the state’s capitol city.

The first (and only) Connecticut bid to win the Model Your Town contest was launched in 2010 by Mr Wilson, a local business owner.

“We have a running start for the contest as six Newtown buildings have already been seeded in the Google Earth building layer,” Mr Wilson said this week.

“I use a program called Google Sketchup to stage 3D representation of finished Home Theater remodeling jobs we initiate with our customers. In 2010 I was made aware of the first competition in a Google Sketchup user forum and decided to try my hand at architectural modeling.”

Putting together a team of fellow modelers proved to be challenging. The path to getting buildings published on Google Earth required specific skill sets. Computer aided design experience was just one facet of successful model making.

“I found I needed help in areas I had limited proficiency. I needed the knowledge of carpenters, photographers, and desktop publishing artists. No one I knew used the Google Sketchup software on a regular basis, so I contributed my knowledge of that software to the 2010 effort.”

The desire to win the competition facilitated the creation of the Newtown team, The Blue Moon Modelers (BMM).

All of the apps needed to create a winning entry are free to download from Google. The BMM team uses Google Sketchup, Google Picasa, and Google Earth to lay out their creations. Google Plus with hangouts and Google Docs are the newest tool used by the Blue Moon Modelers to interface with fellow teams and share techniques.

Mr Wilson credits the extensive use of online collaboration as a very important tool used on the path to becoming effectual in 3D publishing.

“Social media has exploded in the last decade. I use it extensively in my daily business setting. Google Plus has a built-in desktop sharing feature and is a great tool for interacting with friends from across the globe. I find updating our progress online garners great responses from fellow Sketchup artists,” he said.

The BMM team has submitted a recent entry in the 2012 competition. Its selected Sketchup 3D warehouse collection is titled “The Main Event” and the goal for the BMM team is to create 100 buildings by contest deadline.

Although Newtown did not win the competition in 2010, the team’s effort has seeded the Google Earth 3D layer with charming New England architecture. Newtown 3D creations include Newtown Historical Society’s headquarters, the Matthew Curtiss House, as well as The Hideaway Café, The Dana-Holcombe House, and a 2011 Halloween competition entry depicting a purported haunted house. Newtown’s famous flagpole is also on Google 3D layer.

The modeling bug seems to be a family affair at this point as Mr Wilson’s son, Ian, has taken the ball and created his own collections of buildings.

“I attended the classes given at the library [last year] and wanted to create buildings I would like to visit around the world,” said Ian. “I’ve created a few buildings with Google Building Maker in Chicago and one in Japan. I used Google Sketchup when modeling any buildings in Newtown. I’m trying to enlist some of my classmates at Newtown Middle School to get involved this time around. I can’t personally officiate a team until my next birthday, but I’m willing to contribute where I’m able”.

The competition rules state entrants have to be 13 years or older to enter online or join a team. Underage modelers are encouraged to assist team members in collaborative project goals.

“The meet and greet planned for this Saturday is an important one to hit,” said Scot Wilson. “Living in the Northeast presents a few challenges entrants in the South don’t have to deal with this time of year. That would be the threat of snow.”

One of the Google requirements for submission is that any building submitted must blend in with its satellite imagery, usually shot in spring and fall. Submissions should therefore be photographed with minimal foliage and free of snow on rooftops.

“There are tricks that can be implemented to free a building of weather-related accoutrements but retouching techniques cause projects to extend out,” said Mr Wilson. “Forming teams ASAP is prudent and securing photos should be a priority.”

Competition deadline is March 1, 2012.

Info on the contest and the past winner can be found at http://sketchupdate.blogspot.com/2011/11/announcing-2012-google-model-your-town.html Full competition rules and entry forms can be found at http://sketchup.google.com/competitions/modelyourtown/index.html

In addition, Mr Wilson has continued to maintain his training website for Newtown modelers (www.be3d.info), created last year, and he will be updating the content for this new competition.

For additional information Mr Wilson can be contacted at 203-426-8538 or 203-617-7732.