MIP2: Defining new regions (part 1 of many)

[jayalberts]

We're determining the priority for upcoming regions based on the following factors:

• number of dashcam orders
• current mapping progress
• consideration for currently established region boundaries
• "out of the box" boundaries: some countries have statistical/administrative boundaries which look great and others require customization in order to be substantially similar to the rest of the world

As you can imagine based on looking at Explorer, the following are top priorities: US, Canada, Korea, UK, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, France, Germany, Japan ... with many other European and heavily-populated countries (China, India, Indonesia) coming in next.

We're still investigating how our system will handle map weirdness (e.g. non-contiguous regions, lots of islands), how it will impact system processing (e.g. rendering maps), and of course how it impacts calculations (e.g. region weighting, HONEY rewards). We will likely start with one small country or perhaps a couple regions to test it out, then expand as cautiously as we need to or (better yet) as quickly as possible. I'd love to put the whole world into regions and be done with it!

[jayalberts]

Progress is being made, however due to resource constraints we are not likely to release any new regions next week. Pushing out one week.

[jayalberts]

We've zeroed in on South Korea as the first country we want to test. Progress is slow due to resource constraints. Pushing this out further.

[jayalberts]

Regions continues to be a major topic at Hivemapper with many daily discussions. The work is still in progress with more substantial update expected soon. Top candidates for experimentation are small-ish countries like the Netherlands, South Korea, and Portugal.

[jayalberts]

There continue to be daily discussions about regions at Hivemapper. MIP2 proposal will be published soon, and if adopted, it will be a major catalyst for making changes to regions across the world.

[jayalberts]

First tranche of new regions released with MIP2. Most have already updated on explorer.