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Welcome to the first installment of our ‘Interview with a Map Master’ blog series. Today’s interview is with Christian Moscosa.(Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/moscosa.tian?fref=ts) Now let’s get to the interview! ————————————————————————————————————————————————— HERE: Who are you, where are you, and what do you do? Christian: Hi, my name is Christian and I am a HERE Map Master from the Philippines. I am working as a junior consultant at Makati, loves programming, Quora.com, Travel and Planetshakers. HERE: How did you become a HERE Map Master? Christian: I really enjoy mapping with HERE maps. When HERE maps Philippines announced the very first HERE map masters after the results of our contribution, we were thrilled with the results and I’m glad to be part of it. HERE: Do you have any suggestions or tips for wannabe-Map Masters or aspire to eventually become a HERE Map Master? Christian: Being part of the HERE community is fun and exciting, especially when you contribute a place that more people can benefit from it. Being one of the HERE Map Master adds excitement for me and sharing the experience with my colleagues and friends is the amazing part. I encourage each and every one to look for the local HERE Maps on their places/country and start to contribute and be part of it. HERE: How were you introduced to the HERE Map and what was your first contribution? Christian: During the program at Microsoft Student Partner, HERE Philippines team first introduce to us the HERE Map. From there, I was captivated to contribute to HERE Map since I love using a map with my Windows Phone. My first edit was our house here at Cavite and it was exciting, I found out that our subdivision has this site development plan and that I can use to map each of the house numbers to our place. HERE: Who has impressed you in the HERE Expert Community Program, and why? Christian: Sir Lonel Labit, I admired his dedication to HERE map. I remember when he first show us the HERE map platform, adding roads and points of interest on it. We were thrilled and wanted to contribute to it at that moment. (FYI - Lonel Labit is our Project Manager in HERE Philippines) HERE: What is your best experience so far being a Map Master and in the HERE Expert Community Program? Christian: The HERE Appreciation day! I remember that day when I was able to meet up with the HERE Map masters from other region here at the Philippines. We shared some great time and also our insights and experiences. I was thrilled when the HERE Expert Community team demonstrated to us the advance tools, automotive car and technology that the team use to gather information and map data around the country. HERE: What are some of the areas of improvement which you would like to see in the HERE Expert Community Program? Christian: The HERE Expert Community Program in the Philippines is an awesome community and I love their office. One thing that comes to my mind is for the HERE Map Masters in Southeast Asia to come together at an event or a conference. That will be great! HERE: Final words/Your Motto as a Map Master Christian: This is for you, the one who loves to travel, the one who moves from places to places and navigating from point to point. HERE Maps helps you to locate, connect and navigate with those places and things seamlessly even without using internet or data. Here Map is awesome! —————————————————————————————————————————————————— Please join me in thanking Christian for the interview and community impact! Brought to you by the HERE Expert Community Program

Recently, Microsoft released Office Remote, a new Android app in the Play Store. Office Remote connects a PC to your Android Phone using Bluetooth, allowing you to control your Office documents over your phone. The app lets you control Word, Excel, and PowerPoint from across the room, so you can walk around freely during presentations. It also shows you your speaker notes and the presentation timer to help you present more effectively. ...

Here is our coverage of the LTA Transport & Youth Hackathon Finals! // <![CDATA[ (function() { var lb24 = document.createElement(‘script’); lb24.type = ’text/javascript’; lb24.id = ‘24lbScript’; lb24.async = true; lb24.charset=“utf-8”; lb24.src = ‘//v.24liveblog.com/embed/24.js?id=1290113’; (document.getElementsByTagName(‘head’)[0] || document.getElementsByTagName(‘body’)[0]).appendChild(lb24);})(); // ]]>

This weekend, people all over Singapore have gathered at the Employment and Employability Institute in Jurong to hack our Singapore transport systems… No it’s not that kind of hacking you might be thinking about! These people are quickly creating new apps and software that are going to change how we use public transport daily, “hacking” together new ideas within the short span of two days. Singapore Land Transport Authority’s Transport and You(th) Hackathon kicked off on the evening Friday, 16 April with participants meeting up in the e2i event halls - the venue for the next 3 days of hacking and presentations. ...

Azure Community Singapore is organizing a two-day, two-hour-each hands-on workshop about Microsoft Azure Virtual Machines! At the Azure Ignite Workshop, you’ll learn everything you need to know to set up flexible and scalable servers in the cloud for real-world use for a variety of applications on different OSes. Did they mention it was free? Do join in on 21st and 22nd April (Wed/Thu), 7PM to 9PM for the Azure Ignite Workshop at Microsoft Singapore, especially if you’re a beginner or intermediate developer/IT Pro on cloud technologies! If you think an Active Directory is a phonebook for keeping fit, then this meetup is for you! http://www.meetup.com/AzureSG/events/221785584/

One thing I love about Azure Web Apps is how easy it is to quickly set up various online applications and tools for different purposes. More often than not, you don’t even need to write a line of code! Just a couple of clicks from the Azure Gallery and boom, you have a new custom e-Commerce app ready. Want to write your own code? Just link the website to your source control of choice and continuous integration takes care of the rest! Here’s 10 things you might not have known you could do with Azure. Need an account to get started? Sign up for an Azure account before you try out any of these: ...

On the 4th of April 2015 (Saturday), Microsoft Singapore held the final round of the national Imagine Cup competition. The Imagine Cup competition is a global challenge which is comprised of three categories – Games, Innovation, and World Citizenship. Teams from local Polytechnics and Universities compete for an opportunity to present their ideas in the World Finals at Seattle in July and for a chance to win the grand prize of $50,000 USD. This year, our champions who will be moving on to the online World Semi-finals are: • Games - Team Illan (Nanyang Polytechnic) • Innovation – Team 3DiMS (Nanyang Polytechnic) • World Citizenship - Team Mozter (Temasek Polytechnic) [caption id=“attachment_19579” align=“aligncenter” width=“4208”] Team Illan[/caption] [caption id=“attachment_19582” align=“aligncenter” width=“4208”] Team Mozter[/caption] [caption id=“attachment_19591” align=“aligncenter” width=“4208”] Team 3DiMS[/caption] [caption id=“attachment_19580” align=“aligncenter” width=“4208”] Team Blue Monocle[/caption] [caption id=“attachment_19581” align=“aligncenter” width=“4208”] Team Concept Crew[/caption] [caption id=“attachment_19583” align=“aligncenter” width=“4208”] Team eSpeech Therapist[/caption] Team Illan The world as we know it has lost its colours and liveliness. Gifted with special powers, the protagonist of this game goes on an adventure to repaint the world and seek out his true identity. However, his journey will not be easy as mind-boggling puzzles stand between him and his destination. Team 3DiMS 3DiMS (3D Measurement System) is a software running on the Microsoft Surface that performs Intracerebral Haemorrhage (ICH) 3D detection and measurement for rapid stroke patients. 3DiMS is able to measure the ICH volume with reasonable accuracy within a minute using only the Microsoft Surface, with no other additional equipment required. It is fast, convenient and low cost. This capability to rapidly measure ICH Volume at the bedside has the potential to improve the care of stroke patients worldwide. Team Mozter Mozter is a mosquito monitoring platform that leverages on the Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud-based technologies to assist vector control officers with national mosquito surveillance and control programmes. The platform comprises of (a) a mosquito detection sensor, (b) the data processing server and (c) a data visualisation platform to tell the story of the data collected from the sensor. Also today on the 10th of April (Friday), our 3 champion teams in the respective categories attended a special session here in Microsoft Singapore. The 3 teams had the opportunity to refine their presentation over the week based on feedback from the 4th April session, and present it to our internal Microsoft teams, where they were given additional feedback. The 3 teams will be working on a video submission of their projects, where they will compete at the APAC level. A total of 6 teams from APAC will eventually be shortlisted for the World Finals in Seattle. [caption id=“attachment_19607” align=“aligncenter” width=“3000”] Microsoft employees listening in to the presentations from the winning teams[/caption]

In the second part of this 3-part series on the Here Expert Community Program, we featured Indonesia and Malaysia and shared the amazing contributions the community has been cranking out. In an earlier post, we took a look at the Program in Singapore too. For today’s finale, we are proud to feature the ‘Land of Smiles’ and the ‘Pearl of the Orient Seas’. The Land of Smiles - Thailand……our story so far Thailand community membership almost trebled during 2014 and accounted for around 14% of edits in the South East Asia Region. HERE Thailand communities are widely distributed across Thailand - North (Chiangmai), North-eastern (Ubonratchathani), Central (Nokorn sawan), South (Chomphon) and lastly with Bangkok being the core center of the communities group. 80% of the Thailand communities are aged under 25 and are mostly developers, smartphone users, university students, travelers and techno geeks. In 2014-5, HERE awarded 7 top influencers in Thailand with the ‘Map Master’ title, recognizing their excellent contributions. We continue to work with the Map Masters to build our relationship and share ideas. Achievement In Thailand, the Map Creator tool is regarded by the communities as one of the most advanced technology tools for data contribution. There is a great sense of pride among the community in knowing that their contributions to HERE play a vital role in bringing the freshest and most updated map to everyone. We have established a strong working partnership with the universities and government units and are focused on providing top notch training to the communities on the usage of the Map creator tool. 2015 and beyond For 2015, we would like to invite more users to join the HERE Thailand Expert Community Program, participate actively in all our activities and campaigns and contribute to creating a more rich and complete map for Thailand. We are aiming that our community data will be used for the new generation of cars (autonomous cars) and the Thailand community will grow broadly and steadily with our HERE API development supported for integration into location-based service (LBS) applications. Contact: For more information about the HERE Thailand Expert Community Program, join https://www.facebook.com/groups/HEREExpertCommunityTH/ or contact thecpteam@here.com Cruising on to our last stop is the Philippines, better known as the ‘Pearl of the Orient Seas’. Our story so far Philippines community membership almost doubled during 2014 and accounted for around 6% of edits in the South East Asia region. HERE Philippines communities are distributed across the 3 regions of Philippines - Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. Philippines Communities are mostly engaged with university groups and government units. They have also partnered with one of the biggest telco leaders in the Philippines – SMART Communications, Inc for many map creator based training workshops and competitions. In 2014-5, HERE awarded 8 top influencers in the Philippines with the ‘Map Master’ title, recognizing their excellent contributions. We continue to work with the Map Masters to build our relationship and share ideas. Achievement In 2014, the HERE Philippines Expert Community partnered with SMART Communications to hold the first HERE Hackathon in Manila, showcasing the endless possibilities that innovative strategies can bring in a short period of time and how different mentalities brought together in a high-pressured environment can take innovation to another dimension. In addition to that, a five day training course ‘SWEEPx’ was conducted over five different cities in the Philippines to help university professors create their own mobile apps with the integration of the world’s best maps. 2015 and beyond For 2015, HERE Philippines will continue to pursue its main objective of building locals as experts in their hometowns and making the best map of the Philippines. Continuous engagement with universities and local government units for mapping activities is in the pipeline and there are plans to reach out to specific developer groups for sharing HERE APIs to create fun and useful apps. Contact For more information about the HERE Philippines Expert Community Program, join https://www.facebook.com/groups/HEREExpertCommunityPH/ or contact phecpteam@here.com That’s all folks! If you are keen to know more about the amazing works of the HERE Expert Community Program, do join our Facebook page today Indonesia | Malaysia | Singapore | Thailand | Philippines Till then, HERE Fans, keep mapping!

I’m glad to announce the public recruitment of the Microsoft Student Partners in Singapore! If you’re interested in joining MSP Singapore, please register your interest now by 6 May 2015: Who are the Microsoft Student Partners? The Microsoft Student Partners are a global group of student developer who love the Microsoft technology stack, and love sharing this technology with their student communities around them. In Singapore, we have 40 awesome MSPs from polytechnics and universities, from Schools of IT, Engineering, Business and more! They are part of over 7,000 MSPs from 120 countries all over the globe. These MSPs are experts on the Microsoft technology stack, and organize activities and events for their own campus. Here’s a video featuring some of these international MSPs: We’ve just announced the Public Recruitment for MSP in Singapore last weekend at the Imagine Cup 2015 Singapore Finals. Here’s the slide deck that we showed in case you missed it: We’re looking for a limited number of enthusiastic student developers and ambassadors to join the MSP Singapore group this May. Do you have what it takes to be a technical evangelist MSP? If you do, register your interest now by 6 May 2015! After registering your interest, we will request more information from you, and shortlist potential MSPs to attend an interview. Finally, accepted MSPs will be invited to attend our May meetup. Here’s an overview of what happens when after registering your interest. If you have any questions, please send them over to Jason Chee, Programme Lead for MSP Singapore: t-jachee@microsoft.com ...

We’re adding a bit of fun to this year’s Imagine Cup 2015 Singapore Finals, happening this Saturday (4 April 9AM)! Now, you can take part in the Post-Event Xbox One Tournament! At the end of the Imagine Cup Singapore finals, there will be an Xbox One Tournament, featuring #IDARB, a chaotic 8-player eSport jumping future arena ball game! Take part in the tournament after the event and stand a chance to win a prize! Audience can take part too by hashbombing the game and changing the game live through Twitter. Remember to register for the event in order to take part in the #IDARB tournament. See you there and get your fingers ready!