Community Spotlight: Meet Zhanna Burunina from Ukraine

Welcome to our Community Spotlight series, where we bring to you real stories from members of the global Crowdsource community.

Today, we are excited to shine a spotlight on Zhanna Burunina, a Crowdsource influencer from Mykolaiv, Ukraine. She's a mother of two, holds a PhD in Ship Mechanics and Design, and is a full-time associate professor of Physics at a university in Mykolaiv. Through this post, we will understand her personal story and experience with Crowdsource.

Let's dive right in.

Can you tell us about yourself, what do you do?

My name is Zhanna Burunina, my  friends from other countries call me Jane. Although I studied engineering, I have always loved teaching. I remember even as a child, I used to line up dolls and teach them, and I eventually found my way back to teaching after graduating as an engineer. I have a keen interest in the design and application of autonomous underwater robots and have scientific papers published in my name. I  speak three languages - Ukrainian, Russian and English. I love traveling and exploring new places. As a Google Local Guide, I have  seen the impact I can make on other people's experience on Google Maps. I am a Local Guides Connect Moderator and have lots of friends around the world. This experience has also helped me shape and build our local Ukrainian community for Crowdsource.

How long have you been a contributor on Crowdsource?

I've been contributing to Crowdsource for about a year now and love teaching other people about Crowdsource and its benefits. I particularly enjoy our community meetups - the global connect has helped me immensely during the lockdown period to feel involved. Through our community, there's always an audience to share knowledge with, and I am also constantly learning by meeting new members and exchanging experiences and ideas across borders. It makes me very happy.

How did you discover Crowdsource?

One of my friends posted on social media about Crowdsource and when I first downloaded the app, I found it interesting and quickly reached Level 10. The leaderboard was particularly appealing to me as it encourages friendly competition (I am a very competitive person!) and it was exciting for me to see my friends from across the world on it. Then my friend, Kashif Misidia (Crowdsource influencer in Pakistan), introduced me to the community and encouraged me to host a Crowdsource community meetup. After my first event, I was also featured on the Facebook page, so my friends got to know about Crowdsource too. Here in Ukraine, many people  don't know about the impact of contributing on Crowdsource yet and I am looking forward to sharing about it with them through my meetups.

What does Crowdsource mean to you? How do you think it is helpful?

I'm very excited about Google products and the platform, and I use many Google products in my day-to-day life. I want to talk about Google Translate first and share a story from my life to tell you why I contribute to Crowdsource. We're a bilingual family at home - we speak Russian and Ukranian. My child studies in a Ukranian school and whenever he searches for information for his school projects, he does not find enough information or data in our native language, Ukranian. As a family, we generally search for information in English, translate it to Russian and then further translate to Ukranian using Google Translate. The translation is not always perfect and we also find that there isn't much of Ukranian content on the internet. Learning should be universally available without language barriers. I wish that information available everywhere else becomes easily accessible and available in my native language too. Ukranian is my native language, it's my culture and tradition and I want to help to improve  the representation of my language and culture on Google products, through my contributions to Crowdsource.

I also find Crowdsource an avenue to showcase the diversity in my country's culture, traditions, food, interesting places and landmarks in Ukraine on Google products. There's something for everyone in the app - you could be a photo lover, a language enthusiast, or just like to unwind by labelling images on Crowdsource. You could choose any activity you like, to make an impact. I was personally super excited when the Smart Camera activity was introduced - I remember that I felt like a child, and rushed to the streets to try this new feature and to teach AI systems to recognize objects around me.

“I also love contributing to Crowdsource because it gives me the ability to give back to society and make the internet a better place for my fellow citizens. I want things that are special about my culture and country to be known to the rest of the world.”

Can you share something special about Ukraine?

Ukrainians are very independent and highly educated people. We are very proud of our language and culture. Ukraine is one of the largest countries in Europe with a rich history and is home to a host of beautiful places. Ukraine also has diverse landscapes. You should visit it to see the largest canyon in Europe, a village on the water, picturesque lakes, pristine steppe and even a desert.

Tell us an inspirational story from the community

Personally to me, the idea exchange that happens in a community is the most inspiring. Every moment spent learning from others in the community, sharing knowledge and ideas is inspiring for me.

Where do you see Ukranian Crowdsource community in 12 months?

I hope to build a strong community with quality contributors - that is my dream. I've got some ideas on how I want to share my knowledge, involve the community and show people that there's something for everyone in the app. I am sure that they will be very excited to contribute to Machine Learning and introduce Ukraine to the whole world!

Inspired to know more about the local communities built by our influencers? Visit our Facebook page or use #GoogleCrowdsource on social media to discover more about Google Crowdsource communities across the world.