Navteq has more than six hundred field researchers and offices in many countries. In 2006, there were nine field researchers in the New York metropolitan area. One morning in fall, I went out with a pair of them, Chris Arcari and shovie Singh. "We're going to be working over by LaGuardia Airport," Arcari said. "One the items we need to check out is some street names. They've put up new signs. Then we'll proceed to an area that we have targeted." Arcari, who was brought up on Long Island, was the senior member of the team, and he tended to speak in the formal, polite, and indirect manner of a police officer testifying in court. He'd been with Navteq for ten years. Singh, who grew up in Queens, New York, was a new hire. He'd got hooked on geography after taking some classes in the subject in college.