On Wed, Sep 9, 2009 at 1:00 AM, Brion Vibber <brion(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:
On 9/8/09 3:56 PM, Thomas Dalton wrote:
2009/9/8 Pedro
Sanchez<pdsanchez(a)gmail.com>om>:
Geographical/atlas/map kind ofproject
granted, there's wikimapia and other external equivalents
but we (Wikimedia) are lacking it
Is there any point us doing something that already exists? What would
be better about a Wikimedia version?
Our current direction is to coordinate with external resources rather
than create them from scratch, where we've got compatible goals and ideals.
For instance, rather than creating our own map system from scratch we're
working with OpenStreetMap to integrate mapping, using our own rendering
servers with a copy of the public data and making it easier to stick
maps in wiki pages for starters, with easier ways to get into the
upstream system to improve location name translations and mapping data.
I have been following the map-l and openstreetmap closely.
There was a status report posted just recently:
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/maps-l/2009-September/000270.html
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/OpenStreetMap
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Geographical_coordinates
Also there is a big discussion on the idea that wikipedia data can be
imported into openstreetmap, because supposedly the coordinates from
Wikipedia are copied from non free sources.:
http://www.nabble.com/Wikipedia-POI-import--td23392791.html
In my opinion, What is really missing for example is the ability to
find all the articles that occur in a geographic location.
I would like to see all the articles about Beijing for example, but it
is not easy. Google provides some of this, but it could be better.
On a different dimension, time not space :
another project that I would like to see it a WikiTimeLine
It would be great to be able to extract all the data references out of
the wikipedia articles and put the on a time line.
mike
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Mdupont