I'd like to build on an idea first flagged by Ashibaka; see http://mail.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2005-July/003618.html .

I'm a collector of old atlases, and like the idea of sharing samples of the more aesthetics & interesting maps.

There are three 'ingredients' I like; - Wiki's capacity in co-creation, - the University of Texas' way of etaining the beauty of the map itself (see http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/map_sites/hist_sites.html ) - the accessibility of Google Maps?

In contrast, I don't seek to replicate Atlapedia, or Encarta.

A couple of years a fellow collector of old atlasses and I explored whether the jpeg 2000 format would hold promise, but my impression is that this format (eg. http://www.jpeg.org/jpeg2000 ) is still being worked on by a committee.

I too welcome comments.

Hans Tilstra