Hi Wikimediaindia-l, I’m the product manager for Map Improvements 2018 [1], at the Wikimedia Foundation. I’m glad to see enthusiasm for internationalized maps! I have answers for a few of your questions.
Naveen muses:
I am not aware of the re-usage policy. Someone from WMF team should clarify...
Gladly. Our maps terms of use [2] state that we do allow use by third parties, though there is a concern about over-use, so we request that third parties "please respect our limited services and resources.” There are also some specific requests about providing info, in case we need to get in touch with you, and a caveat that: We reserve the right to discontinue or change our service, block or limit certain users or applications, or take other measures in cases at our sole discretion at any time without notice.
So this is something that may or may not work for you, depending on how large and intensive your map service is. Please have a look at the terms or use if you’re interested in proceeding. In answer to Dhaval Sudhanva Vyas’ question about seeing a mix of different languages, Naveen is correct to quote the Special Update on Map Internationalization [3], which is the best source of information on how this all works. I encourage anyone interested to have a look. You may also wish to experiment with internationalized maps on testwiki or testwiki2 [4], where the features are currently working. And here is a page on testwiki2 that shows examples [5]. Later today, I’ll post a deeper dive into how our service interacts with OpenStreetMap data, and some of the anomalies that can arise from that interaction. So please give internationalized maps a try and leave comments on the project talk page [6]. Depending on the types of comments we get in the next few weeks, we hope to be able to release internationalized maps to all Wikipedias in the next month or so. Yours, Joe
[1] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Map_improvements_2018 https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Map_improvements_2018 [2] https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Maps_Terms_of_Use https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Maps_Terms_of_Use [3] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Map_improvements_2018#April_18,_2018,_Special... https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Map_improvements_2018#April_18,_2018,_Special_Update_on_Map_Internationalization [4] https://test2.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page https://test2.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page or https://test.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page https://test.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page. [5] https://test2.wikipedia.org/wiki/Map_internationalization_examples https://test2.wikipedia.org/wiki/Map_internationalization_examples [6] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Talk:Map_improvements_2018 https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Talk:Map_improvements_2018
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Joe Matazzoni Product Manager, Collaboration Wikimedia Foundation, San Francisco
"Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge."
Gladly. Our maps terms of use [2] state that we do allow use by third parties, though there is a concern about over-use, so we request that third parties "please respect our limited services and resources.” There are also some specific requests about providing info, in case we need to get in touch with yout the terms or use if you’re interested in proceeding.
Excellent, thank you Joe! These tiles are a great resource that can really
popularize local language maps in India.
I regret that we may not be able to use it in India as POK and Aksai Chin are not shown as parts of India. Not only does this hurts the sentiments of Indian readers, it is also certain to draw flak from media, government and Indian law enforcement agencies. If possible, please try to resolve this issue.
To do this one would need to render the global map for each language in multiple versions, one showing the neutral POV as is done currently, and one customized for India, China etc where the local laws might require differing representations of the disputed areas.
Its unlikely the WMF will support such a feature, as the maps will no longer be neutral and will also significantly multiply the resources needed to maintain so many versions.
There are some hacky solutions for this like overlaying the map with extra lines that show and hide boundaries on the client side to get the desired end result. This is a bit of 'map make up' but could very well be sufficient to avoid any unneeded controversy regarding the map borders.
Tried to make a simple example to demo this, you can see the end result here: https://jsfiddle.net/planemad/oeeLmg1j/1/
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