*The Hindu : "Now, copyright-free maps of States, districts, panchayats"* http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/article1697940.ece *As “Malayalam Loves Wikipedia” campaign gets good response..* * * *Even as the “Malayalam Loves Wikipedia” campaign, launched to expand the knowledge repositories of Malayalam Wikipedia with copyright-free Malayalam-related photographs, continues to evoke overwhelming response from Wiki users and contributors, a project meant to make available online free-to-use national map and maps of States, districts and panchayats is making silent, but significant strides.* * * *The ambitious project was taken up by Bangalore-based software engineer and Wiki contributor Rajesh Odayanchal. Other contributors, Ajay Kuyiloor, Naveen and Jason Nedumbala, joined him in the venture. The team crossed a milestone when a copyleft [free of copyright] map of India — to be further fine-tuned — and maps of the districts of Kerala and some States were readied.* * * *“Our aim is to prepare maps of all Indian States up to ward-level, which is a humungous task. But we are confident that we will be able to execute district-wise, panchayat-level and ward-level maps of Kerala. Regarding other States, we may not be able to source data to do that kind of micro-level cartography, so we will most likely restrict ourselves to district-level mapmaking for the time being,” Mr. Odayanchal said.* * * *The project, carried out using vector graphics software Inkscape, carries a GNU General Public Licence that renders it copyleft. Separate maps are made in Malayalam and English. The modalities of execution have been well-laid out in order to standardise the maps and make categorisation easy.* * * *“Given the magnitude of the project, we would like to have more persons conversant with Inkscape,” Mr. Odayanchal said.* * * *To this end, a Google group has been formed, whichcan be contacted at mlwiki-maps(a)googlegroups.com.* * * *Separately, the Malayalam Wiki is also set to add to its database a copyleft version of Kottarathil Sankunni's Aithihyamala (Garland of Legends) under a project initiated by Santhosh Thottingal, a member of Wikimedia Foundation's language committee.* * * *The “Malayalam Loves Wikimedia' project, launched on April 2, received over 1,200 pictures as on Wednesday. It also found a mention in the international Wikimedia signpost.* Regards Tinu Cherian