This is kind of the direction that the GWHAT project is discussing.
(
www.gwhat.org)
It should be possible to do a layer-based system that uses public domain
mapping information.
The GWHAT intent is then to overlay the background geographic data with
historical content targeted at K-12 to start.
It is also the intent to make this content Wiki-accessible/Wiki-fied.
"Ray Saintonge" <saintonge(a)telus.net> wrote in
message news:4044DDB0.7090201@telus.net...
<snip>
What this issue all comes down to is what do we want
on a map and in how
much detail. Do we want an overlay system, and is it technically
feasible?
A project to develop a totally wikifiable map system would be ideal. My
first approach would be to look at the possibility of creating a series
of 1-degree-square maps for the entire world. That's 360 x 180 =
64,800 maps (but with only 1/3 of these being for land areas) If these
are done as a series of overlays the reader should be able to choose
which features he wants to include.
I don't see copyright as a big problem unless we want to start insisting
that we need to copy other wor.k that is already on the net. The
1-degree squares are not in such a fine scale that it can't be created
from public domain material. Even if in the worst case we consider only
the United States and Antarctica (for which the USGS has accepted
mapping responsibility), that's a lot of work that will keep many people
busy because of the large geographical expanse in these areas alone.
Ec