[Foundation-l] NEH grant

[Gerard Meijssen]

Hoi,
I do not know if OmegaWiki has already registered on your radar screen 
for this. What it allows you to do is to include attributes to in 
essence relational records. It means that if you have coordinates or 
other attributes, they could go with cities, rivers, countries etc. The 
translations of many of the subject is something that comes with the 
package .. :)

The advantage of using OmegaWiki is that you only need to define the 
information once and it can be available for any project. This is 
already demonstrated; you can have a look at the same data and change 
the user interface and see much of the data in the other language.

Thanks,
    GerardM


Aude schreef:
> Getting wiki to be able to handle geographic areas/features would begin to
> make mapping Wikipedia content more useful and increase the potential for
> integrating it with other geographic information - such as old historic maps
> and materials held by map libraries, government data, and gps data .  The
> historic maps would be available in a more accessible form for the public,
> and allow us to perhaps use certain historic maps from one map library,
> others from other archives/libraries, and combined with other geographic
> information and wikicontent.  People could find material more easily to use
> for articles.
>
> We could possibly develop a "map generator" that adds value, extract, and
> synthesizes information from the historic maps and other data.  People could
> make maps and use them with articles, and/or add "atlas" type pages
> somewhere (on commons, on wikipedia, somewhere) to augment articles, and the
> wiki format would allow people to add descriptive information and
> collaborate.  That, in turn, would allow us to develop "atlas" type material
> about particular places.
>
> Maybe as a pilot project effort, we could (1) pick one or two places (2) see
> what historic maps and other material would be useful for that place, and
> find basic base map data (3) develop a way for mediawiki to handle
> area/polygon geospatial data (gml files?) (4) make a set of historic maps
> for those particular places more available as an article supplement (5) make
> some thematic maps for the place, using information derived from the
> historic maps and other sources.
>
> Another thing the libraries likely have is historic census data, which can
> often be mapped out in thematic maps.  So, not just their map holdings but
> other records and material they have could be useful.  I think that Penn
> State would be willing to work with us - I know folks there and they have
> done innovative things with GIS.
>
> The benefit to the library/archive would be that their materials are
> available to the public in a more accessible way.  Wikipedia tends to
> "summarize" things, and as always there would be links to the references and
> sources used for people that want more details beyond our summaries.
>
> -Aude
>
> On 1/13/07, Brianna Laugher <brianna.laugher at gmail.com> wrote:
>   
>> Aude, I will look a bit at your GIS links, but remember that they
>> specifically won't fund projects that are only digitising existing
>> collections. Quote: "We encourage projects that explore new ways to
>> share, examine, and interpret humanities collections in a digital
>> environment and to develop new uses and audiences for existing digital
>> resources." Hm... actually some kind of GIS project might work well,
>> especially if it making them more accessible. OK, two things to think
>> about: What will the benefit to a potential partner be? Anything
>> besides a credit acknowledgement? Secondly how would such a project
>> exploit the benefits of using a wiki? Or would it not at all?
>>
>> cheers,
>> Brianna
>>
>> On 13/01/07, Aude <audevivere at gmail.com> wrote:
>>     
>>> One of the greatest shortcomings I see with Wikipedia and Wikimedia
>>>       
>> projects
>>     
>>> is with our use of maps and geospatial data.  I have seen ideas here and
>>> there on this mailing list and other places, but it's a big issue to
>>>       
>> work
>>     
>>> through.