[Wikipedia-l] Re: WikiGIS perhaps?

[Ray Saintonge]

Lars Aronsson wrote:

>Delirium wrote:
>
>> From that, I can't seem to figure out if the issue is an access one (we
>>can't get the data) or a legal one (we're not allowed to use the data).
>>If the latter, I think we can safely ignore it, at least in the US: a
>>simple database of factual data is not copyrightable in the US, so once
>>we can our hands on it, we can do whatever we want with it, regardless
>>of what the person who put the data together says we can do with it.
>>
>
>I haven't looked deeper into this, but there is always contract law
>that can cover holes in copyright law (you get raw data under an
>agreement that you will pay damages if it gets disseminated).  If you
>only speak English, you could start to dig out mapping data from
>Britain or Ireland.  Many Europeans think "it cannot be done", and
>need the inspiration from outsiders with a naive view of things.
>
>Ordnance Survey Britain, http://www.ordsvy.gov.uk/
>Ordnance Survey Ireland, http://www.osi.ie/
>
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 work 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