[Wikipedia-l] Open Mapping

[Anthony DiPierro]

Daniel Mayer wrote:

> The real issue are data; Only the U.S. has very comprehensive public domin
> spatial data.

The most comprehensive public domain spatial data is probably on the US, but
there is an awful lot of it on the rest of the world too.  I've been working
recently with "VMAP Level 0" data, which is a 1.8 gig collection of
worldwide GIS data at a 1:1,000,000 scale.  Yes, the scale is poor compared
with US data, but it's a good start.  Additionally, if the project was able
to get a little bit of funding, there is a whole bunch more worldwide data
available through the Freedom of Information Act.  All you have to do is pay
the FOIA copying fee for the CDs and the data itself is public domain.

> A separate WikiGIS/WikiMaps project (we own the .com and .org for
> both names) would probably be needed to improve those data and create data
for
> the rest of the world (also serve the result to all Wikimedia projects as
a
> part of Wikimedia Commons). *That* would be fairly unique and difficult to
do,
> since I'm not aware of any such similar project based on the Internet.

I'm strongly in favor of this.  In fact, I've registered wikiteer.org and
have already begun working on it.  I was planning on completing a prototype
before really pushing for support from Wikimedia, but if people are
interested maybe we should get started right away.

> " the whole idea of copyrights on spatial data seem to be absurd to me;
how
> could anybody claim to *own* any exact digital reproduction of the street
> network for Paris or the exact location and shape of the Zaire River? "

While I agree with your sentiment (I don't even think software should be
copyrightable), the digital reproduction is by no means exact.  As such, a
large number of choices have to be made, both in terms of selection and in
terms of how to most accurately reproduce the data.  In this sense it's no
more absurd than a copyright on a digital photo of a paris street.

Anthony