[Wikipedia-l] Re: Re: WikiGIS perhaps?

Tue Mar 2 23:07:46 UTC 2004

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historical content targeted at K-12 to start.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 at telus.net> wrote in
message news:4044DDB0.7090201 at 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