In Benjamin's case, he wants to create "images of a couple of locations in
the United States". I would just upload what he needs for those locations,
and that's all.
I don't think mass-uploading would help until we have a better idea of how
we want to use the imagery. It really is massive amounts of data and
imagery, I think beyond what we have the capacity to handle. Easily can be
terabytes of data which is overwhelming for people to work with, as well as
considerations required in terms of hardware and how the software handles
it. I have already tried uploading files too big for Wikimedia Commons
through the web interface, as well as uploading tools.
What can we do with maps and data:
If I had the time and something specific in mind, it is possible to work
with this sort of data and create a featured picture quality map to go with
some article. I'm thinking of something like this -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Ph_map_manila.svg It takes time to do a
good job with something like this, but can yield something very high
quality. On the otherhand, we have
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiMiniAtlas/en It's a good start, but I
don't quite like the interface. Also, the data of the U.S. is coarser in
resolution (detail). Other countries don't have as good data as the U.S.,
so consideration is needed to deal with that.
Other ways to handle this:
My background is in mapping/GIS, but I have never been happy with how
Mediawiki and Wikimedia projects deal with maps and geodata. I have been
thinking through ideas for coming up with a different way to integrate map
information and articles. What works well at the national level may not be
suitable for city-level maps (or more detailed than that). There are also
different types of maps - location maps (dots on a map) and thematic maps (
e.g. countries or states color-shaded according to some data value, and
other types). WikiMiniAtlas is not suitable for the latter, but the latter
types of maps can be well-suited for an encyclopedia.
I'm getting ready to work on a project to try out ideas, using local
interest (DC) topics, together with map data. This would be something could
be replicated with another place (e.g. NYC). A cross between Wikipedia and
Wikitravel maybe, in the level of detail and quality of articles (good
articles or better). Expect to get something implemented (off-wiki) by
Spring.
-Aude
On Nov 8, 2007 6:03 PM, Oldak Quill <oldakquill(a)gmail.com> wrote:
On 08/11/2007, Aude <audevivere(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
The USGS has various sites, but the best one
might be:
http://seamless.usgs.gov/
The imagery here comes in GeoTIFF format which works with GIS/mapping
programs, as well as should be able to open them in other graphics
programs.
Also, beware these are large downloads, and
there may be some learning
curve with using the site.
Here, I just uploaded one, which has enough detail that you can see
individual people (look like ants), vehicles, and such details.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Lincolnmemorial-usgsphoto.jpg
-Aude
Would a mass uploading of such images be of any use to Commons or
Wikimedia more generally? Could it be tied in to any of the geo-coor
projects?
--
Oldak Quill (oldakquill(a)gmail.com)
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--
Aude
