[Wikipedia-l] Mapping complement to Wikipedia?

Fri Feb 27 02:04:08 UTC 2004

Jeff Meyer wrote:

>I am looking at putting something together that would be targeted at K-12,
>but might have some nice tie-ins.
>
>The plan is to deliver an easily searchable repository (content & searchable
>clearinghouse) of quality map content to cover the entirety of human
>history. Along with it would be a freely distributable, open source map
>player. People could then link their existing maps, add modifications, build
>new map content, etc.
>
>There are a lot of reasons why a text-based search metaphor doesn't work
>well for map-based data and why a lot of the maps on the web fall short of
>current technologies potential for delivering better map-based experiences.
>  
>
If you have a way to do this, or get it started, by all means start 
adding high-quality maps to Wikipedia!  If it's specialized content that 
doesn't fit in Wikipedia, you can start a Wikibook as well.

I for one would love to see maps of the Roman Empire's extent every 50 
years through its history, to name just one example, and possibly these 
could be put into an animation of some sort as well (though to keep 
things flexible for technologically-impaired browsers and possible 
printed versions, we should probably have map snapshots illustrating the 
article as well as a link to the animated map).

Is that the sort of thing you had in mind?  If so, it's something I've 
been looking for for a while, but I have no idea how one would go about 
creating that sort of thing.

-Mark