Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Maps
| This is the talk page for discussing WikiProject Maps and anything related to its purposes and tasks. |
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 | WikiProject Maps was featured in a WikiProject Report in the Signpost on 30 April 2012. |
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- Related WikiProjects
The parent of this WikiProject is the Geography WikiProject. WikiProject Maps also is a management type WikiProject for pictorial representations displayed within Wikipedia. The following illustrates the position of WikiProject Maps within the Wikipedia WikiProject lineage:
Lineage of WikiProject Maps
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WikiProjects that have made use of geographical maps include:
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This page has archives. Sections older than 90 days may be auto-archived by Lowercase sigmabot III if there are more than 5. |
Conventions for visa policy maps
editHello, WP:MAPS. I am currently working on the visa policy of Nauru, and I was wondering if there was any conventions on the colors would be? It seems like the other visa policy articles have a lot of different colors, and I just wanted to be correct. Thanks in advance. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Michael Jester (talk • contribs) 21 August 2014 (UTC)
Shetland islands
editjust dropping a quick note here as I was asked to look at this Talk:Shetland#Need_better_map_image - looks like it ought to get a combination of File:Wfm_shetland_map.png and File:Shetland_UK_location_map.svg — Preceding unsigned comment added by EdwardLane (talk • contribs) 1 November 2014 (UTC)
Please assess
editPlease assess Fictitious entry. Thanks! 11:32, 3 October 2018 — Preceding unsigned comment added by Asianflavoure (talk • contribs) 4 October 2018 (UTC)
Registration is open for WCNA 2022 and Mapping USA
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WikiConference North America 2022 will be virtual, November 11-13. We will hold it jointly with OpenStreetMap US's Mapping USA. Our theme this year is open knowledge allies.
Registration is now open here! Please register by the 10th so that we can set everyone up online on our platform. Like last year, we are planning on using Hopin. Our schedule is will be finalized and available in the next few days. We have an exciting line-up of sessions related to Wikimedia, OpenStreetMap, and the intersection of the two. Stay tuned! Local meet-ups will occur in Indianapolis and New York City - if you are available and interested in attending either of these, you can find more details here. If you want to connect with other participants or have questions, please join our Telegram channel here. |
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Satelite images and creative commons
editHello all, I previously posted this question on the wikipedia help desk, but they could not find a conclusive answer. I'm just curious if open-street map or google satellite view images are considered open-access under creative commons licensing, and can thus be screenshotted or saved to be uploaded for image reference on the site. I've searched elsewhere but couldn't find a definitive answer. Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance! CSGinger14 (talk) 07:12, 30 May 2025 (UTC)
- @CSGinger14 OpenStreetMap tiles and data can, as they are licensed under the Open Database License. On Commons, you can use {{ODbL OpenStreetMap}} as a template for the licensing fields to be filled out automatically.Most commercial satellite providers do not license their images freely, including those that Google is supplied by (Maxar, Airbus, etc.). The best alternative is the Copernicus program's "Sentinel" imagery, but this is of too low a resolution for many purposes.Should you wish to request a map using OSM data, you are welcome to request one at Wikipedia:Graphics Lab/Map workshop. Do note that there are already maps for most cities, etc. – Isochrone (talk) 10:41, 30 May 2025 (UTC)
- For satellite imagery, check out USGS EarthExplorer; I have contributed several high-resolution images from there, which I understand to be in the public ___domain. There is a link to the application on my user page. OceanLoop (talk) 16:28, 19 July 2025 (UTC)
One of your project's articles has been selected for improvement!
edit Hello, |
The map widget does not show the island. I have tried correcting the position to 179 degrees, 59 minutes west or east (shouldn't matter), but it isn't helping. Does anyone know how this map could be fixed? --Ysangkok (talk) 16:27, 6 June 2025 (UTC)
- Fixed. Regs, The Equalizer (talk) 19:47, 11 June 2025 (UTC)
Map change permissions
editHi, I notice some errors on election maps and sought to change them, but when I did it state I did not have permission to change/update the map. Illustriousdudeidk (talk) 13:48, 10 June 2025 (UTC)
- If you mean updating maps on Commons, that cannot be done by new users. However, you can upload a new image, or you can post about errors you notice at Wikipedia:Graphics Lab/Map workshop. Best, CMD (talk) 14:50, 10 June 2025 (UTC)
The article James Thompson (cartographer) has been proposed for deletion because of the following concern:
Unsourced for almost 15 years. I can't find any sources on Google books.
While all constructive contributions to Wikipedia are appreciated, pages may be deleted for any of several reasons.
You may prevent the proposed deletion by removing the {{proposed deletion/dated}} notice, but please explain why in your edit summary or on the article's talk page.
Please consider improving the page to address the issues raised. Removing {{proposed deletion/dated}} will stop the proposed deletion process, but other deletion processes exist. In particular, the speedy deletion process can result in deletion without discussion, and articles for deletion allows discussion to reach consensus for deletion. Bearian (talk) 02:26, 7 July 2025 (UTC)
Replacing the epidemiology maps
editHello,
I just posted this same message on the WikiProject Medicine which was linked in articles where the maps are used, but the subject is closer to this WikiProject.
I recently saw that most of the epidemiology maps used are based on data from 2004, and more specifically the disability-adjusted life years (DALY) data from WHO. I downloaded the data and began to make new maps, by following most of the advices and colour conventions for gradient maps. I used GunnMap, which seems to produce a Robinson projection map with the outlines (as advised in this documentation), and corrected the code to match the ColorBrewer gradients. However, the result after following this is way different than the ones already existing, so I do not know if I can replace them in the Wikipedia articles by the maps I made.
Here are two examples of maps currently used in Wikipedia articles: trachoma DALYs 2004 and all causes DALYs 2004, and two examples of maps I created trachoma DALYs 2021 and all causes DALYs 2021.
Would it be better to keep the existing maps from 2004, or remake new ones but with other rules than the ones I used (for colours, etc.), or do the new maps look OK and I can begin to produce all of the other DALYs maps and replace them in the articles?
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Thanks in advance! --Bischnu (talk) 23:25, 14 July 2025 (UTC)
- I am not entirely qualified on the subject matter, but I think these look excellent, have a fine resolution and are well described. I would endorse their use. There appears to be a general need to refresh maps, charts and other graphics through Wikipedia, many foundational ones having been made ~two decades ago. I actually came to this Talk page to inquire about the same for Seattle maps. Thanks for contributing and best of luck! OceanLoop (talk) 00:06, 15 July 2025 (UTC)
- I also think your new ones look good. The only potential advantage of the old ones is that they omit Antarctica, which saves a bit of space. So you could consider removing Antarctica from yours as well. I think it's fine either way, though. Justin Kunimune (talk) 17:28, 15 July 2025 (UTC)
Infobox maps
editHow are maps in infoboxes on articles such as Lumen Field and Alaska Building connected to File:Seattle, WA - Downtown - OpenStreetMap.png? I have read the documentation and inspected the source, but am failing to comprehend the relationship between these materials. And a follow-up question: besides OSM, what map sources are recommended for use in such articles (we are looking for something with less visual clutter than the current example). Thank you! OceanLoop (talk) 00:11, 15 July 2025 (UTC)
- There are subpages of Module:Location map that specify which map to use for each infobox. In the case of the Alaska Building, the infobox has the parameter
map_type = Seattle WA Downtown, indicating that the ___location map uses the parameters at Module:Location map/data/Seattle WA Downtown. At that page, you can find the lineimage = 'Seattle, WA - Downtown - OpenStreetMap.png, which indicates that it uses File:Seattle, WA - Downtown - OpenStreetMap.png. The other lines specify how to map geographic coordinates onto the image. - I strongly support replacing them, as I also find the OSM ones to be too cluttered. I'm not aware of any specific guidelines on what alternative sources to use. I think OSM is just popular because it's easy and free of copyright. I've replaced a few of them with maps I've made myself out of GIS data (e.g. File:Location map Washington, D.C. central 2.svg). Justin Kunimune (talk) 17:18, 15 July 2025 (UTC)
- This is excellent - thank you for solving this mystery! And I really like your GIS-derived map. The City of Seattle has an ArcGIS application as well - https://seattlecitygis.maps.arcgis.com/home/index.html - but I am unsure on licensing its use. Any additional tips for responsibly sourcing maps would be greatly appreciated. OceanLoop (talk) 19:41, 15 July 2025 (UTC)
- My understanding is that in general, data is not a creative work and is thus not copyrightable. I'm no lawyer, though. The Seattle GIS terms of use has some specific guidance, which makes it sound like it may have a noncommercial restriction, but can definitely be used with or without attribution. Justin Kunimune (talk) 12:54, 16 July 2025 (UTC)
- Your DC map is significantly better than the OSM ones. I wonder if there's a good way to scale production of those for showing locations in most cities. –jacobolus (t) 19:58, 15 July 2025 (UTC)
- It looks like it's possible to download OSM's raw data, though I've never done it and don't know how to parse their file format. Automatically downloading that and converting it to nice SVGs could be a fun project if anyone here has some free time. Justin Kunimune (talk) 12:37, 16 July 2025 (UTC)
- I used the USGS National Map to generate a map of roughly the same dimensions. The difficult part was measuring the bounding box coordinates, which had to be done manually (I used the Spot Elevation tool). Perhaps there is a better way through an API, but this looks accurate enough to me. The templates have been updated and purged, and most (but not all) articles appear updated. Happy to make adjustments and revisions as necessary. @SounderBruce please review at your convenience. Thanks for the teamwork! OceanLoop (talk) 16:34, 19 July 2025 (UTC)
- This is excellent - thank you for solving this mystery! And I really like your GIS-derived map. The City of Seattle has an ArcGIS application as well - https://seattlecitygis.maps.arcgis.com/home/index.html - but I am unsure on licensing its use. Any additional tips for responsibly sourcing maps would be greatly appreciated. OceanLoop (talk) 19:41, 15 July 2025 (UTC)
Species distribution maps
editHi! I am a new editor and just want to make sure that I am not breaking any copyright rules before I add maps. I am interested in creating species distribution maps for native California plants to add to those pages. I would be using all open-source programs & data (R, QGIS, and iNaturalist data). If I use publicly available programs and data and cite everything in the metadata on Wikimedia, would these maps be okay to upload and use? Thanks for the help! Artemizzia (talk) 21:58, 21 July 2025 (UTC)
- It is not a requirement to use open-source tools to own the copyright of your work. If you make something yourself, and it is not a derivative work of something copyrighted, you can decide to release it under a free license such as the CC-BY-SA license and upload it to Wikimedia Commons or here.
- What kind of maps are you planning to make? That sounds like a worthwhile project. Let me know if you need any feedback at any stage of your project; I'm also interested in maps and California native plants. You might also drop a note at discussions for List of California native plants, California floristic province, WikiProject California, or WikiProject Plants. (I am not closely familiar with those Wikiprojects, so I can't predict quite what reception you'll get there.) –jacobolus (t) 23:52, 21 July 2025 (UTC)
- Thanks for responding, that's really helpful! I'll definitely reach out to some of those other pages as well. I am hoping to use iNaturalist data and R packages to map current ranges for individual native plants– I think a lot of the articles for CA natives could really benefit from visuals of their distributions. I have experience with coding, GIS, and species distribution modeling so would love to use this to improve some of these articles. Could definitely use feedback along the way as well! Artemizzia (talk) 02:54, 22 July 2025 (UTC)
- One issue to consider is whether iNaturalist observations really track a plant's wild distribution, or just where people have deliberately planted it. (I'm not super familiar with the data.) The maps on Calscape, for example, are sourced from https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/consortium/. –jacobolus (t) 03:15, 22 July 2025 (UTC)
- Thanks for responding, that's really helpful! I'll definitely reach out to some of those other pages as well. I am hoping to use iNaturalist data and R packages to map current ranges for individual native plants– I think a lot of the articles for CA natives could really benefit from visuals of their distributions. I have experience with coding, GIS, and species distribution modeling so would love to use this to improve some of these articles. Could definitely use feedback along the way as well! Artemizzia (talk) 02:54, 22 July 2025 (UTC)
Discussion at Talk:Keel-billed toucan § Range map
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You are invited to join the discussion at Talk:Keel-billed toucan § Range map, which is within the scope of this WikiProject. The discussion concerns the suitability of range maps based on eBird observation data, as well as the copyright status of maps traced from NC-only maps published by reliable sources such as Birds of the World and IUCN Red List. Pineapple Storage (talk) 21:54, 23 July 2025 (UTC) Pineapple Storage (talk) 21:54, 23 July 2025 (UTC)
Merge discussion
editThere is a discussion about merging Digital geological mapping into Computer cartography that's been open since last October, and it could use some input. Thebiguglyalien (talk) 🛸 06:11, 24 July 2025 (UTC)
mapframe maps
editI've been doing a lot of editing on infobox map issues, following up on Wikipedia:Mapframe maps in infoboxes. Today I noticed this project page makes a few mentions of that underlying technology, but nothing in particular about this, so maybe we should add something. --Joy (talk) 15:31, 16 August 2025 (UTC)