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Wikimapia

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WikiMapia
File:Wikimapia.png
WikiMapia as seen in Firefox with fullscreen mode
Type of site
Collaborative mapping
Available in64 languages, including English
Created byAlexandre Koriakine and Evgeniy Saveliev
Revenuefrom AdSense
URLwww.wikimapia.org
Commercialno
Registrationyes (not compulsory)

WikiMapia is an online map and satellite imaging resource that combines Google Maps with a wiki system, allowing users to add information, in the form of a note, to any location on Earth.[1] It was created by Alexandre Koriakine and Evgeniy Saveliev, and was launched on May 24, 2006 with the aim of describing the whole world. It is one of the top 2000 websites visited,[2] and now has over 8 million places marked.[3] While registration is not required to edit or add to WikiMapia, over 153,000 users from around the world currently are registered.[4]

Features

Growth of the number of places marked in Wikimapia between its launch and Jan 2008[5]

Tag a location

WikiMapia allows any contributor to add a "tag" to any location by marking out a rectangle around the location and then providing a default language, a title, and one of the predefined location types, such as "police station", "mountain", etc.[6] An optional note can be provided, as well as keyword tags, images, and embedded YouTube videos, which all appear on the place's information window.[7] For non-rectangular places, yellow shaded polygons can be added.

Watchlists

WikiMapia allows registered users to check on certain areas of the map, showing edits and additions to the map.

Multi-lingual

Location tagging is fully multi-lingual. Currently a total of 64 languages are supported, and 100% of the interface has been translated into 25 languages.[8]

However WikiMapia tries to use its own abbreviations for the languages; for example, it uses "tk" as the abbreviation for Turkish.

Registered users can help translate the WikiMapia interface at a special page.

User accounts and levels

Optional user accounts were introduced in October, 2006.[9] Since then, a system has been under development whereby users can rise in status. For instance, users can vote in favor of or against other users' contributions. There are three user-levels, explained in the WikiMapia FAQ. In October, 2007 a forum was begun, for discussions by registered users.

Places added by new or unregistered users must be verified. Unverified places appear with a yellow outline, and can be voted for or against on their description window. To be verified they must be at least 24 hours old and receive enough positive votes (for instance 2 for and 0 against).[10] In some areas of the world with out-of-date or very expensive mapping, such as India, WikiMapia growth has been phenomenally rapid. This rapid growth has brought problems of its own, however, with urban areas becoming covered with thousands of overlapping rectangles marking the positions of private residences, but with no utility available in the WikiMapia interface for displaying places of public interest, distinguished those from houses and flats and apartments.

Messages

Registered users can send personal messages to each other.

GeoTools

Basic tools for measuring distance and land area, and for mapping IP addresses to locations, are available from the menu at the top of the page.

Roads

Registered users can mark the route of roads using a series of segments and points. Once marked, these can be named and described in a manner similar to marking locations.

WikiMapia Layer

The WikiMapia Layer shows only information that is made by WikiMapia users, such as polygons and roads -- and the polygons are in different colors depending on the category of the tag, e.g. blue for a lake or reservoir, or green for a park.

Business model

The site generates some income using Google ads. In July 2007, the founders of WikiMapia decided to start looking for an investor to accomplish their plans.

Interoperability

A GPS receiver can be connected to WikiMapia using a plug-in program (beta, download for Windows OS from WikiMapia site [1]).

Limited WikiMapia functionality is available on:

User-submitted content

Unlike Wikipedia, all user content on WikiMapia is licensed exclusively to WikiMapia. WikiMapia does not use a GFDL license, so royalties and many usage rights are forfeited to WikiMapia upon submission. [11]

WikiMapia user submissions are available for personal or educational non-commercial purposes through the website.[12]

See also

References

  1. ^ Bear, David (2007-01-07). "Getting a bird's-eye view of any place on Earth". Retrieved 2007-11-13.
  2. ^ Alexa rank 821
  3. ^ "Wikimapia Main Page". Retrieved 2008-08-05. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help) (See upper left corner)
  4. ^ Koriakine, Alexandre (username koriakine) (2008-01-25). "Banning users for vandalism". Retrieved 2008-01-26.
  5. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=WikiMapia&diff=163439849&oldid=161891015#Growth
  6. ^ Koriakine, Alexandre (2006-12-04). "Place types, etc". Retrieved 2007-11-14.
  7. ^ Jones, Matt (2007-01-11). "How To #5: YouTube in Wikimapia!". Retrieved 2007-11-14.
  8. ^ WikiMapia translation page
  9. ^ Koriakine, Alexandre (2006-10-08). "Registration started". Retrieved 2007-11-14.
  10. ^ "WikiMapia FAQ". 2006-10-08. Retrieved 2007-11-14.
  11. ^ http://wikimapia.org/terms_reference.html
  12. ^ "Wikimapia Terms of Service". 2007-10-27. Retrieved 2008-06-24.
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