User talk:ShareMap

Hello Sharemap

I lead the en:Wikipedia:WikiProject Maps/Conventions, and find your sharemap.org really promising / encouraging. I saw you use our icons, handsome ; ) From what I see, the output files of your system are still 'limited' (basic shapes, few visual effects). But technically and as far as I know, you open a new road within the free community world : Creative commons online GIS map creation. Graphists / Mapmakers on wikipedia dreamed for long (2007?) of an online GIS based tools to create thematic maps.

Futur: several question are critical:

1. do you have a business model to sustain your development ? (income ? government/university support ?) this will tell if your project can eventually success.
2. does your team have expertise to push further ?
3. networking : are you in contact with leading contributors of the following communities :

• Wikipedia MapLab : Yug (me), Sting, Map conventions
• OpenStreetMap : they may have or being developing a similar service.
• http://naturalearthdata.com : they have nice GIS data to explore (.shp), expecially political : countries ; states. I can tell you the most useful for wikipedia maps.

Alternatively:

• The Wikimedia maptool mailing list - they are 95% talking about displaying OSM into Wikipedia page and associated server issues. Very very few support -if any- to online/web 2.0 map making, which seems to be a new road to open. But skilled wikimedia programmers interested by GIS technologies are there.

Regards. Yug (talk) 05:54, 7 June 2011 (UTC)

--ShareMap (talk) 15:59, 8 June 2011 (UTC)

Answer to Yug post

Hello, thanks for your advices, my answers in short words

details moved to separate page

Thanks for informations about discussion group, I will join it and ask community for suggestions. Waiting for your comments - if your prefer write at contactsharemap.org. --ShareMap (talk) 15:59, 8 June 2011 (UTC)

Re.

Hello again, I've been overbooked these few days digging within QGis and writing down a QGis tutorial serie. I noticed your answer, and I definitively will come back to slowly read it again. I hope your income/business model is solid, because you do a great work, at the forehead of open innovation, and I wish you will are solid enough to sustain it and expand this surprising cloud GIS mapmaking tools. : ] Yug (talk) 21:13, 11 June 2011 (UTC)

Did you took a look to the tutorial, I also collected GIS sources, you will find some treasure.

If you haven't it, I would encourage you to use ETOPO1 & QGis + GDaldem to generate a shaded relief worldwide.

I've been travelling, will not be able to contribute for about still 10 days. Yug (talk) 10:55, 8 July 2011 (UTC)

If you have a computer powerful enough :

ETOPO1 + GDaldem script > create a shaded relief

The Shaded relief + GIMP + this tutorial > convert to transparent shaded relief

Visually, that the best we currently do ; ) Yug (talk) 08:25, 15 July 2011 (UTC)

Shaded relief questions

Hi I will be glad if you can give some more advices about generation of tiles for shaded relief. I think I have to avoid any desktop programs (like Gimp) and use only console one - then I will be able to run everything not on my personal computer but on the high performance server. Can you write me in short word as experienced in creating shaded relief

• Which dataset I should download (ETOPO1 Bedrock?) => yes
• Which tool I should use to render relief (I think gdaldem) => ETOPO1 + GDaldem script do a great/rapid job.
• Do you know how can I replace GIMP with ImageMagick command? => don't know, you have to tinker. If you have a powerful computer, GIMP should be able to work on the 250MB shaded relief file. But I don't know if it destroy the georeference.
• How can I result on multiple zoom level from 256x256 to 4096x4096 and split in tiles? => don't know, you have to tinker. Likely use GIMP (or other), and save as + resize to smaller ( full size -> 4096x4096 -> 256x256).

Sorry for basic question but I am begginer in raster map transformations --ShareMap (talk) 00:33, 16 July 2011 (UTC)

Shaded relief once again

Hello I solved most of problems and I think I will be able in week add new backgrounds to Sharemap, I think that about two backgrounds at beginning

1. Hillshade with transparent background - this is easy, I followed your GIMP tutorial (I used Photoshop CS5.1 but effect is similar) and effect is fine
2. Shadef relfief with hillshade on top - effect is almost fine but I am not sure how do two things.
   • How to show depression as depression not in blue like ocean?
   • How to show artctic and polar regions in white (with other palette) - I want to achieve similar effect that on Google Maps Terrain View

Can you share with me you your gdaldem shaded relief pallette? --ShareMap (talk) 21:39, 20 July 2011 (UTC)

Hello Mister, nice to see you are moving on. First, I need to clarify that I'm not an expert in GIS files, I'm simply a graphist recently exploring the GIS possibilities. I understand the graphist's needs, and GIS core concepts, but I'm technically very medium, and you sound far better than me on this side. In short, I can share with you my graphist point of view, and 'try to help' on the technical side, where you will actually be the one who will solve this side. Ok for this !

1. Then, I'm happy to hear you were successful for the transparent hillshade layer, that's visually a great tool for graphists, a very elegant layer. I didn't found this (background) layer on your website, but I guess that will come. When online, please notice me.
2. Topographic + hillshade, topographic issues:
   • depression : I don't have solution yet, but noticed the trouble. I guess it need an user to create a new GIS Depression.tif file including major depressions worldwide and share it on Naturalearth. Not yet done as far as I know.
   • Polar icecap: same, need, but don't know any GIS Icecap.tif file. Need to be create and put online.

What do you mean by Gdaldem shaded relief palette ? the brown green palette (.gpl GIMP version - CartoWikipedia_2.0.gpl, click on 'dérouler' ; QGis version, click 'show') ? Yug (talk) 11:24, 23 July 2011 (UTC)

Re: ShareMap color map

Thank you, this what I needed - QGis version, click 'show')

Can you tell me how you solve in QGis depression/water problem. I see that you commented depression from color map. The problem is visible for example at Aral Sea area (which are mostly depressions without water, but some part of lake contains water) --ShareMap (talk) 19:16, 23 July 2011 (UTC)

We can't solve it with colormaps. It need a new layer "Depression.tif" (not existing, to create by someone) with polygons for all the depressions worldwide, put it over the topographic layer, then color this layer depression.tif in a nearby green-blue. Then the water layer will be over the topographic and depression layer, etc. Yug (talk) 14:47, 24 July 2011 (UTC)

2. When will you made the transparent hillshade layer available : i'm hunger to try this out :D Yug (talk) 15:38, 24 July 2011 (UTC)

Re: gdaldem for entire world

Good evening ShareMap.

Sorry not having answered earlier to your first msg. It's because I have very few time those last weeks for WP and just took a very very quick look to your site, not long enough to understand how it works and its purpose. Give me some more time about that.

You ask me about gdaldem tool, you mean the same gdal tool used in GRASS, correct? Unfortunately there's more than one year I didn't even touch GRASS and prefer to use the far more friendly-to-use (but commercial) Global Mapper. I don't know if you can discriminate areas with gdal, telling it it's a depression and not water, which would mean using masks. GM isn't able to do this (at least in its v10 I have), so what I do is exporting several versions of the map, using each time specific colors for the areas of interest, masking what I don't want later in a picture editing software or in Inkscape. I know, it isn't really productive and for sure a professional cartographer would do it in a different way as well as it may not be practical in your case, but it's enough for my little needs in WP. The problem of the areas covered by ice is, of course, identical.

I don't have much experience about maps showing iced areas, but here is the palette I used for Greenland's ice sheet thickness map, based on a gray-blue aspect I created:

• 0 – 1,000 m : f8feff
• 1,000 – 1,500 m : f3f9f9
• 1,500 – 2,000 m : e6f1f3
• 2,000 – 2,500 m : dae8ea
• 2,500 – 3,000 m : d0e2e5
• 3,000 – 3,205 m : c4dce0

What I think is important on the Web for a good readability, is to keep at least 6 to 9 points of difference in luminosity from one level to the next, no matter the change of color tone.

A problematic I see with these kind of maps showing topography and ice sheets at the same time is to show the difference between the 1,000 m ice thickness over Greenland and the same thickness covering the Himalaya, knowing that area will be perhaps at an altitude of 5,000 m or more.

Well, it's not much but I hope it gives you a start. Sting (talk) 23:05, 20 July 2011 (UTC)

Another thought: you write you're using the bedrock dem data. I don't know the purpose of your maps but using that data will show Greenland and Antarctic with a very weird shape as it shows the land like it would be without its ice cover. To show the natural aspect of Earth, using the ice surface data would be more logical. Sting (talk) 11:41, 21 July 2011 (UTC)

Attribution

For content reused from OSM attribution is missing. OSM is published under cc-by-sa, any reuse must give credit to the original authors. The original authors of OSM are identifiable for all data points. --Martin H. (talk) 18:58, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for pointing issue - you are right, we are already working on ShareMap to provide cut-and-paste list of links to all imported ways and points. The user will be able to paste this list to Wikimedia Commons image description page. Then anyone will be able to visit each OSM component page to find its authors. --ShareMap (talk) 23:05, 26 December 2011 (UTC)

Saw this, the copy&paste thing is a good idea. Like it. --Martin H. (talk) 00:53, 27 December 2011 (UTC)

Wikipedia's conventions on Sharemap.org

Hello Sharemap, I have seen there is some backgrounds on sharemap.org : osm, bing road, yahoo road, etc. I would like to try to create a new background in Sharemap.org (http://sharemap.org/forum/Create_new_style). I have noted we can change style when creating a map, but it's not enough for the map conventions on wikipedia. The new background would be based on OpenStreetMap data. The style would accord to wikimap's conventions. The french cartographers (mainly Yug, Sémhur, Sting and me) would be enthousiastic about such a possibility. If it's possible, what would you need for ? For exemple, will an xml mapnik style sheet sufficient ? Bourrichon (talk) 00:58, 13 May 2012 (UTC)

Currently there is no direct feature to create custom raster backgrounds with ShareMap. In the fact ShareMap does not posess its own tile rendering infrostucture.

But because your ideas sounds great (custom background with Wikipedia Commons map styling rules), we will try to setup some experimental tile rendering infrostructure - then with Mapnik styles we will be able to render raster backgrounds for SVG maps.

If there is any possibility to get some support from Wikimedia infrostructure (tile server disk space, rendering CPU power etc.) it will be great.

Currently ShareMap posess only one server and extensive tile processing will be much for him, but for testing I will arange something.

So please prepare Mapnik style file and I will think what to do next.

PS. Please take a look to [[1]] page. At this list background providers that can be used as background for SVG files for WikiComons are marked.

--ShareMap (talk) 21:58, 13 May 2012 (UTC)

Hello Sharemap, currently I can't prepare a mapnik style file, but a QGIS style file. But I fear that it's not enough for you... Anyway, osm lines and osm polygons. Bourrichon (talk) 11:30, 8 July 2013 (UTC)

Copyright questions

Hello! I've got some copyright questions, see here. Regards, NNW 11:55, 22 October 2013 (UTC)

Project name as account name

Hi, could you take a moment to review Commons:Username policy#Company/group names and ensure you are in compliance with it? You may find Commons:Changing username helpful if you need to reorganize a group name. Thanks --Fæ (talk) 15:49, 1 November 2013 (UTC)

Hi @Fæ, thanks for mentioning. ShareMap account is used by ShareMap for two purposes - 1. to create pages with information for community 2. to make clear that some operations on Commons using MediaWiki API are performed by automated system. This account is not used for any case of "promotion" (if we can use this word in this case case) , because no direct uploads or changes other that automated one are performed (except some mistakes). "promotion" of ShareMap is rather category Created_with_ShareMap. I sent email to info-commons@wikimedia.org to authenticate this account as official account of ShareMap and make this done in official way. Thanks for adding voice. --Jkan997 (talk) 21:42, 3 November 2013 (UTC)