Even as the “Malayalam Loves Wikipedia” campaign, launched to expand the knowledge repositories of Malayalam Wikipedia with copyright-free Malayalam-related photographs, continues to evoke overwhelming response from Wiki users and contributors, a project meant to make available online free-to-use national map and maps of States, districts and panchayats is making silent, but significant strides.
The ambitious project was taken up by Bangalore-based software engineer and Wiki contributor Rajesh Odayanchal. Other contributors, Ajay Kuyiloor, Naveen and Jason Nedumbala, joined him in the venture. The team crossed a milestone when a copyleft [free of copyright] map of India — to be further fine-tuned — and maps of the districts of Kerala and some States were readied.
“Our aim is to prepare maps of all Indian States up to ward-level, which is a humungous task. But we are confident that we will be able to execute district-wise, panchayat-level and ward-level maps of Kerala. Regarding other States, we may not be able to source data to do that kind of micro-level cartography, so we will most likely restrict ourselves to district-level mapmaking for the time being,” Mr. Odayanchal said.
The project, carried out using vector graphics software Inkscape, carries a GNU General Public Licence that renders it copyleft. Separate maps are made in Malayalam and English. The modalities of execution have been well-laid out in order to standardise the maps and make categorisation easy.
“Given the magnitude of the project, we would like to have more persons conversant with Inkscape,” Mr. Odayanchal said.
To this end, a Google group has been formed, whichcan be contacted atmlwiki-maps@googlegroups.com.
Separately, the Malayalam Wiki is also set to add to its database a copyleft version of Kottarathil Sankunni's Aithihyamala (Garland of Legends) under a project initiated by Santhosh Thottingal, a member of Wikimedia Foundation's language committee.
The “Malayalam Loves Wikimedia' project, launched on April 2, received over 1,200 pictures as on Wednesday. It also found a mention in the international Wikimedia signpost.
