Submissions/The technology of WikiMiniAtlas

This is an accepted submission for Wikimania 2012.

Submission no. 677

Title of the submission: The technology of WikiMiniAtlas

Type of submission (workshop, tutorial, panel, presentation): presentation

Author of the submission: Daniel Schwen

E-mail address: wikipedia@schwen.de

Username: Dschwen

Country of origin: Germany (living in the US)

Affiliation, if any (organization, company etc.)

Personal homepage or blog: http://www.schwen.de

Abstract (at least 300 words to describe your proposal)

WikiMiniAtlas, an interactive slippy map JavaScript gadget, has been in development for over seven years and is deployed in numerous wikipedias, most notably the english language project. This presentation will throw a light on the various client-side and server-side parts that work together to make up this complex application, such as Custom server software for on-demand map-tile rendering, on-demand processing of LANDSAT satellite data, and automatic article summary generation. The challenges of the unique design decision of showing textual labels of Wikipedia article titles rather than just symbols will be presented, with focus on server-side label retrieval using presorted data structures (quadtrees), importance sorting, and client side layout. I will talk about how modern HTML5 technologies such as webStorage, cross domain message passing, and canvas, impact the development and allow for new functionality, such as geometry overlays (highlighting specific rivers, countries, cities, etc.). The social aspects of the project, such as experiences with i18n, and various third-party projects supplying data for the map such as OpenStreetMap, WIWOSM, and User:Dispenser's coordinate extraction will be presented. Lastly I will give an outlook on the new directions the development of this gadget may be taking, such as client side label collision suppression, WebGL acceleration, and new map projections.

Track: Technology and Infrastructure

Length of presentation/talk: 25 Minutes

Will you attend Wikimania if your submission is not accepted?: No

Slides or further information (optional)

Special request as to time of presentations

Interested attendees

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Jeremyb (talk) 18:43, 16 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Amir E. Aharoni (talk)
Daniel Mietchen - WiR/OS (talk) 23:37, 18 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Sj (talk) Awesome!
Valid entry (talk) 02:02, 22 March 2012 (UTC) if it doesn't collide with my presentation time[reply]
Kolossos (talk) 17:47, 29 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Your name here!