Category: Wikidata Map (Page 1 of 2)

A series following the generation of and progression of the Wikidata Item map.

Wikidata Map May – November 2019

April 21, 2020 / addshore / 0 Comments

It’s time for another blog post in my Wikidata map series, this time comparing the item maps that were generated on the 13th May 2019 and 11th November 2019 (roughly 6 months). I’ll again be using Resemble.js to generate a difference image highlighting changed areas in pink, and breakdown the areas that have had the greatest change throughout the 6 month period. The full comparison image can be found here.

If you don’t know what Wikidata is, or what items are then give this page a read. This map shows all items that have a “coordinate location” as a light pixel on a black canvas. The more items with coordinates in a single pixel, the brighter that pixel. This map is generated using code that can be found here.

Wikidata Map July 2019

July 2, 2019 / addshore / 4 Comments

It’s been another 9 months since my last blog post covering the Wikidata generated geo location maps that I have been tending to for a few years now. Writing this from a hammock, lets see what has noticeably changed in the last 9 months using a visual diff and my pretty reasonable eyes.

Wikidata “Huge” map generated on the 13th May 2019

Wikidata Map October 2018

October 5, 2018 / addshore / 7 Comments

It has been another 6 months since my last post in the Wikidata Map series. In that time Wikidata has gained 4 million items, 1 property with the globe-coordinate data type (coordinates of geographic centre) and 1 million items with coordinates [1]. Each Wikidata item with a coordinate is represented on the map with a single dim pixel. Below you can see the areas of change between this new map and the once generated in March. To see the equivalent change in the previous 4 months take a look at the previous post.

Comparison of March 26th and October 1st maps in 2018

Wikidata Map March 2018

April 6, 2018 / addshore / 5 Comments

It’s time for the first 2018 installation of the Wikidata Map. It has been roughly 4 months since the last post, which compared July 2017 to November 2017. Here we will compare November 2017 to March 2018. For anyone new to this series of posts you can check back at the progression of these maps by looking at the posts on the series page.

Each Wikidata Item with a Coordinate Location(P625)will have a single pixel dot. The more Items present, the more pixel dots and the more the map will glow in that area. The pixel dots are plotted on a totally black canvas, so any land mass outline simply comes from the mass of dots. You can find the raw data for these maps and all historical maps on Wikimedia Tool Labs.

Looking at the two maps below (the more recent map being on the right) it is hard to see the differences by eye, which is why I’ll use ImageMagik to generate a comparison image. Previous comparisons have used Resemble.js.

Wikidata Map November 2017

December 3, 2017 / addshore / 3 Comments

It has only been 4 months since my last Wikidata map update post, but the difference on the map in these 4 months is much greater than the diff shown in my last post covering 9 months. The whole map is covered with pink (additions to the map). The main areas include Norway, Germany, Malaysia, South Korea, Vietnam and New Zealand to name just a few.

Wikidata Map July 2017

July 11, 2017 / addshore / 2 Comments

It’s been 9 months since my last Wikidata map update and once again we have many new noticable areas appearing, including Norway, South Africa, Peru and New Zealand to name but a few. As with the last map generation post I once again created a diff image so that the areas of change are easily identifiable comparing the data from July 2017 with that from my last post on October 2016.

Wikidata Map Animations

November 4, 2016 / addshore / 3 Comments

Back in 2013 maps were generated almost daily to track the immediate usage of the then new coordinate location within the project. An animation was then created by Denny & Lydia showing the amazing growth which can be seen on commons here. Recently we found the original images used to make this animation starting in June 2013 and extending to September 2013, and to celebrate the fourth birthday of Wikidata we decided to make a few new animations.

Wikidata Map October 2016

October 28, 2016 / addshore / 3 Comments

I has been another 5 months since my last post about the Wikidata maps, and again some areas of the world have lit up. Since my last post at least 9 noticeable areas have appeared with many new items containing coordinate locations. These include Afghanistan, Angola, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Burundi, Lebanon, Lithuania, Macedonia, South Sudan and Syria.

The difference map below was generated using Resemble.js. The pink areas show areas of difference between the two maps from April and October 2016.

Wikidata Map May 2016 (Belarus & Uganda)

May 14, 2016 / addshore / 2 Comments

I originally posted about the Wikidata maps back in early 2015 and have followed up with a few posts since looking at interesting developments. This is another one of those posts covering the changes since the last post, so late 2015, to now, May 2016.

The new maps look very similar to the naked eye and the new ‘big’ map can be seen below.

So while at the 2016 Wikimedia Hackathon in Jerusalem I teamed up with @valhallasw to generate some diffs of these maps, in a slightly more programatic way to my posts following up the 2015 Wikimania!

Myanmar coordinates on Wikidata by Lockal & Widar

November 22, 2015 / addshore / 2 Comments

In a recent blog post I showed the amazing apparent effect that Wikimania’s location had on the coordinate location data in Mexico on Wikidata. A comment on the post by Finn Årup Nielsen pointed out a massive increase in data in the Myanmar (Burma). I had previously spotted this increase but chosen not to mention it in the post. But now after a quick look at some items and edit histories I have found who we have to thank!

The increase in geo coordinate information around the region can clearly be seen in the image above. As with the Mexico comparison this shows the difference between June and October 2015.