The '''Regions Map Expedition''' is a Wikitravel Expedition to promote and coordinate collaboration to improve the quality of the organization of Wikitravel content by creating '''regions maps''' for region and country articles,
If you'd like to join the effort, please add your signature to the section below!
Rationale
Wiki articles, perhaps surprisingly, develop over time into something coherent, most often without any systematic management. Unfortunately, content organization does not. The Wikitravel:Geographical hierarchy is an ideal way to organize Wikitravel destination guides, but the organic process that lends itself well to travel writing does not always work so well for the subdivision of our region articles. Ad hoc subdivisions often overlap, and even serious efforts to subdivide regions can fall afoul of the complexity of the task.
Regions maps (like, for example, this one) solve the problems inherent in dividing geographical units. They make clear to readers and contributors where the exact boundaries of regions fall, and crucially, they help us avoid the problem of overlap.
Goals
The '''main goal''' of the Regions Map Expedition is to create regions maps for all articles that have subregions. In pursuit of this goal we will:
#Identify high-priority regions maps that need to be created
#Identify which articles still need regions maps
#Link good source material for creating regions maps
#Assist interested users in learning how to create regions maps (If you're looking for help, ask on an expedition member's talk page.)
Achieving this goal will not happen any time soon, so we have a more narrow current focus: to finish creating regions maps for all articles within specific categories of articles that already have a significant amount of regions maps created (e.g., U.S. states). If there is a category of articles you would like to add to the lists below, please bring it up on the talk page.
A distant '''secondary goal''' of the Expedition is to encourage the development of standards in regions maps. In pursuit of this goal we should:
#Continue experimenting with regions maps, to develop higher standards
#Discuss here what standards we think we should encourage
#Eventually develop a section at Wikitravel:How to draw a map that explains precisely how to go about creating a regions map.
Expedition members
Peter <small><sup>Talk</sup></small>
LtPowers
– <font color="green">cacahuate</font> <sup><small><font color="blue">talk</font></small></sup>
Shaund
Stefan (sertmann) <small><sup>Talk</sup></small>
Template
To keep our maps somewhat similar, it's necessary that we use similar colors and icons. Hence '''this template'''. The template contains the items explained on the right, all in one layer in a simple svg file. To use it in a new map (or an existing one), just import it to the desired svg, under a layer of your choosing
Standards
Layers
Frame
Key (other labels)
City/other destination names
Transportation labels
Transportation (roads, railroads, hiking trails, major camel routes, etc.)
Geography (lakes, rivers, parklands, etc.)
Cities/Other destinations
Regions (colored)
Foreground (undivided region image, oceans, bordering countries, etc.)
Background
Color scheme/patterns
Different maps will have different needs, but this basic scheme works pretty well. For maps with a lot of detail, however, lower saturation colors may be necessary. See discussion for ideas.
Font
Use the '''[http://dejavu.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Download DejaVu Sans] Compact''' bold font ''on all maps''. DejaVu Sans Compact bold italic is fine too, to show different classes of labels. This is important not just for consistency—the DejaVu font family is very easy to translate into different alphabets.
Route icons
It is always nice to include official route shields on maps. Below is a collection of editable collections of the most basic route shields by country:
USA (interstates and US-highways)
''Note: to find route shields not available here, check Wikitravel:Route icons. When you find them, please create a basic svg collection and link it here!''
Ease of translation
A major goal here is that the maps we create be easy to translate into other languages. To do so:
Keep text together within sublayers. E.g., if you are using a "city names" layer, create a sublayer "en", which will contain all the English language text. This makes it easy for a translator to add another language sublayer (like "es" for Spanish), duplicate the text in your "en" sublayer and raise it to the "es" sublayer of "city names". This keeps translated info easy to manage, and all on one SVG—we can export PNG map images from that one SVG for each language by turning off the irrelevant language layers and enabling the relevant ones.
Limit the number of layers containing text. If text is spread out across loads of layers, it becomes difficult to switch between languages. Also try to keep the text layers next to each other, so that would-be translators don't have to "fish around" to find the necessary text layers.
For translators: '''Don't create separate SVGs''' for different language versions! This makes non-textual updates to our maps near impossible across language versions (as it would require a separate update of every single SVG file, rather than one). Instead, create sublayers for your language version of each layer containing text, select those, de-select the English layers, and export a PNG file for use in-article.
What to include
'''Key''' — map name, compass, scale
'''Region boundaries''' — first and foremost, regions maps should clearly define regional boundaries. It's very often useful to show subregions, to indicate of what the regions are comprised.
'''Linked cities and other destinations''' — in the region/country article, there should be '''nine''' cities and nine other destinations linked. Place these on the map, and label them with text. If you deem it necessary, add other cities and other destinations as you see fit for context, but don't include ridiculously long lists of destinations. If the article in question has 30 linked "other destinations," that means it is in violation of policy—leave the other destinations off until the article has been cleaned up.
'''Major modes of transportation between linked destinations''' — the major highways, railroads, waterways, or what have you that most travelers use to get between the 9 linked cities & 9 linked other destinations.
'''Bordering regions''' (optional when deemed unnecessary)
Use Template:Regionlist
We recommend mapmakers add the regionlist template to articles containing a regions map, to automatically display regions and their corresponding map colors in a standard format. To see how the template is used, and how the syntax works, check the Africa page for an example. If you have any questions regarding how to use this template, please feel free to ask an expedition member.
Articles lacking regions maps
Below is a quick list of regions currently lack region maps. Especially egregious examples are bolded.
''If you are working on one, please add your name (<nowiki>~~~~</nowiki>) to the country/state you are working on, to let others know someone's taking care of it!''
''If you come across a good map base, that is, a good source for tracing that is compatible with our Copyleft, please add a link to it next to the article title below.''
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{|style="border-spacing:8px;margin:0px -8px"
{|width="100%" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="5" style="vertical-align:top;background-color:#f5fffa"
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<h2 style="margin:0;background-color:#cef2e0;font-size:120%;font-weight:bold;border:1px solid #a3bfb1;text-align:left;color:#000;padding:0.2em 0.4em;">Countries (by continental section)</h2>
Nicaragua
Honduras
Guatemala
Panama
Belize
El Salvador
Venezuela --Peter <small><sup>Talk</sup></small> 15:44, 1 February 2009 (EST)
Chile
Paraguay
Ecuador
Guyana
Uruguay
Suriname
Libya
Tunisia
Chad
Niger
Mauritania
Nigeria
Cameroon
Cape Verde --Peter <small><sup>Talk</sup></small> 18:36, 28 April 2009 (EDT)
Cote d'Ivoire
Guinea
Ghana
Senegal
Liberia
Sierra Leone
Togo
Guinea-Bissau
''no maps yet created''
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Angola
Zambia
Central African Republic
Republic of the Congo
Gabon
Equatorial Guinea
Burundi
Rwanda
Tanzania
Mozambique
Somalia
Madagascar
Kenya
Uganda
Malawi
Eritrea
Djibouti
Zimbabwe
Lesotho
Swaziland
<big><big>'''''No maps yet created!'''''</big></big>
Saudi Arabia — Peter <small><sup>Talk</sup></small> 14:26, 6 October 2008 (EDT)
'''Iran''' — Peter <small><sup>Talk</sup></small> 22:00, 10 September 2008 (EDT) - under discussion
Yemen
Iraq
Oman
Syria
Jordan
United Arab Emirates
'''Israel!'''
Kuwait
Lebanon
Qatar
Bahrain
Turkmenistan
Uzbekistan
Kyrgyzstan
Tajikistan
'''Nepal!'''
'''Bhutan'''
Sri Lanka
North Korea
'''South Korea!''' --Peter <small><sup>Talk</sup></small> 00:56, 26 May 2009 (EDT)
'''Taiwan'''
Myanmar
'''Vietnam!'''
Malaysia
Laos
Cambodia
Brunei
Carribean
Dominican Republic
Haiti
Jamaica
Trinidad and Tobago
Bahamas
Barbados
Saint Lucia
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Grenada
Antigua and Barbuda
Dominica
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Papua New Guinea
East Timor
Fiji
Solomon Islands
French Polynesia
New Caledonia
Vanuatu
Samoa
FS Micronesia
Tonga
Kiribati
Marshall Islands
Palau
Cook Islands
Tuvalu
Nauru
{| width="100%" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="5" style="vertical-align:top;background-color:#f5faff"
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<h2 style="margin:0;background-color:#cedff2;font-size:120%;font-weight:bold;border:1px solid #a3b0bf;text-align:left;color:#000;padding:0.2em 0.4em;">US States</h2>
New England
*'''Massachusetts!'''
*New Hampshire
South
*Arkansas
*Georgia
*Kentucky
*'''North Carolina'''
*South Carolina
Rockies
*Idaho
*Montana
*Wyoming
Midwest
*Iowa - under discussion
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<h2 style="margin:0;background-color:#ddcef2;font-size:120%;font-weight:bold;border:1px solid #afa3bf;text-align:left;color:#000;padding:0.2em 0.4em;">European countries</h2>
Balkans
Bulgaria
Serbia -- [http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/archive/5/5f/20080226204303!M_serbia06.png image of decent break down]
Croatia --Stefan (sertmann) <small><sup>Talk</sup></small> 08:36, 30 March 2009 (EDT)
Bosnia and Herzegovina --Stefan (sertmann) <small><sup>Talk</sup></small> 14:14, 23 March 2009 (EDT)
Moldova
Albania
Baltic States
Estonia
Lithuania
Central Europe
Austria
'''Czech Republic!'''
Slovakia
Slovenia
Liechtenstein
Iberia
'''Portugal''' --Peter <small><sup>Talk</sup></small> 20:23, 22 March 2009 (EDT)
Andorra
Scandinavia
Iceland