Space Data Wiki Options

[MouseOnMars]

Hello,

The project "Space Data Wiki" is looking for help, volunteers, kind words, ideas, and constructive criticism.

To explain Space Data Wiki. Think of SDW as the Wikipedia of the visual exploration of space images. A user can add a comment to some interesting or notable feature which will start a new wiki page visible in the comment bubble ... the same bubbles you might have seen in Google Earth. They will be able to share that comment and area of the image on Facebook, or upload the image area to Flickr. Many other possible social interactions are possible using the application layers and toolsets provided by the social web.

I have a Web Map Server already setup using Geoserver and I am in the process of developing the SDW web app using Open Layers. I am using the HiRise feed published by Ross Beyer of the HiRise team. I am working on projecting a HiRise jp2 image onto my map to experiment with the commenting. The NASA / Google agreement will eventually furnish us with a full Mars web map service including all the HiRise images as well as other sources. These data sources will be used in SDW. The commenting system can be cross application. I already have a development plugin in NASA Worldwind to allow commenting using that. The comments could also be fed to Google Earth (set up to show Mars).

So my "mission" is to make exploration as accessible as possible, but also a social endeavour.

[MouseOnMars]

Thanks for the replies !

....because there is no place else to do that. In fact I was mentioning it to stu, nprev, elakdawalla, roverdriver, and vmcgregor in Los Angeles a couple months ago. Just no place for we enthusiasts to get to know each other and meet.

Well, apart from here of course. Or Space.com, Nasaspaceflight.com ... probably a few others. Nevertheless maybe you could mention the SDW project to these people ?

Maybe the people who have been thrown out of here will be interested. UMSF is great for what it provides (which is a great deal!), but it's tone is not to everyone's liking. No one site can be all things to all people. I'm not a Facebook or Myspace type person, but there are many who are and a space-related site based on that model may bring a lot of new people to the table.

I'm aware that some people absolutely loathe Youtube, or Facebook, or whatever, but of course some people love it. SDW will probably include the horrors of "Youtube'ism" comments, vandalism, and all that kind of thing. But Wikipedia has managed to put in mechanisms to deal with that kind of behaviour. I'm not asking anyone to endorse the project, but to have input from knowledgeable members here would be very valuable.

[centsworth_II]

I'm not asking anyone to endorse the project, but to have input from knowledgeable members here would be very valuable.

And anyone interested in outreach should welcome the chance to connect with a new group of people, assuming the new site reaches people that do not frequent the current flock of space-related websites.