CZ:Geography Workgroup/Gazetteer/Geogra-thon/November

What's a Geogra-Thon?

It's when a bunch of people getting together on a wiki at a particular time to do a bunch of writing. It's like an online party! It's also like theMonthly Write-a-Thon except for one crusial thing. Well two things actually. First it's not a complete free for all - this day is focused on geography. In particular the Gazetteer articles for countries, towns, cities and regions. Secondly, it's on a different day.

When?

Write-a-Thons happen the Last Tuesday of every month. The next Write-a-Thon is Tuesday, November 27. November 27 is a long day since we have writers all around the world. It starts on November 26 at 1200 GMT, in New Zealand, and ends on November 28 at 1000 GMT, in Hawaii. Save The Date! Put it on your calendar! Set yourself a reminder!

Any new article you create, and any edit you make to somebody else's Write-a-Thon article, when it's that day in your part of the world, will count.

Our first monthly Write-a-Thon took place Wednesday, August 1, 2007 and was considered a roaring good time—so lets make sure the Geogra-thon does just as well.

What are the rules?

Rules? This is a party! There are no rules!

Well, OK, maybe there are a couple rules:

• We'll have a Write-a-Thon the last Tuesday of every month.
• To participate, you only have to do two things:
  1. Start a new article within the geography (even just a stub will qualify just try to write a ballanced and well writen stub) please remember to include the CZ:The Article Checklist! and
  2. make a substantive edit (not just a copyedit) to an existing geography article. Then you can list your name here as a partier. Until then, you're just a porch-sitter, party-crasher, or total party poop.

I don't know what to write! Help?

Write about what you know. Start with the biggest geographical region, such as your country of residence. Then do the State or Province you live in. Next try the nearest big city to your home and so on down. Once you have exhaused your current location. Do the same for your place of birth. What about places you visited on holliday. You must remember something about them. You see, you had plenty to contribute after all.

Holliday snaps

It's all fine writing articles but we also need illistrations. Dig out your old photo album, scan in the best of your snaps and put them onto the relevent article. Pop down town and take a pic of the local landmark and put it own your town/cities article.

Create an article, already!

Check it out: Start an article!

Now (this time anyway) easier than ever! Stubs are not only permitted they are encouraged!

The Partiers

• Aleta stumbled to her desk and realised it was the 27th in Sydney, New South Wales and probably in Uganda. Let's go team! Just missed seeing Derek in Hong Kong, thought about catching up with him in Antarctica but that's sheer madness (no wonder Supten left!). Visted Cheshire for the first time in my life, and a drink of African beer in Ghana with Regina sounds really good!

• Derek Harkness thought he'd keep Aleta company before heading to work (was supposed to be his day off but one teacher is on a training course so he has to cover classes. Sigh...) Kicked off with a stub about Hong Kong. However, Hong Kong is too warm, so headed down to Antarctica to meet up with Supten. He went back to china to visit Guilin and Macau and added some photographs to them too out of his own collection.

• Supten thought of trying out his hand at a core article on Antarctica - but could not gather much of resources, so tried to visit Sydney, then decided to ponder upon the CZ:Editorial_Council_Resolution_0007/Member_position_statements and [1] and finally left the party!

• Regina: I know that Aleta is in Uganda while I am in Ghana - let's meet somewhere in between for an African beer with the others. In Europe, I had a short glimpse at Snežana, Slovenia

• Russ: Always of good cheer, is today grinning like a Cheshire Cat.

• Dan Nachbar added a list of all 351 cities and towns in Massachusetts and a stub for his own town of Amherst and added the date of statehood for Alaska (U.S. state).

• Steven did some tinkering with his current project, Lebanon, then headed to Egypt for a change of scene.

• Eric visited his home town of Chattanooga, Tennessee, then headed north to take a peek inside Seward's Icebox.

Shy boys

People who started or edited articles but didn't add their names above. They should still get credit for taking part.

David E. Volk and Richard Jensen Joined up with Eddie (below) for a private party in Argentina.

Hugo Voisard created Quebec City.

Eddie, aside form his trip to Argentina (mentioned bellow) also popped into Cuba where he hoisted a flag.

In a mirror to Steven's Lebanon, John Harvey visited the County of Lebanon, Lebanon, Pennsylvania‎ and City of Lebanon, Pennsylvania. That's the USA one as opposed to Steven's Middle Eastern.

Porch sitters--article creators who didn't edit a new article

• Is this today? Ugh. Well, Joe started a stubby-stub-stub on Guatemala but he's going to need y'all's help to develop it.
• Jay dug himself out of tons of fresh snow on the Zugspitze, but was too tired to add much more.
• Eddie dropped by Argentina and left quickly to visit another country.
• Alexander Wiebel ... the Leipzig article is on the way.
• Denis took a trip to the vast forests of Sweden for some personal time. He didn't spend long though, only having enough time for a stub :-(

Party crashers--contributors who didn't create a new article

• Chris Day helped Aleta with Sydney.
• Larry Sanger went north to Alaska (U.S. state) (I was going to create it but Aleta beat me to the punch) but has yet to discover new territory...
  • I'll be in Memphis, Tennessee for a few days next week...can anyone tell me more than what I know from driving by it (twice) without stopping on my way across the country? "Home of Elvis and the...ancient Greeks. What's that I smell? I smell home cookin'! No, it's only the river, it's only the river." Identify the reference and you get a gold star. --Larry Sanger 12:10, 27 November 2007 (CST)
    • Three words, Larry: barbecue, barbecue, barbecue. —Eric Winesett 23:11, 27 November 2007 (CST)
      • Barbeque is promised for my visit, so! --Larry Sanger 15:58, 28 November 2007 (CST)
    • The reference to Memphis being the home of the Greeks bothered me enough to look up the reference. --Joe Quick 00:55, 28 November 2007 (CST)
      • Give that man a prize! Talking Heads! --Larry Sanger 15:58, 28 November 2007 (CST)

The total party poops

• Myself, shamelessly. BTW Larry, Tennessee has EXCELLENT food. I highly recommend Beale Street for all of your alcoholic consumption activities. --Robert W King 20:29, 27 November 2007 (CST)

Questions

• Where was Martin? Where was Matt? Aleta Curry 15:22, 28 November 2007 (CST)

The Party's Over...

• Awww...is it time to call it a day? I think the Editor-in-chief should officially declare the inaugural geogra-thon a success. Clever Derek, to add in the 'Shy Boys'. We have to remember that for the write-a-thon. Aleta Curry 15:25, 28 November 2007 (CST)
  • I hereby declare the Geogra-thon a success! (That was easy!) --Larry Sanger 16:00, 28 November 2007 (CST)

Before its over, do we need a climate subpage for geography articles? Or would that count as a catalog? For countries, vegetation maps population maps, rainfall maps, soil maps etc. would be great. Would they go in a gallery or their own subpage? Chris Day (talk) 16:59, 28 November 2007 (CST)

We have a 'tables' sub pages don't we? That's where I'd put raw data. Else, on the catalog pages. As for maps, if you know a public domain source of such maps, that would be useful. If we can get good maps for free, then we should have a 'maps' subpage. Derek Harkness 07:39, 29 November 2007 (CST)

The Tables subpage is now called Catalogs and I agree the climate related info would be best suited there. Unfortunately, I do not know of a source for maps, but we need them, as a kid they were my favourite part of an atlas. I'm sure I'm not the only one. Chris Day (talk) 10:11, 29 November 2007 (CST)

A good place to start looking for maps is here at the National Atlas. They have some premade maps, and also have a map viewer for you to create your own maps with a variety of USGS data. From what I gather, this information is in the public domain[2] and they request you cite them as the source [3]. Hope this helps. --Todd Coles 12:18, 29 November 2007 (CST)

Yes this is very useful. I looked at their FAQ and they had the following question and answer:

Q. I've noticed the little registered trademark symbol in "The National Atlas of the United States of America®." Does this mean that there are restrictions on using National Atlas data and maps?

A. No, not usually. Nearly all information collected by the Federal Government is in the public domain and use of raw data produced under this project is not restricted in any way. Both "National Atlas of the United States®" and "The National Atlas of the United States of America®" are registered trademarks of the United States Department of the Interior. The USGS has been publishing National Atlas products since 1970 and has simply taken action to trademark this term to incorporate all new graphic and electronic products of The National Atlas of the United States of America®. Although the content of most National Atlas Web pages is in the public domain, some pages may contain material that is copyrighted by others and used by the National Atlas with permission. You may need to obtain permission from the copyright owner for other uses. Furthermore, some non-National Atlas data, products, and information linked, or referred to, from this site may be protected under U.S. and foreign copyright laws. You may need to obtain permission from the copyright owner to acquire, use, reproduce, or distribute these materials.

So it looks like it may be possible to generate some useful maps here. It all depends on how much of the info is in the category of "some pages may contain material that is copyrighted by others and used by the National Atlas with permission". Chris Day (talk) 13:25, 29 November 2007 (CST)

There is a source for maps of Germany with a certain position marked. See this example for the position of Leipzig in Germany. These maps are free. The German Wikipedia already uses them. Any comments? -- Alexander Wiebel 14:44, 29 November 2007 (CST)

See also

• Larry Sanger, Why the Write-a-Thon worked, Citizendium Blog, August 9, 2007
• Weekly Wiki
• Article of the Week
• New Article of the Week
• Monthly Write-a-Thon