Wikimedia Foundation Launches ‘Nearby Pages’ To Find Wikipedia Articles Based On Location

Posted on May 29 2013 - 11:50pm by Editorial Staff

Wikimedia-Nearby-Pages

Wikimedia Foundation, the parent company of Wikipedia today launched “Nearby Pages” so as to surface Wikipedia articles based on user’s location. It means the company will stored the location coordinates associated with articles separately in the Wikipedia database making it easier to “query” the coordinates of a particular Wikipedia page. Technically, it’s all about mining and mapping.

“Thanks to the terrific work of our editor community, Wikipedia has accumulated a massive amount of location data associated with its millions of articles; until now we have not fully taken advantage of this information,” says Jon Robson, Software Engineer, Mobile at the Wikimedia Foundation.

“We are happy to announce that the Wikimedia Foundation mobile team has been working on a Nearby page to surface this information,” he continues. “Along with the goal of bringing awareness of the surrounding areas to our existing readers, we hope that this simple tool can attract new editors to these articles, whether it is to update the information on the exhibits in a local museum, or simply to add a photo of a nearby park that is in severe need of a properly licensed lead image.”

(Image Credit / Source: Wikimedia)

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