Wikimedia CH/Grant apply/Notable Old Maps

Infodata

Name of the project: Notable Old Maps
Amount requested: 30000 CHF
Type of grantee: OldMapsOnline/TimeMap team under KlokanTech (organization)
Name of the contact: Petr Pridal (KlokanOMO)
Contact: petr.pridaloldmapsonlineorg

The problem and the context

Many very well known and notable old maps and important national map series do not have proper own Wikipedia page and Wikidata record. We want to change that for the most well known maps globally, ensuring the documents are represented properly in national language as well as English - with a systematic approach on global coverage and with special focus on Swiss and European historic master pieces.

We are the team behind OldMapsOnline.org, the world largest search engine for historical maps, and recently launched TimeMap.org, an interactive map of history - displaying almost 3 million wikidata/wikipedia records in a single map with timeline - announced last year at the Stanford university (look at it on YouTube) and visited by millions of people every month.

As an active user of wikidata and wikipedia we are keen to promote and improve the Wikimedia projects content and ensure missing records related to notable old maps and map series are systematically and correctly created by volunteers.

We will promote Wiki projects to community of global map curators (GLAM) and promote contribution to Wikidata to a large number of online volunteers and contributors who are currently georeferencing maps via our tools - in pilots for institutions, e.g. https://www.zb.uzh.ch/en/ueber-uns/citizen-science/prachtsatlanten-alte-landkarten-georeferenzieren.

This grant is also a first step towards bringing our projects closer to wikipedia ecosystem, exchage data and provide a first valuable practical deliverable to Wikimedia projects and to connect the communities.

The OMO/TimeMap project does not generate any profit, it only sustains the infrastructure costs and team effort related to further improvement thanks to ads and membership fees presented on the website, and is alive thanks to donations, grants, and contributions from partner organizations. The biggest donors currently are Petr Pridal (MapTiler AG) and David Rumsey (Cartography Associates, Inc.). The project is legally organized and transparently managed under the umbrella of Klokan Technologies GmbH, Zug, Switzerland.

What is the problem you're trying to solve?

Notable old maps and map series are underrepresented on Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikimedia projects. They were never systematically reviewed and described on international level. Often the most important documents still lack own Wikipedia page, or at least English variation, not speaking of WikiData record.

At the same moment, many of the map curators (GLAM and beyond) and enthusisast have never modified wikipedia pages and are unaware of importance of presence of treasures from their collections in Wikipedia - to increase awarness and visibility of their institutional holdings not only in Wikipedia itself, but also in channels such as ChatGPT and other LLMs, with direct impact on discoverability of the documents via search engines.

This Wikimedia CH 2026 project will change it.

What is your solution to this problem (please explain the context and the solution)?

Project goals

We will actively promote and guide our partners and volunteers to contribute to Wikipedia ecosystem. Create tutorials and step-by-step guides and promote them via our system. Setup a active contribution campaign with clear goals of systematically creating and cleaning of 2000 most notable maps and series selected by experts in the field of cartography - and added by volunteers. Organize a 1-day hybrid conference/workshop in Switzerland with invited important map curators, speakers and biggest contributors to strengthen the community involvement in contributions and organization of citizen science projects.

Project impact

World most notable old maps and national map series are going to be systematically added to Wikimedia projects.

We will reach out to curators and our partners https://www.oldmapsonline.org/en/project/our-partners with active contributions and practical guides for how to add their content to Wikimedia projects.

New documentation and educational / workshop ready / type of material related to Wikimedia contribution is going to be created on our plaform and used during our outreach activities, such as ICHC 2026 conference workshop (https://ichc2026.org/) and online pilots.

We will tap into community of our volunteers and contributors, and activelly coordinate the editing and contribution on agreed list of at least 2000 most important maps and series agreed by the experts. The decission makers and all people involved will have the active knowledge and know-how for editing the content in involved Wikimedia projects.

How will you know if you have met your goals?

Measuring impact on specified metrics.

Do you have any goals or metrics around participation or content?

Online educational materials and workshop guides created - to be used on our planned outreach activities
Conference/workshop (hybrid) organized for global OldMapsOnline community to meet in Switzerland and online - and get actively involved in modification of the Wikidata and Wikipedia and related discussions
Video recordings and streaming of the event from Switzerland - for increased reach to online connected volunteers, contributors and partners and online recording
Channels for active discussions with and participation of map curators of well known collections on project (GLAM and beyond) in-place - https://www.oldmapsonline.org/en/project/our-partners
Nomination list of the 2000 most notable old maps / national map series made with experts
Reach to volunteers from our Georeferencing projects, to invite them to contribution on Wikidata & Wikipedia
At minimum 2000 old maps and national map series systematically validated or added to English Wikipedia & Wikidata by volunteers and participants from OldMapsOnline project. More material may be created as follow ups - as the knowledge and people awarness increase.
Open-source code scripts hosted on GitHub with OSI approved license supporting our effort and APIs interactions.
Promotion of wikimedia projects to community from our projects (mailing list invitation to pilots, etc) leading to increased awareness of importance of Wikidata in linked data and LLM/AI knowledge graphs to our audience
Online webpage(s) for project and it's status)
Active demostrantion and teaching of Wikidata/Wikipedia editing during our ICHC 2026 workshops (extending audience with hands-on experience)

Project plan

this section should be blank according to instructions.

Kick-off and preparations
Expert selection of 2000+ notable maps candidates
Organization of conference/workshop & pilot/campaign
Volunteers work on Wikimedia content
Evaluation

Activities

Preparation of step-by-step educational guides - used on our planned outreach activities (conference, workshops, online pilot)
Collecting list of 2000 most notable old maps and national series with experts
Workshop/conference organization and execution
Video recording / streaming with invited presenters and GLAM

partners - and volunteers joining online

Online campaign / pilot for volunteers to join and contribute to Wikimedia projects
Programming open-source scripts and web interfaces for quality control on data and for automation
Synchronization and management of all the related activities

Budget

Organization of the workshop - 3000 CHF
Costs related to venue rental and video streaming - 8000 CHF
Travelling costs + accomodation (2 nights) for invited presenters - 9000 CHF
Refreshments and food - 2000 CHF
Software & marketing costs (social media, emails) - 1000 CHF
Website & scripts coding for community and pilot participation - 2000 CHF
Synchronization on organizational the effort over the entire year 5000 CHF

Total 30000 CHF

(this is a budget proposal, we are happy to improve or align it to expections and possibilities of Wikimedia CH and 100% ensure compliance to standard Wikimedia funding rules)

Community engagement

Our goal is to bring the community of OMO/TimeMap closer to Wikimedia projects with actions presented above.

Wikimedia CH decision

While this is a well-written proposal and an interesting project, we are not able to approve the grant at this time. Given our limited funding, we need to prioritize proposals that align more directly with Wikimedia CH’s current strategic objectives and are expected to deliver clearer, more immediate, and more scalable impact on Wikimedia projects. --Ilario (talk) 21:35, 15 February 2026 (UTC)[reply]