4 replies to this topic

[Agnar Renolen]

I recently discovered the Cartographer's Guild. Although the site features fantacy mapping only, they use several techniques that are applicable in "real" cartography as well.

An interesting feature of the site is the mapping challenge where the users are challenged to produce a Letter-sized map according to a specific task decription. The March 2010, challenge is to produce a Medieval map og the Japanese town of Iwaisumi.

With the current availability of internet mapping clients, free data and satellite imagery, as well as other available information on the Web, it is now possible to make almost any map anywhere on the World without using copyrighted material.

I therefore challenge you who have the spare time to make a current map of the town of Iwaizumi with focus on tourism. Here are the rules:

• The map should be in A4 or Us Letter format.
• The map must include some surrounding attractions such as the Ryusendo limestone cave North of the town.
• The map must not be produced on copyrighted material.
• Althoght the map may not be 100% accurate or current, the task invovles gathering relevant facts of the mapping area. Hence invented features should be avoided.

I do not set a deadline, nor any award or voting. But challenge the CartoTalk team to set up regular mapping challenges with member voting in the same manner as the Cartograpers's Guild.

[Hans van der Maarel]

Well... I have to admit I've been toying with this idea myself for a while. I for one would be very interested in giving this a try. To allow for sufficient time, I think it's a good idea to keep these maps small and run a challenge once a month or so.

What does everybody else think? Shall we give this a go?

[Pete]

That's a great idea! Would it be worth adding a specific category under the discussions subforum - Monthly Challenge or something like that?

I remember trawling the Goggle SketchUp website for information and they had something similar: making a chess set or designing a trophy or something like that. Even if you don't enter into the challenge it'd be interesting to see what other people come up with and it may inspire people to try their hand at something they might not normally get the opportunity to do in their day to day work.

Yes yes yes !

[Esther Mandeno]

I'd love to try. Though I may not be able to participate each month, and especially not this month, I do think it's a great idea. Keep each challenge small and I think this would be a lot of fun and very educational for all of us. Would be interesting to compare the maps after each challenge. Go for it!

[Michael Karpovage]

It's a great idea but I simply don't have that extra free time.