Placeopedia

Placeopedia is an online gazetteer which integrates Google Maps images (including satellite photos) and Wikipedia encyclopedia articles using user-generated content. Placeopedia was constructed by UK-based mySociety and started in September 2005.

Users can place a 'pin' on a location on a map (at an appropriate zoom level) associated with a relevant article from the English Wikipedia for that location. Then when anyone views the map, links to the Wikipedia entries associated with each pin are visible, as well as the user name of who added the pin. Corrections can be filed, to be reviewed by Placeopedia staff.

The information can also be viewed in Google Earth: a view-based refreshing KML file is provided.

The site also provides syndicated data (via RSS) under the Attribution-ShareAlike Creative Commons license. You can download the entire contents of the database in a variety of formats.

Initially the site required users to sign up with an email address in order to contribute information, and no bulk download of the database was available, but this has since changed.

Several separate projects have now been started which provide Google Earth links to Wikipedia articles but make direct use of coordinates in articles and so do not require additional user input.