Hold on to your compasses amateur cartographers, for there's an exciting new online tool at your disposal. Jimmy Wales' profit-making wiki-hosting service Wikia, sibling to the not-for-profit Wikipedia, is introducing a feature called Wikia Maps.
Wikia Maps is a fan-authored mapping tool that will allow you as a user to create maps of real or fictional places and share them with others. Some highlights we've spotted so far include Westeros from Game of Thrones, Dark Souls 2 Locations and of course the Millenium Falcon.
To get started make sure you are logged in and then click "Create a Map". You will be given the option to either create a real or custom map. The real maps are based on OpenStreetMap and you can select anywhere in the world to zoom in on and create your own map by dropping pins on top of it.
If you decide to create a custom map, things get slightly more complicated. You can upload your own image or map from your computer and then you will be asked to name it twice -- once as a template that can be used by other users, and once for the map you are creating. Once you have done this, you can start pinning.
You can organise your pin types into different categories --
Wiki gives the example of castles, battles, cities and natural landmarks, but if you check out the Millenium Falcon map, you can see it it has pin labels such as weapons, characters, mechanics and armour. You can drop pins all over your map and give them each a description with details about that location. On collaborative maps, these can be edited by other members. Wikia conveniently provides a detailed step-by-step guide to help you get started.
There is no limit to the kind and variety of maps you can create, but do check that you aren't using copyrighted material for your creations. Until tomorrow Wikia Maps is in beta testing and for the time being mobile users can only view maps and not edit them -- but this will likely change in future.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
