Wikitravel Press Blog

One of the greatest things about our Paris guide have always been the amazingly detailed maps, lovingly crafted by Mark Jaroski from OpenStreetMap and Wikitravel data, but the regular guidebook format doesn’t really do them justice. That’s why we’ve decided to release a special Paris city map book, containing enlarged versions of the maps (A5 sized, or half a sheet of paper), but in glorious full color with a spiral binding, so you can lay it open and keep it open to a given map page as you wander around town. And I have to stress that detailed bit, just take a look at (say) the 13th arrondissement — click to enlarge!

In fact, it’s so big and detailed, we’ve split it across two full pages. All the listings in the main Paris guide are marked on the map complete with listing index, making the city map your perfect travel buddy. Pick one up now!

Old Buchmesse hands say that Wednesday is when the action is, but not for us — here every day at the Fair just seems to get busier!  So much so that today’s blog entry is going to be a short one.

But I had the time to nip out and meet up with the EU Latitude project, who have set out to create a database of travel information that aims to cover all of Europe in many languages, all available in a unified XML format for easy syndication to other devices.  It’s not the first time this has been tried, and indeed some larger travel publishers already offer commercial systems for licensing their own proprietary content, but the really interesting bit is that those parts of the content contributed or paid for by local tourism authorities are planned to be licensed under Creative Commons.  I have to emphasize that “planned to be”, because they’re having some problems convincing wary travel publishers of this bit, so drop them a line at Contact Us and let them know what you think!

Today was the last trade visitors’ day, and tomorrow the Fair opens up to the public.  I doubt there will be too many crowds in the Scientific Publishing section, but the already intense crowds in the hallways and at lunchtime aren’t going to get any better…

After a bit of a quiet start on Wednesday, the Fair’s travel publishers seem to have ventured out to explore en masse today, and I had the chance to have many interesting discussions with many smaller publishers in the travel industry.  Most if not all are facing the same problem: paying writers to write guidebooks is prohibitively expensive, especially in niche speciality markets (hiking guides, smaller languages, etc), so they’re stuck with slow release cycles and are increasingly losing market share to the Internet and the (mostly English) juggernauts of the travel publishing world.  What to do?

The solution is simple: take the guidebooks that you can’t afford to update and release them under the Creative Commons license, so they can be integrated into Wikitravel.  Once quality content is online, Wikitravellers will find and start to use it, and the community will then start to update the content.  This now-revised content then can be packaged back into guidebooks using Wikitravel Press technology, sold either under the Wikitravel brand, or as a white-label version for your own distribution via other channels.

Speaking of white-label distribution, this is another opportunity for all those countless companies out there reusing Wikitravel content on their websites.  Once the Wikitravel Fresh system announced yesterday is in place, we’ll be setting up a partner program so your users can use your website to order books from Wikitravel Press, with a partner commission for you plus the possibility of applying your own branding.

And an update: our Paris editor, map wizard and all-around good guy Mark Jaroski will be at the Wikitravel Press stand (Hall 4.2, E427) on Saturday afternoon.  Drop by to get an autographed copy of the guide!

The first day of the Frankfurt Book Fair 2008, and we’re starting off with a bang: Wikitravel Press is delighted to announce its upcoming line of Wikitravel Fresh guidebooks, built by readers from their choice of any of the tens of thousands of guides on Wikitravel.  For example, you could select “Frankfurt”, “Luxembourg” and “Helsinki”, and we’ll assemble and ship you a guide containing only those articles — cheaper, lighter and more environmentally friendly than buying three separate guides!

To make this happen, we’re teaming up with PediaPress, who have built the Collections extension for MediaWiki, which allows building your own article collections, and the PediaPress engine, for converting those collections into books.  Wikitravel Fresh books aren’t available just yet, but the technology is in place, we’re currently putting on the finishing touches and expect to have them up on Wikitravel in time for Christmas.

As for the Book Fair itself, let’s just say that it’s big — thousands of exhibitors scattered across over tens of floors in eight gigantic halls, all grouped by theme.  E-books and electronic distribution may be the buzzwords of the day (and indeed, Amazon’s Kindle presentation drew a standing-room-only crowd), but there’s still plenty of life left in the dead trees printing business as well.

Our neighbors in the Scientific Publishing section (where we’re co-exhibiting with PediaPress) are a pretty buttoned-down lot by day, but when the clock strikes five and alcohol can be served, the frenetic pace of business slows down and the bespectacled men in suits start the Buchmesse Waltz.  It goes like this: a large scientific publisher sets up a bar deep within their gigantic exhibition section and starts serving up free booze, the more moneyed ones even hiring comely staff in short skirts or bartenders in tuxedos to do the pouring.  Drawn like bees to honey, everybody nearby starts gravitating towards the bar…  and that’s when the publisher’s sales reps, lounging near the bar like lions at a watering hole, pounce on their prey.  The meek end up trapped, nodding with glass of wine in hand and glazed eyes as the agents hypnotize them with sales pitches, while the intrepid spot the opportunity and sneak off with a bottle of beer while the sales reps are distracted.  And so the cycle of publishing life continues…

This blog has been a little quiet lately, but that’s because we’ve been working quite hard on not one, but two fascinating projects and we look forward to announcing them quite soon.  Stay tuned…

But today’s news is that Wikitravel Press will be exhibiting at the Frankfurt Book Fair, in Frankfurt, Germany, in two weeks’ time.  This is the world’s largest exhibition for the publishing industry, with over 7000 exhibitors and nearly 200,000 visitors expected, and we’re excited to have this opportunity to publicize what we’re doing at Wikitravel Press.

Trade days are October 15-17th (Wed-Fri), while the fair opens to the public on October 18 and 19 (Sat-Sun).  You can find us at stand 4.2 E427 (see also hall plan).  Note that we’re not in Hall 3.1 (travel), but next door in Hall 4.2 (scientific publishing), since we’re exhibiting together with our fellow Wiki-to-print enthusiasts PediaPress.  Entry to the fair costs 12 euros for the general public, half that for students.  No book sales allowed until Sunday, but Wikitravellers just might get a free copy of our newly revised Paris guide (while supplies last).  See you there!

Here’s a new guide that’s close to my heart: my old hometown Helsinki, which also covers a few favorite of my favorite spots nearby, including Nuuksio National Park and the delightful little town of Porvoo, soon to be a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Finnish phrasebook also comes in handy for amusing the natives and scaring everybody else (kalastajamaisuudettomuudellansakaan, anyone?) — but don’t worry, virtually everybody in Helsinki speaks English.

The Porvoo chapter is available as a free download, while the printed book is now available in our online store. Tsekkaa jos et usko!

The choice of destinations covered by our just-released guide, Cairo and Alexandria, are no coincidence: Alexandria will be hosting the Wikimania 2008 conference on July 17-19, and Wikitravel Press is proud to the official guidebook of the conference. We’ll be printing a special edition just for the conference and presenting conference attendees with free copies (while supplies last, so show up early!). Not only is the guidebook a great demonstration of how Mediawiki technology and an enthusiastic community can combine to create wonderful things, but we’re sure that the nexus of Wikimaniacs at the conference will propel the content of the guidebook to new heights. A special thanks to Delphine Ménard and the Mediawiki Foundation for their support.

If you’re not going to the conference, or you are going and want to read up a little before you go (always a good idea), you can order the Wikitravel Guide to Cairo and Alexandria online through our bookstore. The guide also covers the Egyptian capital Cairo, with a special supplement on the Pyramids at Giza, and includes both an Egyptian Arabic phrasebook as well as a detailed reference section of traveling to and around Egypt.

We’re all proud at WTP headquarters about our announcement that Wikitravel Press has published a Paris guidebook. Paris has been one of our most important locations in Wikitravel for years, and it’s good to get a print version available from Wikitravel Press.

Of special interest for the Paris guide is its use of OpenStreetMap geodata to create the guidebook maps. Previously, Wikitravel maps have either been hand-drawn or borrowed from other, inconsistent Open Content sources. The move up to OSM data has meant we have a considerably better-looking, more consistent map style.

Special kudos to Mark Jaroski, who edited the Paris guide, and to all the Wikitravellers who’ve put time and effort into making this a world-class reference book. And of course great work, Jani, in getting this guide out.

You can order the Wikitravel Guide to Paris online through our bookstore.