User Interaction Consultation/Annotated maps

Brief Description

The recent announcement about map tools for Wikimedia is exciting! I don't know what the plan is, but here are some capabilities I'd like to see:

Per this blog post, Commons has had the ImageAnnotator since 2009. But the annotations don't appear on Wikipedia, or in the MediaViewer. (For instance, see the map here: w:en:Warm Springs Indian Reservation The annotations may be links to other Wikipedia articles, and/or text context.

In addition, many sites (see that blog post) like the OpenStreetMap and the US National Atlas that offer sophisticated map creation tools. For instance, layers for zoning, for wetlands, etc. A map editor in Wikipedia that gives richer features would be excellent!

With all of this, I would highly recommend engaging with the good people at WikiProject Cartography on English Wikipedia, and of course any counterparts that exist on other projects. They have been incredibly helpful, and knowledgeable, for instance in the creation of this detailed map, as part of a Featured Article push: File:Columbiawdams.png

Problem it solves

Editors will benefit from having more sophisticated tools, which enable them to create better, more interactive maps for readers. Readers will benefit from maps that more explicitly highlight the topic depicted. Also, if it is possible to move text on maps into annotations, it may be possible to use the same base maps for multiple languages, so that efforts are propagated more broadly (instead of being duplicated).