Solid, colored, hatched, arrowed surfaces… maps of research centres, experts, institutions, relayed by numerous media, flooded the web from the first moments of the Russian invasion.
Despite new means of communication to cover a conflict of this magnitude, the information reported from the field is sporadic, incomplete and can even prove to be contradictory.
Thus, the daily watch, the sources used, the debates in case of doubt, the arbitrations in the event of disagreement are essential to ensure a report that is both regular and meticulous of the situation on the ground.
This is precisely what Wikipedia does.
Transparent on its sources, on its contributors, on its rules of the game, the online encyclopedia now makes it possible to create maps.
Thus providing an additional view of the situation, by city, by force present and by intensity of the fighting.
It is from this permanent participatory monitoring, cross-referenced and verified using official situation reports, that we offer you a daily updated map.
Collaborative work and safeguards
Every day, a community of anonymous people scour the press and social networks, identifying towns, villages and other strategic sites, while determining which side controls them.
As the days go by, new points appear and the map of the conflict expands, qualifying the status of certain areas: disputed or subject to a truce.
If this work is collaborative, it is nonetheless subject to several rules.
“The page is semi-write-protected,” explains Pierre-Yves Beaudouin, member of the board of directors of Wikimedia France.
It takes some experience to be able to contribute.
To modify the map, you need an account created more than 30 days ago and having already made more than 500 modifications on Wikipedia.
Also, more seasoned members tend to be wary of newcomers.
The contributions respond to written or tacit uses.
An ill-intentioned person is often spotted quickly”, specifies this fellow traveler of the encyclopedia.
“If a disagreement arises on a source, arbitrations are carried out by consensus, generally between 60 and 80% of the opinions”.
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They watch over Ukraine, Florida and Borneo
Abdullah helps edit the map from Florida.
“For the moment, the protections are sufficient.
We are not thousands editing the content.
If a disagreement arises between two sources, we mark the item as 'disputed' until the situation is clarified”.
“I started contributing to the encyclopedia several years ago.
For this map, I got involved a day or two after the start of the intervention.
Since then, I've been spending 30 minutes to several hours a day there,” says Abdullah, before specifying his main motivation.
“I have no personal interest in this conflict, all I hope is to stop the unnecessary suffering that strikes this region”.
Same story at the other end of the world, in Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of the island of Borneo.
The initiator of this cartographic project specifies that he has “no personal link with the conflict, being extremely distant geographically”.
The economy of the archipelago is not spared for all that.
"Indonesia is a major importer of Ukrainian wheat, so this impacts the important instant noodle industry in the country."
“To do the best, and as quickly as possible, I used models created in the context of the war in Syria.
Other members quickly supported me”.
After this outburst, the young man, a contributor for ten years, spends at least two hours a day there.
“There was a case of vandalism while I was sleeping, on the mapping tool, not on the data;
when I realized it, administrators had already done the necessary”.