Two open source mapping are to be made available after Quartz' Keith Collins received a US$35,000 Knight Foundation Prototype Fund award this month.

Quartz has been developing a searchable database of compiled map data from all over the world - called Mapquery - and a tool to help journalists use it.

The system will find, merge and refine geographic data, making the research stage in the creation of maps easier. While the system will not produce maps, the Mapbuilder tool will provide an open source 'front end' for journalists to use.

Text from Mapquery can be used to produce a map by pasting data into Mapbuilder, both of which will be open source, allowing other developers to build it into their newsrooms. A prototype of Mapquery is planned for April, with development of Mapbuilder continuing afterwards.

Pictured: US rivers by Nelson Minar on flickr.com