Ordnance Survey embraces UGC.. it’s a start

It’s ok but you cannot edit your own route once created.
Official Reply
“Unfortunately, at the current time, users are unable to edit routes once they have been saved. However, before saving, users are able to undo waypoints they have plotted and remove their points of interest. There are several usability changes envisaged for the next release and this is an area we would like to see improved. The site is still in its beta stage so obviously we are keen to hear about any issues encountered.”
If they can use 1:50k why cannot they use the more accurate 1:25k as field boundaries and footpaths are used to a better level of detail.
It’s called ‘Explore’ but is more ‘Landrange’ than Explore.

On the plus side, at least they have a “continue to the site” button so they didn’t lock me out completely.

Now.. don’t get me going on lack of Safari support !!! Would not have happened on my watch, he says as a confirmed camino user

Ed,

You seem to have broken one of the licencing rules by linking to your walk on the site (forbidden under conditon 7.3)

7.3 hypertext linking to any page of the OEP Portal.

Rather a bizarre rule, I admit. Presumably this is to stop websites like ours posting our routes onto Explore and then linking to them to give users a map of the route? I would have thought this will prevent Explore gaining many users. Does it also mean that Google, Yahoo et al will be breaking this condition when they crawl and index the site?

[...] More details on the explore site at Ed Parsons’ blog. [...]

It seems to me this bit of software is all about selling paper maps via the Internet. Is this a last gasp attempt by OS to come into the real World? As an Internet mapping product itâ??s obsolete, as a sales tool for paper maps itâ??s ok. I just wish OS would wake up and be competitive with their pricing of data! Out of interest how many hundreds or millions pounds did it cost to write this software?

I was going to write this yesterday but I got an urgent phone call from the National Farmers Union to produce a new Foot and Mouth map using Google Maps. Using Google Maps, within the hour the map was live and disseminating the message regarding protection zones and surveillance zone areas. So much for OS 24 hour emergency map service! The question is, in such an emergency could OS produce such a map and what would be their licensing costs? If there were a war the war would be over by the time OS responded!

The question some who are singing the praises of OS and Explore should ask themselves, does this have its own API and is it programmable? NO is the answer! So all it is is a sales tool for paper maps! Well-done OS at least your marketing department have some innovative ideas; you are going to need them as your clients look for alternatives sources of map data!

Hi

There’s a couple of elements missing here that I’d like to mention:

1) I think part of the value is to be able to access this content when you are mobile i.e. on a mobile device

2) a user needs access to a range of scales including large scale mapping.

Can I draw your attention to http://www.spacemark.com. This allows a user to save, share and annotate places which are then immediately accessible on web and mobile channels. The Spacemark website uses google maps I know, but if you take a minute to send the Spacemark link to your mobile (you’ll have to join up), then you can access all your favourite places on your mobile integrated with OS Mastermap.

Spacemark does a lot more besides, as it aggregates many rich content sources in addition to mapping into a single application – also very good for adding your own content and sharing with your friends.

And finally, if you download the Spacemark toolbar into your browser, you’ll find that you can save places from any website at all (and they’re then immediately available on your mobile) – very handy if you’re planning tomorrow’s business trip or a night out…

Apologies for the blatant self-interest!

Rick

[...] Ed Parsons (ex Ordnance Survey) also mentions it in his blog [...]

[...] in dem man Karten für eigene Touren erstellen kann: Explore. Ums mit dem Ex-CTO der Behörde zu sagen: Es ist ein Anfang. (Und außerdem, wie sich das gehört, noch in [...]

[...] Ed Parsons (ex Ordnance Survey) also mentions it in his blog [...]

perhaps that should be an eTrespass

Well you would have thought that some of the explore developers might just look at the blog. If they did then would they have notified the OS management? If the management were notified then would we expect them to do anything? Perhaps the presence of the public facing explore WMS is being left as a ‘Leak’ on purpose.

Of course the Google Maps API can be used to display tiles from the explore WMS too. Ed, are you or Google going to be the first to dare to publish such a page?!