Categories
Data Policy Thoughts

The Open Government Licence

Last week in addition to the new more open OS licesning, another in many ways more fundamental new license was introduced with little fanfare, but I would argue it’s impact if widely adopted could be far more important.

The new UK Open Government licence (OGL) developed by the National Archives, is a robust licence developed using Creative Commons like language for the specific purpose of distributing Government data. The OGL will be the become the default licence for UK Crown copyright, replacing the current Click-Use system and the data.gov.uk terms and conditions, and will therefore create a simple and consistent framework for the reuse of Public Sector Information.

The Key elements of the license are that a user may,

  • copy, publish, distribute and transmit the Infomation;
  • adapt the Information;
  • exploit the Information commercially for example, by combining it with other Information, or by including it in your own product or application.

There is a attribution clause which requires reference back to the OGL website where it’s possible.

This is a great step forward, we just now need to continue to push public sector bodies to release their information, as one more of the perceived barriers has been removed.

Written and submitted from the T3 BA Lounge (51.469N, 0.460W)
Categories
Ordnance Survey Thoughts

Well done OS ! derived rules clarified..

I could be snarky and say better late than never, however the guidelines and new licenses today published by Ordnance Survey are a really positive step forward.

As requested by many, myself included, the OS in their documents have tried to explain with examples what is now possible to create and then distribute in terms of new geospatial data.

This should solve the problem for many potential users of Google Maps, for example, who have been frightened off from using this great free resource  by previously aggressive if unclear guidelines.

Some key aspects..

  • As expected there are no restrictions on deriving or displaying data based on OS Opendata datasets.
  • Data collected by independent means (GPS, field survey) and then verified in relation to OS data is free of OS restrictions
  • The real innovation “Free to use” terms, means that organisations licensing data for business use, are able to infer the position or create new data without restrictions as long as the new data is not a direct copy of an existing feature in the OS product.

These  aspects of the new license/guidelines are illustrated with some rather cheesy but useful case studies.

There are however some more grey areas, which may still cause concern to some, around addressing (oh no !! the humanity) the creation of address centroids is seen as copying features!

I wonder a what level of abstraction this no longer the case, is a point representing a street range ok ? A neighbourhood ?

I fundamentally disagree with the example that a school catchment area is OS derived data, what intellectual effort has the OS contributed to it’s creation ?

Still overall this is a massive step forward and the OS should be congratulated on it’s effort in communicating their position clearly.

This is clearly one of the biggest news stories of the last few months for the UK, I can’t help but wonder while the announcements were not made in the public forum of the AGI conference.. Maybe this is the Macworld moment for Ordnance Survey ?

Written and submitted from home (51.425N, 0.331W)

Categories
Google Earth Thoughts

Build your own Liquid Galaxy..

Just beside my office in London is what is known as a “Liquid Galaxy”, a network of computers running big LCD screens giving  you a true panoramic Google Earth experience.
Almost everyone who sees a Liquid Galaxy makes the off hand comment, how do I get one.  Until now we have said, “well is a custom version of Google Earth”, “you need loads of space screens”, “sorry it’s not really possible”..

Today however, we can say sure here are the instructions… check out the Quick Start page.

This it must be said is still quite a challenge, but you don’t have to have eight big LCD screens; a liquid galaxy  set up scales from just  two to dozens of screens.


So if you are looking for a DIY challenge and have the space… get building !

Written and submitted from home (51.425N, 0.331W)Written and submitted from home (51.425N, 0.331W)

Categories
AGI Thoughts

A tale of two days in Stratford-upon-Avon

This evening I find myself in Dublin, Ireland looking at my glass of Kilkennys and reflecting on the past two days and the W3G and AGI Geocommunity events in Stratford upon Avon.

Is this glass half full or half empty, is the UK GI industry on the way up, or doomed to go the way of the CD-ROM encyclopedias ?

Depending on your attendance of the conferences in Stratford your answer to this question would be different. Attendees of the  W3G unconference on Tuesday would have experienced considerable energy, lively debate and optimism around the use of open data, free and open software and the potential of “neogeography” ( yes I know is just a label, but you all know what it means) There is huge potential to extend the use of geospatial information  in the UK efficiently and cheaply using the web platforms of today, and for people to create businesses around this new ecosystem.

This optimism survived all the way until about 11am today at the AGI Geocommunity conference and included the excellent upbeat presentation by Andy Hudson-Smith one of the few real innovators in the UK GI industry at the moment. ESRI UK’s presentation really turned optimism into despair once again introducing the tired old whinge that GIS should be a strategic necessity and central to how government works, but it is largely ignored by the powers that be…

Rather than learn the lessons of the last five years and concentrate on creating simple technological solutions that mean real user requirements quickly and cheaply, ESRI put the blame squarely on the GIS industry for not communicating the benefits of GIS and concentrating too much on complex technology.

Maybe somebody should buy Richard Waite, ESRI UK’s MD, a mirror ?

Talk about a contrast, the difference between the two days was extraordinary, and why  two separate days?

Last year the geomob stream brought much of the energy and frankly new people to the AGI event, this year most of the neogeo’s went home before the AGI conference started. This was a mistake, the future of the GI industry, if it is to have a future, is with the poeple who attended the w3g conference, the sooner the AGI realise this fundamental shift in the industry the better.

BTW when was the last time you attended a conference where you were told to Tweet responsibly and to be careful walking using your mobile device ? seriously..

Written and submitted from the Grand Canal Hotel, Dublin (53.338N, 6.237W)

Categories
Thoughts

Argleton it’s back !!

Great fun programme on BBC Radio 4 as part of the Punt PI show this Saturday, how did the mysterious non-village of Argleton appear on Google maps and in your satnav…

Like the sound of an Argleton Pie !

Was it a mistake or a conspiracy?  you decide tin foil hats at the ready…

Written and submitted from home (51.425N, 0.331W)
Categories
Street VIew Thoughts

Germany doomed never to innovate ?

An interesting article by the BBC’s Berlin correspondent on Germany’s problem with Street View.

The Bradenberg Gate, or not..

The article suggests part of the reason why Germany seems to have such a problem accepting a service that is used in many other developed countries is a cultural distrust of the new, and an inability to innovate. The article quotes Prof Nicolas Apostolopoulos from the Centre for Digital Systems at the Free University in Berlin,

“..people in Britain or the United States tend to see the possibilities of new technology, while Germans tend to see the dangers.”

I’m not convinced this is the case completely, just look at the thriving geo-community in Berlin, and the love of OpenStreetMap in Germany, German cities in OpenStreetMap contain the most detailed mapping you are likely to see anywhere, and that mapping has been contributed by the same people who don’t want pictures of their buildings to appear online ?

An alternative view is that Street View has become a political football in Germany to a greater extent than any other country, and politicians and the media have jumped on the issue, as a way of getting noticed and filling column inches. Google bashing seems to be a popular activity amongst the chattering classes in Berlin..

I really don’t agree with the view that there is “a downside to innovation”,  tell that to the manufacturing industry in the UK. Clearly not all new ideas or products will work, indeed most will fail,  but to try and stop innovation is like trying to ignore gravity!

The voice that seems under represented so far are the potential users of street view in Germany..

Written and submitted from the Google Offices, London (51.495N, 0.146W)

Categories
Fun !! Street VIew

Placeroulette anyone..

As a fun demostration of just how extenive StreetView coverage now is, it’s hard to beat Globe Genie, the product of MIT student Joe McMichael. Try it without the Map display to test just how powerful our ability to identify places from just visual clues is or is not 🙂

Can you tell where this is ?

Written and submitted from the Google Offices, London (51.495N, 0.146W)

Categories
Thoughts

After where, is when the next big thing?

So it seems where is as mainstream as its possible to get with most popular online services rolling location into their products to improve the quality of the service, be that finding friends, the location of interesting restaurants or where is the best place to buy a Nikon camera.

As noted here on previous occasions, it is very easy to become fixated on location as the next big thing, and indeed there is much media coverage of the “battle for place” since the introduction of the Facebook places API, however location is still only one of the numerous contextual signals that make a service valuable.

This point was made very real for me on my way home from the officer earlier this week..

I have become a regular user of Borisbikes, the  “Barclays Cycle Hire Scheme” to give it its official title, which allow registered users to pick up a bike at a local pick up point and drop it off at a destination elsewhere. There happens to be a bike docking station just a hundred metres from the Google Office and another just outside the railway station I use 2 Km away. Perfect…

But as users of the system will know, there are not always bikes available to pick up or more subtly empty docking locations to leave leave your bicycle at your destination. Fortunately Transport of London, the people behind the Borisbikes, have made available a real time feed of docking site status via an API, allowing applications like the Android Cycle Hire Widget to be developed.

So now from the comfort of my desk or where-ever else I may be in London just by looking at my phones home screen I can see if there are any bikes available nearby and then check if I will be able to drop the bike of at my destination. Key to making this happen are of course my location and the real time feed of docking site status;  the where and when.

When I reach the railway station I dock my bike hopefully!!  and then check another app on my phone, this time for the time and platform for the next train to take be home. Again when is clearly important here, but now added to the contextual mix is a personalisation signal in that I have previously stored the station closest to my home in the app.

OK so this is not quite the personal jet-pack we may have hoped was the transport of the future, but making the relevant information available at the relevant time and place really does make a difference !

Written and submitted from the Google Offices, London (51.495N, 0.146W)

Categories
Google Earth

Beehives and Google Earth fight crime!

A great example of an innovative use of Google Earth Enterprise, as an extension to Local Government GIS use in the UK.

To find the application of Beehives you will just need to watch ..

Written and submitted from the Google Offices, London (51.495N, 0.146W)

Categories
StreetView Thoughts User Generated Maps

Google Maps gets the measles ?

Google Maps : Dear Dr. Ed, I seem to have developed a rash or well at least I’m completely covered in spots.

Dr Ed : Don’t worry Maps, it just a new way of finding geocoded images contributed by the photographers of the web.

If you have looked at Streetview ( by dragging the pegman) recently outside of the existing areas of coverage you may have noted spots of streetview coverage, this is not the result of a very disorganised group of streetview car drivers, but is a way of exposing other geocoded imagery where it is available.

Although the Google Streetview cars are once again driving the world bringing Street View images to many new countries in the meantime you can find suitably moderated and attributed user contributed images from Panoramio.

The example below is from Karon, the beach resort in Phuket, Thailand which brought back happy memories of my honeymoon, which was contributed by panoramio user bareman

The interesting point to ponder is as more and more geocoded images are published and indexed on the web, at what point if ever in the future will it be possible to replicate the complete coverage of Streetview with user contributed images ?

Written and submitted from the Google Offices, London (51.495N, 0.146W)