Author: Ed Parsons

Categories
Thoughts

At last the OS app !

Welcome to the future…

The future of the consumer business of Ordnance Survey (OS) that is..

Just in time the OS has launched an app for iOS, with Android in the pipeline, that demonstrates there is a future role of the agency in the post paper map age.

For a number of years the OS has relied on apps produced by it’s partners to distribute its mapping products on PC”s and the increasing important market of mobile devices.

The distribution of OS maps digitally is strategically important to the agency as it represents the future where paper maps are increasingly a niche specialised product, expensive and difficult to buy outside of specialist stores..  The only surprise therefore is how long it has taken the OS to enter this market, and the app in my opinion is a really good first effort.

The OS has wisely integrated the purchase of mapping data into the Apple Appstore add-on process which although it means paying a margin to Apple on every sale, it makes the app from the users perspective very easy to use, almost too easy to pay £2.49 for a tile of 1:25:000 mapping.

The mapping is on the expected high quality scanned produced at a high enough resolution to replicate the paper product, and of course you get all the benefits you would expect in terms of GPS and track creation functionality.

A less obvious highlight is the OS Gazetteer powered search function which allow you to search for place name text from the maps themselves, a simple function in an app, but a great advantage over paper maps.

Welcome to your future OS, I just hope you fully embrace it !

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

Categories
Open Government Data Ordnance Survey Thoughts

So does Open GovData allow SME’s to flourish?

Within the first few weeks of joining the Ordnance Survey 10 years or so ago I was shown a prototype map of the New Forest printed on silk, for reasons anyone who has read the “Innovators dilemma” will understand it was never turning into a product, and I still have  the prototype in a drawer at home.

So when my old friend from the OS David Overton  launched SplashMaps via Kickstarter last month I immediately supported the project.

I supported the project not just because I think the product is a great idea, but that is is a real example of Open Government Data supporting small business innovation.  As David points out, he was willing to license commercial data from the OS, but the usual licensing maze in Southampton actually made using the newly available OS Open Data and OpenStreetMap data a better alternative.

If you believe in the principle of open government data, support it with your bank account and help SplashMaps meet it’s target.

Written and submitted from the Hilton Hotel, Vienna  (48.206N, 16.383E)

Categories
Open Government Data

The new opengov data poster child ?

You may not like the symbology used in this map.. but you can’t deny that the “Interactive map of England’s green belt” published by the Telegraph Newspaper yesterday is an another important milestone in the opening up of Government Geodata.

It is important for a number of reasons..

Firstly it liberates data that was previously difficult/expensive to obtain from the Department for Communities and Local Government both displaying it on a Google Map, but also making it available for download  as a shape file for use by others – Kudos !

Secondly and rather parochial I accept, it is an example of data that was based on Ordnance Survey mapping published on the web.. not exactly case law but a good precedent supporting the view that a feature must exist as an object in the original OS data for it to be derived !

Thirdly and I would argue of most importance is that this data is really useful.. it is timely as it helps to inform the current debate around the planning system, and it is of real interest to citizens who can easily view areas protected by the planning system close to their homes !

Seems that there is healthy competition in data journalism !

Written and submitted from the Google London Offices  (51.516N, 0.127W)

Categories
Thoughts

Geo for Research and Higher Education Workshop

If you are going along to the AGU in San Francisco this year, I would recommend registering for this event which is being run by the Google Earth Outreach team. It’s free, but there are only 100 places.

This is a “hands on” event so you need to bring your laptop and knowledge of Javascript/Google Earth !

If there is enough interest we could arrange a similar event in Europe, let me know..

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

 

Categories
Thoughts

My presentation from PinPoint London..

The past, present and future of maps..

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

Categories
Apple Thoughts

Bad maps.. really a search problem

So now everyone knows making a map of our little planet to make available to users of mobile devices everywhere that is both accurate, up-to-date and detailed is hard. And with the benefit of hindsight and industry expertise we can smile knowledgeably at the mainstream tech press falling over themselves debating and theorising over Apple Mapgate !

But are we all missing the point, I have seen very few comments in the specialist or mainstream tech press that really address the true issue here.. Making maps work well on a phone is not actually a cartography problem.. yes you can use poor maps or conflate content from various sources without care producing a poor map, and people might get lost… but the reason we all use maps on our phones is that they help us find stuff – maps on smartphones are interfaces to local search.

Local search has all the issues of web search plus the added complication of needing to explicitly locate relevant information in relation to the location of the user.. To be successful you need a geocoded search index of places, an algorithm to identify terms that relate to places and of course some maps to put it all in context.

To be fair to our friends in Cupertino the maps are not that bad, all maps have some mistakes, but the bigger issue is the lack of a true geocoded search index of places and the search algorithms that sit around it.

Local search is in many ways what makes smart phones smart, because the users location and the location of things around them provides a set of contextual pointers to relevant information. If you are a lucky owner of a Jelly Bean powered android smartphone have a used Google Now, just think about how many of the information cards are related to location.. weather, travel information etc.

To make good maps that are globally consistent, accurate and up-to-date is hard and takes lots of people as well as clever software, as it is a business of relationships with many different providers of local data, and potentially local community groups. Transit directions are a case in point, they are not difficult to do technically, but the number of organisations that you must partner with to obtain data runs into the thousands   – it really does take years..

To understand local search is much harder you need the maps from above, plus the ability to crawl, create, maintain and understand a geo search index, and to query it in ways that provide value to you end users – that takes decades…

Maps on smartphones are so powerful and useful because they are far more than a digital version of an A-Z street atlas.

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

 

Categories
Thoughts

The annotated world literally!

Last week I had the pleasure of delivering a Keynote at the 4th Digital Earth Summit in Wellington, New Zealand. This was a wonderful experience in a number of ways, firstly Wellington really is the coolest little capital on the planet, secondly as always I meet a great bunch of people including some budding entrepreneurs and opengov competition winners in the form  of Friendsafe.

What was really special however was that each keynote presentation was visualised by Pamela from Drawing on Ideas , this is the visualisation of my presentation on the annotated world.

As a presenter is really valuable to see your ideas played back in this way..

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

Categories
Blog

My Wife and Daughter rowing 80 miles for charity

My Wifeand Daughter rowing 80 miles for charity..

And next weekend you find me somewhere on the riverbank of the Thames between Oxford and Hampton Court!

Flo and Lisa’s page
Flo Blake Parsons is fundraising for KGS FOUNDATION
This was posted on Google+…
Categories
Thoughts

#NBCFail : One is not a Mused

So just how bad is NBC’s coverage of the Olympics.. I spent a few days last week in the US so I got the opportunity to actually experience it.

Well compared to the BBC, it was never going to win any prizes, but actually is not so bad once you get over the bizarre time delay theatre..

Just as with the BBC there was the expected focus of national sportsmen and women, but where as the BBC will also cover sports where TeamGB are not doing very well, for NBC if there was no TeamUSA medal winning then the sport does not exist..

So the efforts of Sir Chris Hoy, The Brownlee brothers et al has gone unreported.. indeed it appears if there was not enough success then the evening show may be cut short for other special programming .. a new Matthew Perry comedy for example !

The key problem for NBC I think was that they had just one channel to play with compared to two mainstream channels and at least another ten red button channels for the BBC plus of course the web and mobile..

IMHO the BBC have done a brilliant job recognising London as the first non linear, multi-channel, multi-platform Olympics. This is not news to NBC, but NBC need to keep a core audience for their advertisers who perhaps are not quite there yet !

What is unforgivable however was the editing of the opening and closing ceremonies, cutting out in one the moving tribute to the victims of London’s 7/7 bombing, and then in the other last night cutting Muse, the Who and Ray Davis classic anthem to London, Waterloo Sunset !

To paraphrase the great Eric Idle who was also bleeped by NBC ..

“NBC’s a piece of shit when you look at it !”

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

 

Categories
Thoughts

The Martian Invasion

No one would have believed in the first years of the twenty first century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than mans…

H.G. Wells had it wrong, the invasion of Mars by robots from earth !

Good Luck NASA, JPL and Curiosity the most ambitious landing since Apollo 11,  an autonomous spacecraft lowering a rover the size of a small car onto the martian surface from 20m altitude is truly the stuff of science fiction.

But I get the impression that few people seems interested… Rocket Scientists will I guess always find it hard to compete for coverage with the olympics.

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