Categories
GPS

The Knowledge beats Sat-Nav even South of the River..

An excellent BBC Click Online show which puts a sat-nav equiped car up against a London Taxi Driver to navigate around London. As you would expect the Cabbie wins, but it’s an excellent explanation of how satnav works warts and all.

Satnav challenge

At the end of the day like many other applications of Geospatial technology, it the data that makes all the difference.

Although this show is a lot better than many others I have seen, comparing a satnav to local knowledge is always unfair, local knowledge will always win, a better comparison is between satnav and a road atlas, or even asking people directions.

My Advice re choosing a GPS, never waste money on a factory fitted system, they are too expensive and are often a year or two behind the capabilities of modern Tom-Tom or Garmin system, however I just love the Ozzy Osbourne instructions driving instructions !

Written and submitted from home, using my home 802.11 network.

Categories
neogeography Ordnance Survey Thoughts

OS OpenSpace at last !!

OS Openspace

The OS OpenSpace API has finally launched, just weeks before the deadline imposed by the Cabinet Office, with a alpha test phase with the system finally opening up early next year..

I’d love to see comments from anyone who is part of the alpha, but I guess they are under pretty strict NDA at the moment. [UPDATE 15/12 – There is no NDA, so I’m not sure why there are no examples]

One observation is the limit on the number of maps tiles which may be rendered for an API key, this is not something I have seen elsewhere, but I can understand it as a defence against accusations from commercial users of the data of unfairness.

Still is great to see something I put so much effort into during my time at the OS finally reaching the public.

Written and Submitted from the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Manama, Bahrain, using its wifi broadband network.

Categories
Thoughts web 2.0

Auntie does mash-ups too now!

BBC Radio 4BBC Radio 4 is often seen as a pillar of the establishment in the UK, although I don’t think it has even justified the label, is was on Radio 4 after-all that Andrew Gilligan made he famous acquisition that the Government were spinning information to make the case for the Second Gulf War.

One of their shows iPM has gone all web2.0 and relies heavily on user contributed material submitted via email and blogs, and are now in the process of building a Mash-up of their listeners.

A nice simple idea and a great way to illustrate the value of mapping api sites to a different audience, seems a long time since the UK Mash-up day and OS Openspace which if you remember a year ago was seen as rather too radical !!

Written and Submitted from the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Manama, Bahrain, using its wired broadband network.