Category: opensource

Categories
GIS opensource

OS NPE Maps online and copyright free(ish) !

Old MapAs Steve points out, Richard Fairhurst’s scanned database of OS New Popular Edition Maps on the 1930’s and 1940’s in now online at www.npemap.org.uk.

Although the mapping is now out of copyright, Richard is claiming copyright over the scans and is licensing the data using the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 license.

This is a fascinating collection which provides a unique view of England 50 years ago, an England without Motorways, Aerodromes with Grass runways, and with an Ordnance Survey which was firmly a military institution.

There is huge potential for this data to form the basis of many applications which don’t require either up to date or very accurate mapping, and it will very interesting to see what develops.. Already the mapping is forming part of a tool to collect an open source geocoded postcode database.

The groundswell of community generated mapping continues…

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

Categories
GIS opensource

United Kingdom – OSGEO

osgeo
Following on from last weeks FOSS4G2006 conference in Lausanne, OSGEO the foundation behind the development of open source GIS software is establishing a UK Chapter.

This is great news, as the UK GI community is not a great user of such tools (The OS included it must be said – at least at the moment) and increased awareness of the value of open source tools was one of the main messages to come out of the AGI technical SIG meeting on Open Source earlier this year.

For more details contact Chris Puttick at Oxford Archaeology.

Categories
GIS opensource Thoughts

UK Mash-up event

Mash up eventI blogged a few months ago in response to Charles Arthur on the perceived lack of UK mapping mashups. While I did not agree at the time with his position that lack of data was the major problem, I guess we must accept that he is right to note the lower profile of creating mash-ups in the UK compared to the USA.

This is a pity for whatever reason as the mash-up movement represents a potential hot spot for innovation in the Geospatial industry. To discuss the state of UK mashups the AGI, OGC and BCS Geospatial SIG are holding an event at the OS on the 20th October.

The Draft agenda includes the following topics..

  • What geospatial mash-ups are all about?
  • Background on Geospatial Mash-ups
  • Example Mash-up Application
  • Questions and Facilitated Discussion
  • Geospatial Mash-up Tutorial
  • How are we going to make use of geospatial mash-ups in the UK?
  • Enabling Data Sharing in Mash-ups
  • Panel Discussion: What does the future hold for mash-ups – single malt, blended or moonshine?

The event is primarily targeted at the existing GI industry – including those from commercial and non-commercial standpoints, and the expected audience will encompass both those with a strong technical perspective and those with wider strategic vision and market foresight.

We need to recognise that the concept of geospatial mash-ups is increasingly being discussed, but is not widely understood in the traditional GI community in the UK.

This event is designed to bring together the leading experts in the field, and to learn from them how the approach could be more widely applied across the GI industry.

As an industry we may well find this a challenging concept or simply characterise it as “putting pins on a map”, however it might also mark the beginnings of a wider trend where the ownership of information becomes much more distributed in the future…

To register visit this page

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