For those of you like myself, not invited to the OS New Strategy Event, the OS have posted a video summary on YouTube. That in itself is progress of course ..
Written and submitted from home, using my home 802.11 network.
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Category: Ordnance Survey
Categories
strategy.ordnancesurvey.co.uk
I must commend the Ordnance Survey for publishing their new strategy as a wordpress blog, along the lines of the Power of Information final report, this is really a very good idea.
It’s a pity it’s not working at the moment, hope the error message is not a bad sign..I’m sure this is a server issue rather than second thoughts about the blog format.
Anyway it terms of high level content, it’s the expected classic civil service compromise, no free data but the promise of improved licensing and an innovation programme. An expanded OpenSpace, still restricted in terms of full-commercial use, although hopefully changes will allow more mash-ups .
Why the OS could have not have made these changes this three or more years ago would be a fair question to ask.
The new more commercial Ordnance Survey entity will I’m sure prove to be controversial for many as it will be competing with existing commercial partners on a “level playing field” while at the same time branded as Ordnance Survey.
Lets hope this is the first sign of a more open Ordnance Survey, ready to listen more to the community that has little choice but to use it.
Written and submitted from the Nottingham University, Nottingham using my three UMTS modem.
Categories
OS future begins to emerge…
The Treasury has spoken.. (that in itself gives you a sense of where this might be heading !!)
From the Treasury Operational Efficiency Programme report published yesterday..
“The OEP has concluded so far that Ordnance Survey needs to be more customer-focused and commercially driven. The Government is therefore publishing a new commercial strategy for the Ordnance Survey on their website.
The new strategy balances the requirement to maintain the highest quality standards with the need to significantly enhance ease of access to geographic data and services for both commercial and non-commercial use.
The new strategy seeks to equip Ordnance Survey to thrive in and better support competition and innovation in a wider geographical information market that is being transformed by advances in technology. It is a significant and ambitious programme of change. The Government has set key milestones for delivery in 6 and 12 months’ time and beyond, as well as a process for independent review and challenge of progress.
If sufficient progress is not made to promote competition and innovation in these timescales, the Government will consider further reforms. Opportunities to accelerate the delivery of initiatives through introducing further commercial experience and capabilities will be fully explored over the coming year. ”
So all eyes on www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk
Written and submitted from the Google Office, London.
Whilst hunting through YouTube for a video to use in a presentation, I came across this video.
If I remember rightly this was the first time a viral video was produced by any part of the UK government, I might be mistaken on that, but the video was not met with universal acclaim in Southampton..
Shame a great video and a pretty good product – paper maps without edges…
Nice to see that the OS has a YouTube channel now, there are some classics there..
Written and submitted from the Google Office, London.
The influential Power of Information task force, the group working within the Cabinet Office to suggest better ways of using Government Information has published their interim report back to government in a “wiki-like” form to allow comments from the community before final publication.
As any reader of this blog will expect, there is considerable discussion of the potential value and problems associated with access to geospatial data in the UK.
The report make a number of recommendations which don’t really appear to be that radical, and are not a million miles away from suggestions I have made in the past, lets hope the influence of the cabinet office can move policy in Southampton with more success.
Here are the recommendations themselves..
▪ Basic geographic data such as electoral and administrative boundaries, the location of public buildings, etc. should be available free of charge to all.
▪ There should be simple, free access to general mapping and address data for modest levels of use by any user
▪ Voluntary and community organisations pursuing public policy objects should benefit from straightforward standard provisions for ensuring access to geospatial data at all levels of use
▪ Licensing conditions should be simplified and standardised across the board and, for all but the heaviest levels of use, should be on standard terms and conditions and should not depend on the intended use or the intended business model of the user.
▪ The OpenSpace API, similar to but currently a constrained version of Google Maps should become the primary delivery point for the Ordnance Survey’s services
Although not a recommendation in itself, clearly a key point remains the OS view of derived data, and it viral effect on the creation of geospatial data in the UK, the current situation where even the smallest use of OS mapping in locating a new feature on a map results in the OS claiming IP on the whole map cannot continue.
Overall the report itself and the process by which it has been created are a great example of how Government can really make use of “web 2.0” approaches to change how policy is developed, discussed and communicated.
Written and submitted from home, using my home 802.11 network.
The Guardian after a gap of a couple of years has a list of its top sites of the year, and as the article points out the two big trends have been in collaboration and LBS applications.
One of the sites selected is a personal favourite of mine “where’s the path” a mashup of Google and OS mapping..
Ironic then, the publicity of the national newspaper mentions results in..
Perhaps out of embarrassment, the OS may up the daily limit ?
Written and submitted from the Google Office, London.
Finally after an extended delay the Dept of Communities and Local Government has published the UK location strategy, Place matters. The blueprint for a UK Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI), or an extended job application for someone in Southampton…
You decide !
Written and submitted from the Google Office, London.
From todays Pre-Budget report, a document that’s main focus is the fiscal stimulation of the UK economy, this nugget of potentially very exciting news…
“4.54 Re-use of public sector information from trading funds
The HM Treasury/Shareholder Executive assessment of trading funds has considered the potential for innovation and growth from increasing commercial and other use of public sector information. It will shortly publish some key principles for the re-use of this information, consider how these currently apply in each of the trading funds and how they might apply in the future, and the role of the Office of Public Sector Information in ensuring that Government policy is fully reflected in practice.
For the Ordnance Survey, this will involve consideration of its underlying business model. Further details will be announced in Budget 2009.”
In politics, timing is everything..
Written and submitted from home, using my home 802.11 network.
If you work in a UK Local Authority, I would be grateful if you could send me (confidentially if you prefer) any communications you may have received recently from the Ordnance Survey in reference to the potential use of the Google Maps API on your website.
Thanks
ed
Written and submitted from the Google Office, London.
From the Mapperz blog, news that Bill Chadwick has added the ability to use the Google Earth plugin to his excellent “Where is the Path” application. For a long time this has been in my mind the best OS OpenSpace API site, allowing users to visualise routes using both the excellent OS maps and Google Imagery amongst many other data sets, and then export routes directly to their GPS via the GPX format.
This is just the type of innovative value add that comes from allowing developers access to raw data and server infrastructures, users now have access to a capability that is not present in the OS Get-A-Map service for example. It would be great to see further development of OpenSpace and eventually more favourable licensing terms to see more OS data used in this way, who knows even on Google Maps one day 🙂
Written and submitted from home, using my home 802.11 network.