Category: Thoughts

The past couple of months seems to have offered a cathartic opportunity for the relatively small UK Geographic Information Industry to get some long terms issues off its collective chest.

In no particular order we have seen the following public responses to the Consultation for the future of Ordnance Survey. (Let me know if  you know of any more.. updated – thanks for all the links, keep them coming)

• Local Government Association Group
• Advisory Panel on Public Sector Information
• Locus Association
• Tom Hughes
• Association for Geographic Information
• Free our Data Campaign
• SystemeD.net
• Traveline
• OSGeo UK chapter and the Open Knowledge Foundation Network
• Andy Robinson
• Simon Brooke
• Stutchbury
• CycleStreets
• The Ramblers
• Christopher Roper
• The NHS Information Centre
• Leeds City Council
• Will Abson
• British Cartographic Society
• Bob Barr

All these responses share a common opinion that the status-quo or Ordnance Survey’s own strategy (remember that?)  for it’s future is not acceptable.

In many cases the responses quite rightly identify the issue as something wider than just should OS make some data free, but what is the UK strategy for the use of Geographic Information in general.

This strategic view is something which has never been defined clearly, but is something OS has unfortunately tried to remain gatekeeper for, as it’s Director General is advisor to Government on all things geographical.

The consultation understandably and in my mind quite rightly has remained focused on the specifics of making OS data free, and in the great tradition of Civil Service options papers offers a Goldilocks Choice; one too cold, one too hot and one option just about acceptable.

Option 1 appears to maintain the status-quo and I don’t see anyone outside the Romsey Road distortion field supporting it.

Option 2 is perhaps something that may be achievable in the long term with continued technological change and changing market requirements, however at the moment this would put Ordnance Survey in a position where it’s current operational processes are financially unsustainable.

So Option 3 represents the obvious compromise,  some small scale data for free while allowing the cash cow of MasterMap to continue to fund a reduced but largely similar OS to the one we have today.

There are of course two rather large Elephants in the room, one of which appears to have been put into the “too difficult” bucket and the other is not mentioned perhaps because by making data free the issue will disappear ?

Postal Geography, the fact there is no single address register which can be used without major limitations is a national embarrassment, for a knowledge economy this is the equivalent of trying to run railways before a single standard time was introduced.   This is an issue bigger than Ordnance Survey, although OS has had it’s part to play in the current mess, this really does need strategic leadership from the centre.

Derived Data, OS must stop its current practice of claiming intellectual property rights to any geospatial product created with even passing reference to Ordnance Survey products as “derived” information. There is no direct mention of this is the consultation, and if OS data is made available using a CC-BY license then this may not be an issue, but I would really like to see this clarified.

I just can’t help thinking however them is a dreamlike / fairy tale element to this process, Goldilocks aside.  The consultation process ends today, and Government will probably shut down and enter Purdah in 2 weeks, I just hope we don’t wake up after the election and find the whole process was a dream and the new administration has much bigger issues to deal with.

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

In a real test of democracy, a widely regarded poor piece of legislation is currently making it’s way through parliament without much scrutiny to make sure it becomes law before the upcoming election. The Digital Economy Bill is wide-ranging and addresses an increasingly important part of the British Economy, yet it’s hard not to get the impression that due process is being sacrificed to meet the needs of some very vocal lobby groups.

Write to your MP if you think its wrong that your connection to the internet could be removed on evidence that would so weak that no criminal case could even be made.

“Alright mush.. we know you were in WH Smiths when someone nicked the packet of smarties.. we going to take your car keys to make sure you never visit the shop again !”

Of course there is also the wider argument, who is actually suffering the music industry or the record business ?

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

A public note of congratulations to the organisers of the weekendsWherecamp EU , well done it was a massive success!

It is often said that the most useful part of any conference are the conversations that happen in the hallways or over lunch, and the bar-camp format used this weekend makes the most of this by doing away with a formal agenda, and making the whole meeting spontaneous.

To many this might seem like madness, but the resulting selection of talks would be hard to improve upon in terms of breath and interest.

Despite a few snarky comments, almost everybody I spoke with at the event, and the feedback I have seen since has been completely positive, highlighting the quality of talks and the discussions which then followed.

The voice of the individual often drowned out by corporate messaging at traditional conferences is prominent at events likes wherecamp EU, and  it is a real step forward to see such events taking their place alongside more traditional industry shows now in Europe.

Wherecamp is an established brand in North America, the next Wherecamp there follows Where 2.0 later this month and is hosted once again by Google at the Googleplex , but at least now we can say there is a real alternative this side of the pond.

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

It is always a nice opportunity to speak to people who are not GI Industry experts or mapping mavens but who are “normal” people whose lives are however impacted by Geospatial Technology.

On Monday I has the massive pleasure of meeting some of the business owners located on Shambles which was a winner in one of this years Street View Awards.

Shambles is not your usual shopping street, it looks like a set from the latest Harry Potter film and is populated by various specialist shops including Past Images whose owner Ian I got talking to.

Now you too to can explore this special part of York here virtually , but if you get the chance visit York, make sure you visit yourself !

Ian and his fellow shopkeepers are all enthusiastic users of the web, have websites and appreciate how much difference tools like web search and online mapping have made to their business. Rather than driving trade away, the web is making it easier for potential customers to find their businesses.

Finding is the key point here, I think we in the GI industry often forget just how powerful a simple map showing the location of a business really is.  While we talk about the virtues of Foursquare vs Gowalla or debate how to represent disputed boundaries, real people are using the easy access to mapping to improve, in little ways, their lives !

No my blog has not been hacked, but to help the other Dad’s out there who will come across this problem here are the instructions to set the time on a Brio Watch.

Not heard of them, you don’t have a tweenager then.

My Daughter returned from her hols with her new watch..”Dad can you set it ?”

“Of course..”

20 minutes later.. “OK do you have the instructions”

“No”

One hour of fruitless searching on the web later.. the instructions were found, and the problem of a very sensitive “m” button resolved by a sharper pencil, everybody happy again.

To save you the time, here are the instructions.. just keep pushing button “m” even though it seems not to be working !

Love being a Dad !

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

Sometimes you can’t beat a simple story..

On this side of the pond it is had to understand just how big a deal the Superbowl is in the US, it remains one of the few remaining occasions when most of the country sits down and watches the same rectangle of moving pixels at the same time.

So running an ad during the Superbowl is a big deal, from the legendary 1984 Macintosh add, through the dot com madness of the 1990’s it has always provided an interesting reflection of the IT industry. So for the first time yesterday Google’s first Superbowl ad has attracted much attention.

I get the impression that this particular ad first viewed last year on youTube, was so well liked (if not loved) that it was felt that it deserved the biggest audience possible.

For me the interesting thing, is just how embedded geography is to the story, how often geospatial technology is either used directly as in maps or is there behind the scenes – Paris the place not the celebrity…

Written and submitted from Heathrow Airport  (51.478N, 0.491W)

So Apple are banning location based advertising apps, as a result of their recent purchase of Quattro Wireless. Well that would seem to follow the usual Apple control freakery, well I’m not  so sure..

I think Apple is actually doing the right thing, setting best practice for developing apps that use location.

What they actually say is..

“If you build your application with features based on a user’s location, make sure these features provide beneficial information. If your app uses location-based information primarily to enable mobile advertisers to deliver targeted ads based on a user’s location, your app will be returned to you by the App Store Review Team for modification before it can be posted to the App Store.”

In other words don’t just insert a location targeted ad into an application where is does not provide any benefit to the user. So you should not add a location targeted ad into your first person shooter game for pizza’s in Southampton, just because the user is in Southampton.

This is location ad spam.

On the other-hand if a user is looking for train times from their current location to Southampton, then ads from local business offering you food while you wait for the next train or offer alternative journey options via bus would be useful.

As with search ads this represents and example of advertising selection based on a users implicit intent, ignore these signals and as an app developer you would be spamming your users.

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

So its the iPad, a large iPod Touch and the blogosphere has spoken, it’s a fail.

Well that’s not quite the end of the story as I see it, the key point to understand in the importance of Apple’s new device is to recognise that computers and the web are no longer the preserve of the geeks that write blogs.

All the apparent failings of the iPad, the lack of USB, no multi-tasking, no HDMI and lack of Adobe’s Flash are actually all the reasons why it will be successful.

The choice to remove these features are a result of the laser focus of the design team to make this a simple device, not a computer as we recognise it today, but something that allows “normal people” access to information quickly and simply. Remember the similar criticism from the smart-phone experts when the original iPhone was introduced.

Just think of the contrast in terms of installing a simple application in Windows, compared to an application on the iPhone.  The idea of the computing appliance is a common goal with the ChromeOS, both the iPad and future ChromeOS devices aim to make the underlying operating system as simple and robust as possible, and allow users to get to a task hassle free.

For me I can see the iPad finding a home in my household as a “sofa computer” something to have in the living room, easy to pick up and use quickly to browse the web, read a book chapter or send an email.

You can also seen the potential of vertical applications particularly in education, imagine the interactive textbooks that can be created for such a device.

A longer shot perhaps could be GIS data capture applications making use of the 3G/GPS version of the iPad, ESRI are rumoured to be working on an iPhone app..

Such a class of device, a real “computer for the rest of us” has been a long time coming, Alan Kay a true giant in the history of computing, in 1968 introduced the dynabook concept, which was hugely   influential for many including Steve Jobs. The work of Alan Kay was also a influence to one Douglas Adams, who also saw the potential of a book like computer..

Maybe the iPad will be the most important product Apple has produced so far, if it can become the internet  appliance, that really brings computing to the mainstream, then again maybe it will not and some other device will become this long anticipated device.

I can’t wait to get one, I just wonder who is going to be first design a cover with “Don’t Panic” written on it !

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