The Linking Open Data dataset cloud by Fenng

Exciting news for UK data this week as the new UK data website, www.data.gov.uk, had its official launch. It’s been in beta for a while but is now fully functional and open for business, providing access to a range of datasets. Importantly, as well as the more traditional download of files in formats such as Comma Seperated Variable (csv) text files, the site promises to provide information in the form of Linked Data. This is a massive advance towards the semantic web with data freely available to be used and reused by all manner of web apps, promising virtually limitless potential; graphed, mapped, and mashed up in a myriad of ways.

This news follows hot on the heels of the consultation document on the future of Ordnance Survey data which promises to make more high quality map resources far more widely available. So in addition to having access to government data such as crime, education and health statistics, we will soon (assuming the consultation goes the way it ought to) have access to basemaps to plot it all on and administrative area boundaries to analyse by.

» Continue reading “heritage.data.gov.uk …?”

Ordnance Survey triangulation station by Wessex Archaeology

Not only are we getting somewhere but news this week suggests we will have access to all kinds of map goodness to find our way and see what’s around us! First, the UK Hydrographic Office (UKHO) decided to start giving away their data in the public interest as announced at a recent conference. Then the Guardian’s Allegra Stratton reported yesterday (18/11/09) that moves are afoot to make more UK geospatial data freely accessible, including (wait for it) Ordnance Survey data. » Continue reading “Now we’re getting somewhere!”

The Guardian recently ran an article discussing availability of Ordnance Survey’s MasterMap product. As a daily user of MasterMap on projects, I would be so glad to see MasterMap become freely available; besides access to good quality mapping having obvious benefits for archaeology as a whole, especially to those who do not have access to resources such as Digimap and other resources hosted by Edina, from a commercial perspective, I could build and maintain a library of map data rather than constantly having to reprocess bits under project specific license agreements.

Having said this, I would be concerned about the maintenance of what is currently an outstanding dataset and the other services currently provided by the OS (and have mentioned this before); yes, some of the topographic polygon classifications in MasterMap are amusing to say the least, but the overall quality of the spatial information is world class and must be maintained alongside the services which make the data so useful (eg GPS survey, the Positional Accuracy Improvement (PAI) programme, and helping organisations such as English Heritage use geographic information effectively).