Combining Ordnance Survey Maps and Governemnt Data

Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the world wide web, has recently been working with our national government to help make more government information available to the public and more importantly to make it easy to access.

Government has generally made a mess of data handling schemes. Usually, because they make the exercise too big and therefore long timescale and therefore out of date before they are installed.

The internet and the world wide web allow for incremental steps to be taken and more importantly allow others, be they individuals, private companies or local groups use government data and translate it into digestible information.

For instance, a while ago under this project the government released a set of data relating to cycle accidents. In the past if the government wanted to make this information available it would have produced tables in a booklet and given it to the Crown Stationers to sell. More recently, it would have set up a project to provide a website for people to access the data. It would have taken government time, people and resources that could be more effectively utilized for other projects. However, by just publishing the raw data on the internet it was left to others to see make it accessible to the public. An example of what was produced within two days is the national map of cycling accidents reported to police over a twelve-month period. Simply mashing Google maps with the accident data.

A more important step is that the national government has agreed to release the copyright of Ordnance Survey maps. This will help make data in a geographical and therefore understandable to most people. Much of the data available relates to geographical areas be they enumeration districts, wards, divisions, parishes, boroughs and counties or regions. OS maps have the boundaries of all of these. This allows people to contrast and compare spending or policy effects in different areas with comparable ease. This revolution is just beginning and could be as big a change to our lives as the world wide web itself.