In a previous blog, we shared news about how we were supporting the BlueLightCamp hackathon, which was a developer event that took place in Manchester last Sunday. Aimed at developers that work in the Fire, Police and resilience services in the public and private sector, the event provided an opportunity for participants to explore and develop prototype ideas that address just some of the criminal and justice issues we face today.
The day kicked off at 10 am, with the event organisers providing a recap of some of the key topics that had been discussed in Saturday’s unconference. One recurring theme related to the increasing role that social media is playing in the provision of such services and the potential that these channels of communication may hold for the future. Many examples were cited of how police forces are increasingly using platforms such as Twitter and Facebook to communicate with the public. It was highlighted that some forces are even adopting other platforms such as Google+, Pinterest, YouTube and Flickr to not only to broadcast information, but to engage with people directly and to open lines of communication that were previously not in place.
Continue reading 'Developers gather at BlueLight Camp 2013 hackathon'»
Held at Imperial College, London between 8th April and 26th June, Urban Prototyping (UP London) is an International festival that brings more than 300 developers, technologists, academics, artists, government bodies and community groups together for a series of events that focus on the role that digital technology can play in creating sustainable society.
This year we were invited to participate and contribute to the agenda, which has a specific theme concentrating on the role that digital technology can play in harnessing the creation of resilient environments, economies and communities. We were delighted to accept the invite, as the festival presents an opportunity for us to introduce our range of products and services in such a context, whilst allowing us to engage with communities that might not have previously considered the many benefits geographic information can bring to potential innovations.
Continue reading 'Digital technology to digital economy – our involvement at Urban Prototyping Festival'»
Developer Engagement Events, Environment Challenge, Events, Open Data Master Classes, OS OpenData, OS OpenSpace, Uncategorized
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geovation challenge, innovation funding, London Cycle Map Campaign, Open Data Master Class, Ordnance Survey, OS OpenData, OS OpenSpace
We’ve just sent out our spring issue of OS Innovation packed with lots of exciting news for the GeoVation and developer community. The newsletter is also available online.
Find our more about:
Also, you can find out about the OS OpenData competition which you still have time to enter, the new lifecycle of OS OpenSpace and take a look at the recently published GeoVation book!
If you would like the newsletter emailed to you in future please contact us and we’ll add you to the list.
On Tuesday evening, we hosted a developer event at the HUB Westminster, London between 6 – 9pm. We thought we’d provide a short write-up to summarise what was covered during the evening, for the benefit of those that couldn’t attend.
If you weren’t already aware, we have just released a new version of our free web mapping API – OS OpenSpace. The new version supports mobile touch devices, meaning any website using OS OpenSpace can now be viewed and panned on tablets and mobile devices.
We organised the event to generally promote the new version but had three specific objectives in mind. First and foremost, we wanted to showcase the new enhancements to our community of users. Secondly; to provide an opportunity for developers to run through some web-based OS OpenSpace tutorials and finally, we hoped to gain feedback about the service i.e. what the developers like, what they think could be improved; and finally, what they would like to see in future releases.
Continue reading 'Tuesday’s OS Developer event a great success!'»
For any of our blog followers that aren’t aware, Ordnance Survey offer a web mapping service called OS OpenSpace®. The Application Programming Interface (API) allows developers to embed our maps into public websites and mobile applications, for free.
But why do developers choose OS OpenSpace above other free web mapping providers? Well, OS OpenSpace map data is based on our world famous paper map series which many are familiar with, so often, developers are choosing OS OpenSpace above alternative offerings. Feedback received from the OS OpenSpace community suggests they believe the quality of the data, particularly in rural areas, is unrivalled and this is another pull factor for many. The level of detail provided means that it is possible to create applications with detailed information on any given area, rather than providing just an overview and again, this is a point that many developers are excited by.
The image illustrates the level of detail of OS OpenSpace in rural areas, compared to other free map providers.
Continue reading 'OS OpenSpace V4.0 released! Find out more at our OS Developer Event'»
Developer Engagement Events, Events, OS OpenData, OS OpenSpace, Uncategorized
| innovation, innovation funding, Open Data, Open Data Master Class, Ordnance Survey, OS OpenData, OS OpenSpace
While much of the country has been dealing with snow in the last few weeks, there’s been no rest for Luke and Ian, who manage Ordnance Survey’s Developer Engagement programme. They ran their first GeoSurgery of 2013 on 17 January at the Google Campus in London and the event was a major success, with some extremely interesting conversations being had with over a dozen developers. The idea to run a quarterly GeoSurgery, an event that provides us with a physical presence in London’s Tech City, came about from the sheer level of interest received in Ordnance Survey’s product and service offering that we have gauged amongst the developer community. Ian – also known as Ordnance Survey’s resident “GeoDoctor” – was on hand to speak to a number of developers that had technical questions relating to the use of location-based data in their respective business offerings. We introduced developers to our portfolio of OS OpenData products, which include the frequently downloaded: OS Streetview; CodePoint Open and Boundary Line – to name just a few.
We’re now in the midst of organising our next OS Developer event, which takes place on 26 February, again in London. This time we’re at the HUB in Westminster, London to hold an evening dedicated to showing existing and potential developers through OS OpenSpace, which is Ordnance Survey’s web mapping service. Specifically, we’ll be showcasing the recent enhancements that we have made to the API, so if you would like to register an interest in coming along, please drop us a line and we’ll add you to the register.
City Farmers map delegates at Oxford Real Farming Conference
In early January Chris participated in the Oxford Real Farming Conference where GeoVation food challenge innovators, City Farmers displayed some great maps using OS OpenData showing who is doing what and where. Some excellent presentations on how collaboration is building resilience in food chains through local food and farming.
Continue reading 'Snow time to stop innovating'»
Last week, we held our first GeoSurgery of the year at the Google Campus, a venue that’s located in the heart of east London’s Tech City cluster. The GeoSurgery was open to anyone to come along and discuss their project with our resident GeoDoctor. If you’ve ever heard the phrase “everything happens somewhere” (we’ve used it before, here on the blog) well, that’s something that we champion here within the GeoVation team. We believe that location-based information is playing an increasing part in many aspects of modern day society and it’s no surprise therefore, that so many web and mobile developers will have an interest in a location element whilst developing their product/service offering.
The GeoDoctor talked to around a dozen developers throughout the day, each one of them developing products and services for which location is an integral part of the offering. We had one discussion with a new business start-up called Locatable. Locatable’s business idea is to create a web-based service that makes it easier for people to decide exactly where they want to live when moving house. Sounds like a relatively simple idea doesn’t it? Well here’s the clever bit…
Continue reading 'Last week’s GeoSurgery a great success…'»
Broken line of code stopping you from embedding a web-map on your website? Haven’t quite managed to mend the markers in your online location-based app? An offline mapping-related problem that you need some advice with? Well, have no fear, help is here!
Back by popular demand, our resident GeoDoctor returns on Thursday 17 January. From 10 am to 3 pm, we’ll be holding our first GeoSurgery of 2013 at the Google Campus in London. During the drop-in session, the GeoDoctor will be on hand to diagnose and provide advice for all of those Geo-related aches, pains and agonies that might have been preventing you from making headway with your project – helping you get back on track by prescribing the next course of action.
Continue reading 'The return of the GeoDoctor'»
Developer Engagement Events, Events, GeoDoctor, OS OpenData, OS OpenSpace, Uncategorized
| GeoVation, innovation, maps, Open Data, Open Data Master Class, Ordnance Survey, OS OpenData, OS OpenSpace
In our last blog, we told you all about what the Innovation team had been up to during, what has been a very busy period. Due to the packed schedule throughout November and early December, you may have noticed that we’ve taken some time out from posting anything here on the blog. However, we thought you would be interested to read about the fourth series of OS OpenData Masterclasses that we ran during the last two weeks of November, so here’s a short write-up.
Following on from the three previously successful series of Masterclasses, we decided to revamp the fourth series, based on feedback received from the previous events. For the first time, participants were shown how to use OS OpenSpace, Ordnance Survey’s free web mapping service that allows users to display up-to-date Ordnance Survey mapping in a web page or online environment. Those who attended learnt how and where to access code examples, how to use Web-Map Builder, a tool designed to simplify the process of embedding a map into a website; as well as demonstrating an interactive way to experiment with code in the new Code Playground.
Continue reading 'OS OpenData Masterclasses review'»
Developer Engagement Events, Events, Open Data Master Classes, OS OpenData, OS OpenSpace, Uncategorized
| GeoVation, Open Data, Open Data Master Class, Ordnance Survey, OS OpenData, OS OpenSpace
The latest edition of OS Innovation news has just been been published and has a distinctively developer flavour. In the Autumn developer update you can find out about the developer events we’ve been attending, our plans to make GeoVation even better, and if you’ve been using OS OpenData and you tell us how- you can enter our competition to win an iPad! Click the image below to open the newsletter.
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