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By Luke, 11 April, 2013 8:00 am

Held at Imperial College, London between 8^th April and 26^th 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'»

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By chris, 17 December, 2012 2:21 pm

Dear GeoVators,

First, we would like to take this opportunity to wish you  a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from GeoVation and Ordnance Survey. Thank you for all your support in 2012. We look forward to running some new challenges and events in the new year, as well as supporting our existing challenge winners.

Open your e-Christmas card www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/seasonsgreetings

Happy GeoVating! and Best Wishes,

Chris, Viv, Luke and Ian

The team have been out and about over the last couple of weeks and are now back at Ordnance Survey, Southampton, planning more innovative events and challenges for the new year.

I’ve been to each of our surveyors conferences, presenting on GeoVation, OS OpenData, and OS OpenSpace.  I also participated in a lively and inspiring weekend Geography Camp, in the Peak District. Luke and Ian have completed a 4th busy series of OS OpenData Masterclasses. Ian and I and others from Ordnance Survey have worked with colleagues from Environment Agency on a one-day internal hackathon,  in Bristol. Last week Ian and I  hosted a day at Ordnance Survey for GeoVation winners, SWM Probation Trust and Food Finder and their developer teams, to look at how they will be using Ordnance Survey products and services in developing their ventures. These activities will be the subjects of some subsequent blog posts.

Meanwhile, Luke has enjoyed a long weekend in the “Big Apple” and Viv is taking a well earned holiday in Costa Rica. We are looking forward to hearing the stories and seeing the photos.

Our prize draw, for a chance of winning an Apple® iPad 64 GB or be one of five runners up who will win a VIP day at Ordnance Survey’s head office in Southampton, is still open until the end of March. We are really keen to hear  if you use OS OpenData.  If you tell us which datasets you use, and which you find useful and why, we will enter you into the prize draw.  Enter here

Season’s Greetings and enjoy your break, however you spend it!

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By Luke, 14 December, 2012 8:00 am

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'»

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By Luke, 5 November, 2012 8:00 am

If you’re in London this Wednesday 7 November, why not join us for an evening of presentations, networking and discussions – with a focus on “The Future of Location Data”?

Where is location data going? How will it impact your work? Where are the opportunities? These questions and more will be explored during our latest Innovation event that we’re hosting at the Google Campus, London. With only a few tickets remaining, it’s sure to be a thought inspiring session, so if you’re interested in coming along, click here to register for your FREE ticket.

The evening will build on two events that we brought to you earlier in the year – ‘Location – Everything happens somewhere’ and the ‘OS OpenData Masterclass’. Once again, there will be an opportunity for innovators, entrepreneurs, developers – indeed anyone that has an interest location data – to meet-up and learn more about the vast wealth of location-based resources, including mapping datasets that are freely available to order from Ordnance Survey, through the OS OpenData portal.

Continue reading 'The Future of Location Data – where are we heading?'»

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By Luke, 1 November, 2012 8:00 am

Continue reading 'Free OS OpenData Masterclasses – new dates announced!'»

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By Luke, 19 October, 2012 8:00 am

Ian covered the history behind the global “open” movement, before providing details around the number and types of UK government datasets that are available, through websites such as data.gov.uk.

Continue reading 'Launch of OSDeveloper page'»

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By Luke, 12 October, 2012 8:00 am

In a previous blog, we told you all about the “Location – Everything happens somewhere” event that Ordnance Survey hosted towards the end of August, at the Google campus in London.

Over 100 developers turned up, all hoping to learn more about location-based information and how they can use mapping data to develop their own products, services and applications. And they didn’t leave disappointed. Many felt the evening provided a great insight in to the many resources that are freely available, such as OS OpenData and OS OpenSpace and they discovered how others have used such information within their businesses. We’ve produced a short video from the footage captured on the night, so please take a look below.

Continue reading 'Calling all developers, new business start-ups and entrepeneurs!'»

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By Luke, 13 September, 2012 8:00 am

In a previous blog, we told you all about the Location event that Ordnance Survey hosted at the Google Campus, in London on Tuesday 28 August. We promised to provide an update about what was covered at the event, for the benefit of those that couldn’t attend, so here it is.

The event was a huge success with over 100 attendees coming along to learn more about how others, ranging from new business start-ups, through to fully-fledged multinational companies, are benefiting from using location-based data in their business ventures. The range of guest speakers delivered some captivating and thought-provoking presentations that certainly inspired the room and the networking continued well in to the evening – until we were asked to vacate the building at 10pm in fact!

The evening kicked off at 6:30pm with an introduction from Jim Ivimey, Senior Account Manager at Ordnance Survey who reminded everyone that “everything happens somewhere” – highlighting the fact that location-based data plays an integral part in many aspects of modern day society.

Continue reading 'Everthing happens somewhere'»

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By viv, 8 August, 2012 8:00 am

It’s now over two years since the release of OS OpenData, which gave more access to free, unrestricted Ordnance Survey mapping than ever before. It’s is helping businesses and developers to start to use Geographic Information (GI) without any royalty payments and restrictions on reuse. Even if you haven’t used mapping data before, you can unlock the benefits immediately, making it even easier to achieve efficiency savings across the board.

Last month Ordnance Survey ran a webinar, giving people the opportunity to gain a greater understanding of open data, and the tools and techniques to use OS OpenData.

If you didn’t get the chance to take part in the webinar, here’s a video of it. You can learn how to get up and running with OS OpenData and about the datasets that are available to use free of charge and their benefits.

The 40 minute session covers:

• How to get Ordnance Survey free data
• How to use OS OpenData
• And how we can learn from an existing user of OS OpenData with Simon Fitzgerald from CIFAS

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By viv, 23 April, 2012 8:00 am

People across the country jumped at the opportunity to gain a greater understanding of open data and put tools and techniques into practice at a series of free masterclasses we hosted recently.

The masterclasses, which were run by GeoVation and supported by Horizon Digital Economy Research, were held at six locations across England and Wales and attended by over 130 people. The free all-day sessions attracted small businesses, local authorities and students interested in learning about open data and how to maximise its use.

Following feedback from previous master classes, the sessions focused on giving participants the chance to use open datasets and put the theory into practice. The masterclasses introduce the context of open data, OS OpenData and the GeoVation initiative before hearing a user case study. During the sessions people had the chance to work with data from the Home Office, public authorities and more and see how it could be put to use with OS OpenData datasets, a great framework to display other available public data.

One case study worked on included taking data on school attendance rates and crime statistics on anti-social behaviour and overlaying it on Boundary-Line (see image below).

Map showing anti-social behaviour statistics overlaid with school attendance rates

Thank you to everyone who gave feedback on the master classes which we will use to improve further sessions. Congratulations to Gareth Glynn who won a £10 Amazon voucher in the prize draw.  Gareth said ‘I enjoyed the class and certainly came out the wiser – it was a tough but rewarding day’.

Don’t worry if you missed out, we’re aiming to run another series of masterclasses across the country later in the year. These may develop the current sessions by offering support for using open data in web platforms and mobile formats.  Let us know if there are any places you would like us to visit.