In an earlier post, I wrote about the gadgets that made 2009; now it’s time to look at the organisations and by strange coincidence, as there were 3 gadgets, so there are 3 organisations.
Posted via email from Gary’s Posterous
Another Piece Of Bloggage By Gary
Self professed "geek with a life", geo-blogger, geo-talker and geo-tweeter, Gary works in London and Berlin as Director of the Places Registry for Nokia; he's a co-founder of WhereCamp EU, the chair of w3gconf and sits on the W3C POI Working Group and the UK Location User Group. A contributor to the Mapstraction mapping API, Gary speaks and presents at a wide range of conferences and events including Where 2.0, State of the Map, AGI GeoCommunity, Geo-Loco, Social-Loco, GeoMob, the BCS GeoSpatial SG and LocBiz. Writing as regularly as possible on location, place, maps and other facets of geography, Gary blogs at www.vicchi.org and tweets as @vicchi.
Mail | Web | Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | Google+ | More Posts (271)Other bloggage that may or may not be geo-related to this one:
- 2009 In Review Part 3: People
I finished up part 2 of my 2009 review with the observation that 2009 seemed to be a lot less about technology and more about communities and people so what better way...
- 2009 In Review Part 1: Gadgets
As the end of 2009 and of the decade of the noughties approaches rapidly, I thought it worthwhile to look back over the previous 12 months and give credit where...
- Crystal Ball Gazing Part 1 – The AGI Foresight Study
Way, way back in the deep dark past, Autumn 2009 to be precise, myself and several other people with an opinion on matters geo were asked to contribute a paper...
- Cartographically Speaking; Data (Lots), Maps (Not So Much), Problems (Many)
In September I’ll be at the 46th. Annual Society of Cartographers Summer School at the University of Manchester where I’m lucky enough to have been asked to give a talk...
- What Happens When Geography and Innovation Collide
It’s taken a while but the consultation into opening up the Ordnance Survey’s United Kingdom mapping and geographic data is out and is no doubt being debated, looked at, discussed, pulled...
If some of the staff at Ordnance Survey would like to make their datasets open, the senior management there certainly seem determined to resist it. When any data is released by OS we’ll see just how open it really is and how much of a it was a cynical, politically-motivated promise by the Government dressed up as open by the reluctant senior management.
I want to see all kinds of data from public bodies released for open use. The funding needs to be sorted out for OS, but that is nothing compared to the benefits and innovation that will spring from open data. I hope OS can lead the way – but I’m not holding my breath.
In an organisation as large as the Ordnance Survey I don’t doubt that there’s inertia and resistance to change. After all, the whole concept of “open”, however you choose to define it, is anathema to a lot of the OS staff and the legislature that enforces the proprietary licensing model on the OS data. But every person in the OS I’ve spoken to is committed to “open” and is passionate about it.
They have to be because one way or another change is coming to the OS. It can be change the OS controls, in which case they remain a vital and effective data source, or change the OS doesn’t control, with parallels to the way in which Google ring fenced Teleatlas in the United States earlier this year.
In the former scenario, the OS remains, in the latter, the OS becomes redundant.
My hope is for the former.
When a baby takes its first faltering steps, you don’t chastise it for not walking properly at the first attempt or for taking so long to walk in the first place. Nor do you accuse the parents or grandparents of some sinister plot to allow the baby to walk, but only in a half hearted manner.
No, you encourage, praise and offer constructive suggestions to help the process.
And that’s exactly what the OS needs from us right now … praise, support and encouragement.