Locatum

As regular readers will know I tend not to use this blog as a vehicle for emapsite related happenings and offerings and to a broad extent this post continues this approach. However, as someone who almost ended up a surveyor - it is thanks to UCL for putting me on hilltops in Wales and the subsequent opportunity to look through a theodolite for 6 months in the desert that brought me to my senses - I have something of a paleotard fondness for related features in our landscape, notably Trig Points and benchmarks. I am equally aware that the arrival of GPS signalled the ultimate demise of such man made features; we simply don't need them. Try telling that to the legions of surveyors, chartered, engineering or other, who it seems from the flurry of requests, enquiries and complaints we have received, following the withdrawal of benchmarks from OS MasterMap, expect to see benchmarks on their mapping. It would, indeed is, easy to make the case for ignoring them - benchmarks are not maint...

I used Elvis Costello circa 1979 and a Cory Doctorow cover, Jerry Fishenden starts with Jeremy Bentham (godfather of UCL if I recall correctly) and continues so much more eloquently on the issue of data driven dystopia and the understanding required by citizens of the role and purpose of IT as envisaged by political parties. This is the domain in which those of us in location IT (and all that it encompasses, from the geoweb to the GIS, from spatial operations in the database to sensor webs) need to make our voices heard......

Can't believe a month has gone by since last post but then been busy as the world wakes up to new possibilities - can't talk about those obviously! What I can talk about follows on from a theme in my presentation on the geoweb stream at AGI last week in which a call was made for the 'community' to become more relevant not just by talking amongst ourselves - "we're all geo" after all - but by talking to others, by engaging with them and becoming integral to their communities of interest. I prefixed this call with, what may have been seen as oblique, references to data driven dystopias and the surveillance state. But methods/madness etc.... And here comes the link to Elvis Costello (used at AGI too). There I was on the M3 on Friday, mid-morning, half empty, breezing southwards (for once not particularly swiftly) and lo and behold, a hidden speed cop (behind the bridge before the services), then a speed bike cop (Winchester services), then an overhead speed ...

I reckon I have spent more time away from the office this summer than in any time since leaving someone else's gainful employ back in 1993 - reflects strength of and confidence in team and business despite the recession. As ever time away from the office is thinking time, which will please some people (you know who you are!). Plenty of time taken up pondering the dreaded school selection procession for Son #1 and now everything focused on filling in forms correctly by October 23rd - horrible, necessary. Wakeboarding (just, boys waterskied better), swimming and tennis in Menorca ; should have gone sailing given the incessant wind and what was coming next..... The real 'excitement' has been the practice for, build up to and participation in the RS400 Nationals at Mounts Bay Sailing Club this last week. Towbar fitted - check, quality camping - check, surfing lessons for boys - yep, wave sailing rehearsal - whoops, excellent weather forecast (means F2-3 gusting 4) - oh dear oh ...

Interesting to see that Wikipedia considers the neogeography entry to be a candidate for removal owing its potentially neologistic nature - despite use of the term dating back in one context or another to 1922 - not so neo after all! Recently the term has founder common currency more as the rather more web 2.0 corollary to the implicit term of (generally rather gentle) upbraiding of those not aligned with its certain actually rather broad sensibility - the 'paleos' - in that 'if you're not with us...' etc. I'm not going to endeavour to (re)define these terms or to broaden the scope out to include GIS or geoweb or cartography or spatial analysis or, remember this one, remote sensing. It's an irony of the internet's amateur publishing paradigm that the implicit polarisation of different schools that sustains the debate is on the one hand an illusion (in that most commentators are sufficiently familiar with the subject to recognise the shades of grey on the...

Following Steven's post ( http://giscussions.blogspot.com/2009/07/digital-paper-divide.html ) and a recent LinkedIn discussion topic on web 2.0/social networking tools (I think you'd have to be a member of the ASPATech Discussion Group), we are becoming better I think at articulating the 'digital divde' though not necessarily at bridging it. 'Yoof' culture is entwined with converged digital tools in a way that remains baffling to many over even 35; the blogosphere is allegedly already in decline as bloggers migrate to the instant 140 characters of Twitter; the digital literati to a great extent exist in their (our) own self-fulfilling worlds of filtered, customised content streams; 'free' is the future and our right; a new supplier is just a click away....and so on and so on. On the other hand, news stands, bookshops, DVD rental and even music shops continue to exist (but for how long I hear some holler); 140 characters does not a valid opinion make; eve...

With all the clamour over PSIHs in recent months, one TF has been in the spotlight. One can debate the reasons for this - another time. This has rather 'allowed' others (of the PSIH ilk) to carry on apparently regardless or oblivious to the changes going on around them. Say what you like about OS but this is far less true of them and they should be priased where praise is due. But, wherefore the others; if I were them I would be sharpening my channel engagement, developing more attractive licensing and pricing terms, honing my knowledge of social media, looking at metadata dissemination and generally trying to mitigate future onslaught of interest in my behaviour. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong places but I sense a head in the sand approach by most - channels are being undermined, licence development is out of kilter with licence agreements, screen scraping has become the modus operandi of choice for many fed up with the vacuum and social engagement is limited to 'conta...

Thought it best to digest the day and reflect on what was almost (sorry Adam, that was the second time I've watched you read a prepared script, off the cuff humour not withstanding, iti all felt sooo 'qualified') without exception a staggering succession of speakers with topics and ideas to match. Others have already done an excellent job in 'reporting' (for example, http://rooreynolds.com/2009/07/01/guardian-activate-09/ ) so will confine myself to stuff close to my heart, personal and professional. The stand out piece for many would have been Gerry Jackson's harrowing account of broadcasting under repressive, hostile and down-right life-threatening circumstances in Zimbabwe. Having been caught up in two mostly unreported civil wars (I am lead to believe that one of them had one paragraph in The Times once) before the rise of the digital age (there was short wave radio and one telex machine in Hargeisa!) when reporting such things required genuine 'Salvador...

The entry of the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) into the "free"/"open" debate is not surprising ( http://www.cps.org.uk/cps_catalog/it ). It feels though like another missed opportunity to move the debate on hampered as it is by political point scoring. Varney has it that the government needs to hold “...a ‘deep truth’ about the citizen based on their behaviour, experiences, beliefs, needs and rights”; the CPS report argues for something they call "Government Relationship Management" at whose heart lies choice in the location of your personal data and access to it based on standards (and, not mentioned, rights). Whether or not data "belongs" to the individual, that data should be exchanged using open standards - the web services and metadata chestnut. Hence my interest. The report focuses on cost, ownership and security and that the solutions to this lie with a change to the model. From the perspective of opening up access the report actually of...

I would have liked to have gone to last weeks OGC event about which Adena ( http://www.directionsmag.com/article.php?article_id=3202 ) and Ed ( http://www.edparsons.com/2009/06/the-tla-nobody-likes-drm/ ) have recently reported/blogged. Didn't go to Glastonbury or Hyde Park either but Springsteen honouring Strummer worth the nod of the title I think. As you can imagine as a geoportal understanding licensing, sub-licensing and licence management, provising licence advice and so on are key competitive advantages for emapsite. However, we all know that getting to grips with licencesis something of an on-going challenge, be they public sector or commercial licences. We like to think we're on top of it and have worked very hard to provide appropriate components to the control module of our 'emapsite inside' web services platform ( http://www.emapsite.com/corporate/Solutions_and_services-emapsite_inside-Overview.aspx ). Talking over the years with Graham Vowles, who heads up...

Started off rebuffing belief that shapefile is proprietary but then went a bit deeper into the article and re-read Mr C's speech - then had to filter to end up with something that linked (my) data (awful pun, apologies to Sir TBL); so worth cross-referencing here - http://www.freeourdata.org.uk/blog/?p=449&cpage=1#comment-120970

Think we might be seeing some joined up thinking in government? Consider the OEP, the still unpublished Trading Fund Review, the OS Revised Strategy, the appointment of web-founder and Linked Data evangelist Sir Tim (as well as Martha LF in another parallel advisory capacity) and the Digital Britain report - consistent references are made (and this is my shorthand interpretation admittedly) to the value of digital content, both in its creation and its distribution and consumption, to UK plc. As the economic profile of the creative industries rises and advertising revenues and the financial services sector suffer, there is creeping recognition that just because you can (copy and distribute digital content for next to nothing) don't make it right. File sharing and DRM are inevitably at the forefront of this debate for the consumer but, in business, enterprises value their integrity to the point of making such copying or use a dismissable offence (I've seen the noticeboards, belie...

Thanks to Bob Barr to his tweet alerting me to Ms Spelman's question and the DEFRA written response - http://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2009-05-19a.275782.h . I had the pleasure of working on a number of land information systems development initiatives in emerging economies back in the 1990s where the establishment of rights in land (and property) were (and remain in some countries we are involved in as I speak) a key plank in the transition from centrally planned to "western" economy. The focus tended to be on the creation of what mainland european counterparts would recognise as a cadastre - land demarcation and subsequent registration - recording, protecting and securing rights in land and providing a stepping stone for investment, entrepreneurial activity, sustainable land use practices, improved yields and farm-gate incomes and a market in land and property. To this day I find it ironic that it was often British organisations with British personnel who were w...

Prescient or what - malaria is the coming story after all - swine flu "pandemic" dissipates in the heta of election expenses while the malarial parasite is revealed as becoming immune to one of the major prophylactics. And, one can only assume that because this was broken on BBC, ITN News for whatever reason chose to ignore it (this was last week in France and this was what was on!) - more brucisation of news, only from the opposition - very disappointing.

It always happens - the gestation period, the testing, the iteration, the collateral...and finally, the release - it all takes longer than you think! emapsite has been a 'dynamic' site, adding new content and functionality and altering usability to reflect new norms, embrace emerging standrads, assimilate feedback and so on. As such we haven't majored on new "releases" of the website. However, on this occasion I do think that something more is merited as the site update includes a re-branding of the business, enhanced usability and a little lifting of the lid of our services platform - at this juncture in marketing and communications terms only but if you are interested to learn more you can.... So, if you are interested in or use digital mapping or if you are a user of broader digital geographic content or if you wish to embed location content within your business there are even more reasons to visit www.emapsite.com .

Just back from a fantastic 9 days away in La Vendee. Some who know me will know that good friend, co-boat owner, man who got things done and enjoyer of life Marcus passed away very suddenly in January leaving a vast hole in the lives of his family. The same friends with whom we have just had our holiday in the sun, sand and swimming pool (well the sea was a little cold still!) - I am not alone in missing a friend but I really really don't know how they do it - much loved, sorely missed.

After a couple of years away I am returning to the OS Partner event this year, partly to present (of which more anon) and partly to participate in a community for the most part silent on the challenges and opportunities likely to emerge from the OS's new business strategy. Far be it from me to lift the skirts on my presentation but if you were at the MapInfo User Group you'll have a sense. Somehow I have ended up in the technology innovation stream but as technology presentations tend to err on the dull side (or the "look at me" side which can be just as irritating) but that will only be the jumping off point to endeavour to link partners, strategy and technology. As has been said this week on GeoReport (currently the site is down but typically found at www.geoplace.com ) responses to the survey over whether government should fund geographic data collection specifically yielded some (to some) surprising comments of the kind that feed the debates that will I am sure i...

Last week, Force 7 in the Solent, Sunsail 37 underfoot and a scratch crew - sounds like things could go wrong - far from it, with a 4th in one race (12 starters) - and a great time had by all and but for a few salt splashes pretty dry all things considered - credit to the skipper there. Roll forward to sunday just gone and as you may have noticed it has been a windy old week and their were white horses on the lake at Theale. Enough to bring a smile to a sailor's face, 5 ears now in (on?) the RS400, the good ship "Yellow Peril", should be quick and fun. Oh dear - great start, lousy decisions, huge gust - swim. It didn't get any better in the afternoon and were soon ensconced in the bar.....

Is it just me or does there seem to be a flurry of geoweb and overlapping cultural-political goings-on? Some of the more visible ones: - reports into our surveillance society - http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/library/data_protection/detailed_specialist_guides/surveillance_report_final.pdf http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200708/cmselect/cmhaff/58/58i.pdf http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/library/data_protection/practical_application/surveillance_society_full_report_2006.pdf http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/library/data_protection/practical_application/surveillance_society_appendices_06.pdf for the brief versions: http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/library/data_protection/practical_application/surveillance_society_public_discussion_document_06.pdf http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/library/data_protection/practical_application/surveillance_society_summary_06.pdf - Firefox 3.5 chooses Google LS (Latitude) over Skyhook's Geode ( http://www.techcrunc...

The site of Fiona tut-tutting on the 10 o'clock news is bad enough at the best of times but over swine flu - 2,000 suspected cases globally, 5 on our shores, 7 dead in Mexico, 1 (child) in the US - is off the scale. Three million or so people, many of them children, most of them far from airports and cameras, die every year from malaria - oh yes, and with climate change we can expect that one (and others) to spread. We even went as a family into a malarial area on holiday in East Africa last year, shock horror! We can't give malaria to each other directly, mosquitoes are the vector, but we can get a mild form of flu from another human - oh dear, let's wheel out "pandemic" and watch the stock market shudder. It's not as if the world is short of bad news stories, some even related to preventable diseases.....Desperate Housewives saves me from further fury tonight! A thought before leaving the office to watch football training and prepare for the big match.....

This looks like a first post but really it isn't it's just that what I've been offered from the backroom hasn't done what was expected and while I'm waiting for a replacement (that particular room being somewhat busy for reasons that will become apparent at some point) decided to take bull by horns. Am sorely tempted to post retrospectively over many issues that have caught my eye on the water, the slopes and the web. However, I think that is probably not the right "tarteeb" (a word I use occasionally being a "Holmanism" from the late Mike Holman, adventurer, Marine, Arabic speaker, originally from the Arabic where it refers to "the correct order of things", specifically the order of the Nazool (sometimes translated as the sending down) of the Holy Qu'ran). I suppose (n)etiquette is an alternative but carries different baggage both old and new, so tarteeb it is! No doubt many of the things I am interested in, from snow and wind cond...