The UK has a National Geospatial Strategy
Or has some wit had it (I spy Bob Barr), another national geospatial strategy.
Amid a recent flurry of things geospatial and amid a veritable storm of everything data, evidence and the digital economy, the Geospatial Commission last week launched Unlocking the Power of Location, the UK's Geospatial Strategy.
The questions you're asking are likely, is it any good, is it worthwhile, does it set out a clear vision, is it indeed a strategy, and you may well have drawn your own conclusions. You should definitely read it.
For all the old hacks going "here we go again", it is safe to say that as someone who bleeds geospatial and whose own career has paralleled the rise of digital geography and latterly location intelligence, you can never really get enough of what the former Director of the Geospatial Commission, William Priest, termed this geospatial moment. And long may it continue.
The Zoom launch was always going to be a challenge as strategies are necessarily wide ranging and dry so credit to Lord True, Sir Andrew Dilnot and Thalia Baldwin for casting the 71 page document off with gusto and for taking questions (there will be another post attempting to garner your input to those questions, reframed). [also hat tip to the tech used for the launch]. The document itself is if anything more gusto and while not specifically referencing those that had gone before it mostly successfully forges a fresh path.
As a lifelong advocate for geospatial, it was especially heartening to read Sir Andrew's opener - "A wave of technological change is sweeping through every aspect of our lives, bringing with it a torrent of data. Location-aware devices and connected sensors – the so-called Internet of Things – are now everywhere, giving rise to an abundance of data, in richer and more complex forms than ever before. The world is starting to see the value in this new resource, including in tackling the threat from the global Covid-19 pandemic. But it is clear that we are only just beginning to harness its power. Data about ‘where’ (geospatial, or location data) has the potential to underpin huge advances in our digital society, improving our lives and equipping the economy to recover from the effects of Coronavirus".
He goes on to position location data, information, insight and intelligence is a slew of existing, emerging and future applications and use cases. You'd be hard put to find anyone who doesn't welcome such sentiments even if they are meat and two veg to insiders. Unlocking the value, opportunity and power of location data for citizens, business and government through facilitating data discovery, easing access, enabling exchange, building skills and challenging innovators to help build thriving, sustainable communities across the UK and beyond is so now.
As an AGI member for 30 years and current Vice Chair this is all grand. Further, the strategy broadens out an earlier Geospatial Commission narrative from 5 to 9 sectors of our economy. This part of the vision has to be one that grabs or is used to grab the attention of the wider market for whom the very word geospatial rings hollow, confusing or technocratic, or doesn't ring at all.
The strategy very wisely, if counter-intuitively in view of its originating agency, then replaces 'geospatial' with location and location data. This should resonate more powerfully and tangibly with industry and commerce and at least enable them to begin to ask questions and seek out the collective intelligence of the geospatial community within their organisations and across the broader UK ecosystem. For their benefit it should be noted that we do geospatial very well indeed in the UK with exemplar use cases across all sectors.
The strategy goes on to set out 4 missions and a series of actions and activities while also documenting achievements to date such as the National Underground Assets Register pilots.
All well and good but you can probably smell a but.....and you'd be right. We should and I do welcome the Geospatial Strategy and recognise the work done from a standing start by the Geospatial Commission and the Geo6 to pull it together particularly during 2020 when Cabinet Office has been integral to the Covid-19 response. And it's evidently unfinished business, a work in progress with on-going work in skills and markets to name but two.
It is this I hang on to - we live very much in rapidly changing times and today's geospatial strategy will morph to reflect the changes coming down the track. The strategy identifies 6 trends already with us in one form or another as a bellwether for that change. It maybe this that signals that the framework set out, encompassing as it does a substantial action plan for the Geospatial Commission itself and its partners, is the launch pad for some further serious thinking about how these foundational steps can, through yet wider collaboration across the geospatial community, harness the collective intelligence of this ecosystem to fashion a truly location empowered UK plc.
I for one look forward to that journey.
Amid a recent flurry of things geospatial and amid a veritable storm of everything data, evidence and the digital economy, the Geospatial Commission last week launched Unlocking the Power of Location, the UK's Geospatial Strategy.
The questions you're asking are likely, is it any good, is it worthwhile, does it set out a clear vision, is it indeed a strategy, and you may well have drawn your own conclusions. You should definitely read it.
For all the old hacks going "here we go again", it is safe to say that as someone who bleeds geospatial and whose own career has paralleled the rise of digital geography and latterly location intelligence, you can never really get enough of what the former Director of the Geospatial Commission, William Priest, termed this geospatial moment. And long may it continue.
The Zoom launch was always going to be a challenge as strategies are necessarily wide ranging and dry so credit to Lord True, Sir Andrew Dilnot and Thalia Baldwin for casting the 71 page document off with gusto and for taking questions (there will be another post attempting to garner your input to those questions, reframed). [also hat tip to the tech used for the launch]. The document itself is if anything more gusto and while not specifically referencing those that had gone before it mostly successfully forges a fresh path.
As a lifelong advocate for geospatial, it was especially heartening to read Sir Andrew's opener - "A wave of technological change is sweeping through every aspect of our lives, bringing with it a torrent of data. Location-aware devices and connected sensors – the so-called Internet of Things – are now everywhere, giving rise to an abundance of data, in richer and more complex forms than ever before. The world is starting to see the value in this new resource, including in tackling the threat from the global Covid-19 pandemic. But it is clear that we are only just beginning to harness its power. Data about ‘where’ (geospatial, or location data) has the potential to underpin huge advances in our digital society, improving our lives and equipping the economy to recover from the effects of Coronavirus".
He goes on to position location data, information, insight and intelligence is a slew of existing, emerging and future applications and use cases. You'd be hard put to find anyone who doesn't welcome such sentiments even if they are meat and two veg to insiders. Unlocking the value, opportunity and power of location data for citizens, business and government through facilitating data discovery, easing access, enabling exchange, building skills and challenging innovators to help build thriving, sustainable communities across the UK and beyond is so now.
As an AGI member for 30 years and current Vice Chair this is all grand. Further, the strategy broadens out an earlier Geospatial Commission narrative from 5 to 9 sectors of our economy. This part of the vision has to be one that grabs or is used to grab the attention of the wider market for whom the very word geospatial rings hollow, confusing or technocratic, or doesn't ring at all.
The strategy very wisely, if counter-intuitively in view of its originating agency, then replaces 'geospatial' with location and location data. This should resonate more powerfully and tangibly with industry and commerce and at least enable them to begin to ask questions and seek out the collective intelligence of the geospatial community within their organisations and across the broader UK ecosystem. For their benefit it should be noted that we do geospatial very well indeed in the UK with exemplar use cases across all sectors.
The strategy goes on to set out 4 missions and a series of actions and activities while also documenting achievements to date such as the National Underground Assets Register pilots.
It is this I hang on to - we live very much in rapidly changing times and today's geospatial strategy will morph to reflect the changes coming down the track. The strategy identifies 6 trends already with us in one form or another as a bellwether for that change. It maybe this that signals that the framework set out, encompassing as it does a substantial action plan for the Geospatial Commission itself and its partners, is the launch pad for some further serious thinking about how these foundational steps can, through yet wider collaboration across the geospatial community, harness the collective intelligence of this ecosystem to fashion a truly location empowered UK plc.
I for one look forward to that journey.
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