17844084a303a463aee4721cff04c86b

issue 36 : October 2010

. . . joining the geography jigsaw

Proving the benefits of GI PSI and Europe: reverse engineering the rules

Address datasets can add economic value

OGC, ISO, CEN: new standards for GI exchange

Paying for software in the age of austerity

Going beyond Inspire: the ESDIN project

ArcGIS comes of age in San Diego

plus News | People | Products & Services | Books | GiSPro’s columnists

Issue No 36 October 2010

contents p. 10

Addressing Europe Problems with address datasets are not unique to the UK, argues Michael Nicholson. So will joining the European Address Forum help?

our mission. . . to help grow the business for the whole GIS community by providing an effective, reliable and timely medium for news, information and comment.

Publisher: Stephen Booth Editor: Stephen Booth Deputy Editor: Hayley Tear Features Editor: Robin Waters Advertising: Sharon Robson Subscriptions: Barbara Molloy Editorial advisory board: Chris Holcroft James Kavanagh Dr Muki Haklay Ed Parsons Adena Schutzberg Dr Suchith Anand Robin Waters Editorial and advertising: PV Publications Ltd 2B North Road Stevenage Hertfordshire SG1 4AT United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0) 1438 352617 Fax: +44 (0) 1438 351989 e-mail: editor@pvpubs.demon.co.uk web: www.gisprofessional.co.uk

Material to be Published: All submissions will be handled with reasonable care, but the publishers assume no responsibility for safety of photographs or manuscripts. Every precaution is taken to ensure accuracy, but publishers cannot accept responsibility for the accuracy of information published or for any opinion expressed.

p. 12

Location economics: valuing GI Using proven modelling techniques, Andy Coote and colleagues show how to prove the benefits of geographical information.

p. 14

ArcGIS comes of age!

Adena Schutzberg was among the vast crowd of delegates at Esri’s 2010 International User Conference – so what were the key messages?

p. 16

PSI & Europe: reverse engineering re-use rules Lawyer Marc de Vries proposes a framework of reliable rules for dealing with the re-use of public sector information.

p. 20

The geographic information exchange Steven Ramage explains how the OGC has been forging links to develop new standards for GI exchange.

p. 26

ESDIN makes Inspire useful Can we maximise location data? It is commitment to best practice that will change our treatment of data, argues David Overton and colleagues.

p. 29

Subscribe or pay-as-you-go?

How you pay for software is changing. Carl Hancock, Aligned Assets, makes the case for Software by Subscription.

p. 32

Book review: but what does “lining up data” mean?

Jonathan Iliffe reviews Lining Up Data in ArcGIS – a guide to map projections by Margaret M. Maher.

> GISPro’s COLUMNS p.23 Adena Schutzberg – Not all that is forecast for geospatial happens. . .

Reprints: Reprints of all articles are available.

Call 01438 352617 for details.

Advertising: Information about advertisement rates, schedules etc. are available in a media pack. Log on to www.gisprofessional.co.uk or call 01438 352617 Publishers: PV Publications Ltd No material may be reproduced in whole or in part without the written permission of the publishers. © 2010 ISSN 1748-3646

p.24 Eurofile – Shining up there in the sky is something quite worrying. . . p.30 AGI Column – There’s plenty still to come in 2010 for AGI members!

> GISPro’s STANDFASTS p.5 p.6 p.8

Editorial News People

p.33 p.34 p.35

GiSPro Products & Services GIS Calendar & Subscriptions GiSPro Classified

Printing: The Manson Group, St Albans

Front cover: Increasingly CEOs want to see the hard cash savings from GI projects: Andy Coote and colleagues show how on page 12.

Our thanks to Dr Gesche Schmid of the Local Government Association for the main image.

For details of how to subscribe to GiSPro, turn to page 34.

read on. . .

GiSProfessional

Next Issue: December 2010 Copy dates Editorial: 8 November Advertising: 12 November

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Issue No 36 October 2010

from the editor welcome to the October issue of

GIS Professional. . .

The GI sector faces major challenges across Europe Welcome to the October issue of GiSPro. If you’re reading our magazine for the first time because of our distribution at the Intergeo exhibition in Köln or have just picked up a copy from a colleague, then I hope you will enjoy this issue. All of the articles apply equally to geoinformation professionals across Europe and indeed help inform the worldwide geo business.

Issues like the re-use of public sector data, the EU Inspire Directive, Standards, new software delivery models and finding ways to prove the benefits of GI in these tough economic times, are all ones that are exercising and challenging geo-professionals across Europe.

One of the key aspects of the GI sector that impresses me is its agility in adapting quickly to new circumstances. In less than a year we have seen major players as well as much smaller suppliers adapt their offerings to a rapidly changing public sector landscape. The days of big systems with maintenance contracts and regular training packages are beginning to fade. A new generation of software savvy people are coming of age in the public sector. In the UK the new Coalition Government’s expected cuts in public sector spending will eventually see a brave new world very different from that of today. It will inevitably mean more emphasis on efficiency savings – doing more for less, and here GI can help. Studies across Europe have shown again and again that by re-using public sector data linked to geographical information systems local services can be delivered at lower cost and to the greater benefit of citizens.

The days of big systems with maintenance contracts and regular training packages are beginning to fade.

In the meantime, I hope you will become a regular reader and maybe even contribute to our columns. Full details of how to subscribe are on page 34 or go online to www.pvpubs.com where you will find, for subscribers, our searchable archive of back issues. By subscribing, you not only gain access to this valuable reference resource but you will be able to read the latest issue ahead of delivery of your printed copy.

GiSProfessional

“

By the time you read this issue of GiSPro the UK’s big annual GI conference – AGI GeoCommunity’10 – will have taken place. GeoCommunity’10 promises to be an outstanding success. The vibrant programme reflects my opening comments about the agility of our business. There are sessions that deal with the potential consequences of freeing up of public data; the geo-web and cloud computing (read our US correspondent Adena Schutzberg’s column in this issue if you want a bumpy landing on this topic). And in the conference wings there are the usual suspects with teasing topics like “Cocktails on the Titanic” and “Oi! Sir Tim: Hands off my spreadsheet!” Expect to read all about it in our next issue.

“

Stephen Booth, editor

joining the geography jigsaw

www.gisprofessional.co.uk

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Issue No 36 October 2010

news Belgium mapping goes 3D

PSI: have your say The autumn brings a series of actions related to the review of Europe's PSI Re-use Directive 2003/98/EC. The first stage is the Europe wide public consultation process on the policy and legislative framework for the re-use of public sector information and the opening up of government data for re-use with the European Commission announcing an online survey. Now is the time to express your views, if you think the current framework needs to be changed http://ec.europa. eu/yourvoice/ipm/forms/dispatch?form =psidirective2010. The results will be published online by the European Commission and the consultation is open until 30 November 2010.

A hi-tech digital map captured using laser-scanning technology is being created for the Flanders region of Belgium using 3D mapping software.

Using Pointools’ point cloud software, Belgian surveying company, Teccon, has processed billions of individual measurements to create data for use by central and regional government, plus utility companies and the transport sector. A combination of surveying techniques including mobile laser mapping, satellite navigation and field and office data capture methodologies has resulted in an attributed base map, which now covers more than 1,200 square kilometres. The Grootschalig Referentie Bestand (GRB) is a project by the Agency for Geographic Information Flanders (AGIV) to create large-scale mapping for the region. The project aims to create an ‘inventory’ of ground features – including waterways, railways, roads and administrative plots, etc – recording the position, extent and characteristics of every feature.

PSMA Transition Plan The UK’s Department of Communities and Local Government (CLG) has published its road map for the implementation of a single Public Sector Mapping Agreement (PSMA), which will take effect from April 1st 2011. The agreement will cover central and local government departments and agencies and the NHS in England and Wales. The public sector in Scotland already has an equivalent agreement.

Funding, to make available OS MasterMap Topography Layer, ITN and other products including addressing datasets free at point of use for “core”government activities has been agreed. The PSMA will also come with wider rights in relation to derived data.

The deal comes with technical support from OS, periodic reviews of data specifications and agreement to explore the options for working in partnership to produce a National Address Gazetteer.

The purpose behind PSMA is to encourage better use of OS datasets for more efficient government and to remove barriers to moving data between departments. A new GI Group will represent the interests of the public sector in advising CLG on strategic management of the PSMA.

GiSProfessional

Geo-data must not be sacrificed Geographic information

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is a business enabler, according to a recent survey by the UK’s Association for Geographic Information (AGI) and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. The survey, in which over 100 public and private sector organisations were polled, found that 96 per cent saw GI as a business enabler. The “Opportunities in a changing world survey 2010” found that 73 per cent believed better use of data in the next 12 months is imperative – in an environment where they “have to do more with less.” Also, despite geodata being deemed business critical, nearly two thirds of respondents stated their organisation did not have a data strategy.

‘Worryingly, a lack of a data www.gisprofessional.co.uk

strategy can lead to inefficient storage and retrieval of information,’ says PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Simon Doyle. He argues that there is ‘higher cost, as data is purchased more than once or not re-used’ and also that ‘there is inaccurate understanding and interpretation of that information within decision making processes’.

The three data types identified as the most useful were national or panEuropean mapping agency data (27%), national public sector data holdings (22%), or from an organisation’s own data holdings.

Interestingly, crowd-sourced data, commercial data providers and “Web 2.0” data providers such as Google and OpenStreet Map failed to impress.

from their address database has met with mixed response from marketers and the public. But the controversy misses the point, according to address data specialist, Postcode Anywhere. ‘The reality is that little will change.

Details such as counties can be something very personal to the British mentality,’ says Phil Rothwell, sales and marketing director. ‘Regrettably it may lead to confusion internationally, where address formats tend to be stricter.

The crux of the matter is that the county problem has never been with addresses – it’s been in defining geographical areas. We simply don’t have consistent conventions for this, leading to confusion when mapping out sales areas and definitive boundaries. . .

Providing and maintaining definitive boundary data is the thorny problem most commentators seem to have missed’.

Addressing crime detection Salford Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership is addressing crime rates with a crime prevention project that has the National Land and Property Gazetteer database at its heart. ‘What we needed was a map-based solution with an incident pinpointing tool that enabled us to quickly and accurately locate an incident, identify possible high quality CCTV coverage and the means to request coverage from any camera owner,’ says Paul Coward, corporate GIS consultant at Salford City Council. The council has developed an online service enabling visitors to identify and record CCTV camera locations on a map before adding contact and camera information. ‘The NLPG is in effect the glue that holds the whole thing together enabling us to accurately locate an incident, identify cameras in the vicinity and secure footage for crime detection,’ Coward concludes.

Quick collection of US Over Missing the real issue?

Royal Mail’s announcement that county names are to be dropped

three months, 95% of the contiguous United States has been imaged by the RapidEye satellites. Almost 80% joining the geography jigsaw

Issue No 36 October 2010

Aiding Pakistan After several days waiting for clearance to travel to Pakistan and a final rush to the Pakistan High Commission for visas, MapAction volunteers Helen Campbell and James Steel departed for Islamabad on 10th August as part of the United Nations Disaster Assessment and Co-ordination (UNDAC) team. They were followed two days later by Andy Smith and Andy Kervell and then Ian Holt, Nick McWilliam and Becky Kervell, plus one of the UK charity’s Germany based team, Martin Mainberger. A support team has also been providing 24-hour backup with data and analysis.

MapAction provides mapping specialisation using GIS to ensure that information such as the extent of the damage, affected population and the state of the health facilities is available to all the aid agencies.

Call for GISRUK papers The programme committee for the GIS Research UK (GISRUK) 2011 conference has opened its call for short papers. The conference is being co-hosted by Ordnance Survey and the department of geography of the University of Portsmouth from 27-29 April 2011. Papers on the following themes are particularly welcome: open source GI and Web 2.0; GIS for schools and colleges; disaster risk management; remote sensing; GeoSemantics; historical GIS; health geography; coastal and fluvial geomorphology; and urban planning and modelling. The closing date for abstracts is 17 December 2010. For more details, visit www.port.ac.uk/ departments/academic/geography/gis ruk2011/callforpapers/. joining the geography jigsaw

EEA data in the cloud The European Environment Agency (EEA) and ESRI have signed a memorandum of understanding to support the design and development of ways to share and access essential geographic environmental data provided by the agency’s 38 European member countries. The agency will now work with the GIS software company to improve the its cloud environment map services. European countries will share their environmental data more easily, while nations, agencies, scientists and policy makers will be able to quickly access and consume the data for viewing and analysis.

CONTRACTS & PROJECTS Mapping wind flows Computer-generated 3D city models from Bluesky are helping to give a better understanding of the wind environment around urban infrastructure projects. By creating complex engineering models, consultancy, Mott MacDonald, simulates the flow of wind around a site and creates different scenarios based on the project design. The consultancy processes the Bluesky data first using Pointools' Rhino 3D design software for CAD to add or remove structures based on the project design and then using specialist software for surface modelling, analysis and visualisation. Having created an airtight envelope around the modelled project area, the wind flow is calculated and different design scenarios can be considered.

Extended agreement The business partner agreement established in 2004 between Trimble’s mapping and GIS division and Critigen’s former parent, CH2M HILL, has been extended. Critigen will serve as system integrator and provide data management and visual business intelligence products to support Trimble’s technology and products in the utilities, state and local government, and

Engineering consultancy Mott MacDonald is using computer generated models from Bluesky to help understand wind behaviour around structures. environmental management markets. The companies will provide a range of product development, joint sales, data collection, data conversion and implementation services.

Keeping sales on target A

package of software and digital mapping products is helping the L’Oréal Professional Products Division, part of the international L’Oréal cosmetics group, to sustain strong growth in its market. Managing the territories served by the division’s sales teams requires constant review

GiSProfessional

of this imagery was captured with less than ten percent cloud cover. The campaign, which began 1 May, has produced an abundance of imagery with many areas covered multiple times. In addition, 97% of Mexico was collected and almost 60% of Canada. Many areas were imaged more than once and totalled 17 million square kilometres of North America.

news

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Issue No 36 October 2010

news Web mapping helps optical fibre network

Getmapping’s web mapping service (WMS) is being used by Vtesse Networks to plan optical fibre networks. Aerial photography is streamed via a WMS feed over the Internet directly into Vtesse’s planning and asset management tool. The service provides an efficient way to access large datasets, reducing network overhead. ‘Aerial photography reveals so much more about the situation on the ground than a map ever can,’ said Steve Roberts, from Vtesse Networks. ‘The WMS feed from Getmapping is an extremely efficient way of providing us with access to nationwide aerial photography. It enables our network planners to zoom in, locate and identify buildings, at a subpostcode level. They can get a really good idea of the issues involved with bringing our optical fibre networks into clients’ buildings’.

and reorganising. MapMechanics has supplied products including GeoConcept Enterprise and digital map datasets such as Navteq streetlevel UK mapping, Geoplan postcode boundaries and Ordnance Survey’s Codepoint postcode geocoding.

The coal mining legacy The UK Location Programme is starting a pilot project with The Coal Authority to share spatial data on former coalmines. The Coal Authority is leading the work to spatially identify sites in coalfields across Britain and share related information in an automated way using consistent digital standards.

Mining and site inspection reports are being combined with the land ownership details held by 180 local authorities whose areas coincide with the coalfields.

GiSProfessional

OGC and ISPRS collaborate

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The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) and the International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS) have signed a memorandum of understanding to www.gisprofessional.co.uk

enhance the development and use of geospatial standards. Under the agreement, the two organisations will work cooperatively to raise the awareness, acceptance and implementation of open standards and to promote educational programs and best practices that benefit their memberships and practitioners worldwide.

BRIEFS The Association for Geographic Information (AGI) has organised two new awards for 2010: innovation and best practice – business case & ROI (sponsored by ConsultingWhere) and innovation and best practice – charitable status (sponsored by ESRI UK). All awards will be presented at the Annual Awards Dinner on 25th November 2010 at the Royal College of Physicians in London. In addition, the award previously named innovation and best practice (local government) has been changed to innovation and best practice – local public services (sponsored by Pitney Bowes Business Insight).

Aligned Assets’ One Wales – One Voice best practice day will be held at the Media Resource Centre in Llandrindod on 2 November 2010.

The event will see presentations from local authorities, the emergency services and the Welsh Assembly Government. In addition, the company has announced two new one-day BS7666 training courses in November 2010: “An Introduction to BS7666” and “BS7666 for Developers”. Both the upcoming training courses and the best practice day have been accredited by the AGI. For more information, visit www. aligned-assets.co.uk/events.

RapidEye has mandated Roland Berger Strategy Consultants to support its effort to raise additional funding for the company. The new funding will be used to make necessary investments into the market development, to upgrade and improve the systems to handle the additional growth and to initiate development of new geoinformation products and services.

Ordnance Survey has published its Annual Report and Accounts for 2009-10. You can view and download the report at www. ordnancesurvey.co.uk/annualreport.

The national mapping agency has also launched a new online newsletter, OS Insider, which highlights some of the projects currently being worked on at OS. The membership of EuroGeographics, the association of Europe’s national mapping land registry and cadastral agencies, has continued to grow with the general assembly approving two new members: Agenzia del Territorio, Italy and the National Agency of Public Registry, Georgia.

GIS Professional is again to be a media sponsor for next year’s DGI Europe conference on 24-27 January 2011 at QEII Centre in London. For more information, visit www.dgieurope.com.

PEOPLE Advising utilities

Operating from Infotech Enterprises’ Sydney, Australia office, Greg Oaten has been hired as the strategy advisor for utilities. He will help develop the company’s new service offerings in areas such as Smart Grid and power engineering for its customers and prospects in the APAC region.

Focusing on alliances

Dr Mike Clark has been appointed as head of partners and alliances for ESRI UK. He will focus on supporting the partners and alliances team in developing business with existing partners and establishing new alliances and partner channels.

Marketing SaaS Colm Mulcahy is now chief sales and marketing officer at eSpatial with responsibility for its software as a service GIS business and identifying and addressing new markets for SaaS.

Leading plugfests Dr Luis E Bermudez has been appointed director of interoperability certification for the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC). He will manage the OGC certification programme, lead plugfest activities and support OGC testbeds, pilots and interoperability experiments.

He has co-authored publications and done work in geospatial interoperability including ontologies and geospatial metadata frameworks.

Issue No 36 October 2010

the value of addressing

Above: Contrary to popular belief the British are not alone in their euro scepticism.

THE BRITISH FREQUENTLY believe themselves alone in being euro-sceptic. They are not. In France and Germany and some of the Nordic countries euro-sceptics abound.

In Spain and Greece, opinion polls point to a sharp decline in popularity for the EU. And yet all these countries provide willing experts to help develop EU initiatives – and who are paid for their pains – whilst the UK, relative to its size, is generally under-represented in EU projects.

It cannot be because of a lack of language skills. The

and private sector organisations from 16 countries across the EU received funding to support the examination and then creation of a Best Practice Network aimed at promoting address harmonization across the EU. Of course, the initiative was well-timed, given the work being undertaken by the EU following the Inspire Directive. The two activities have many synergies.

The emphasis of the project, EURADIN (EURopean ADdresses INfrastructure), was placed on defining the best method of securing access to existing address datasets across the EU and what steps must be taken to ensure interoperability between them, so as to further open-up access to pan-European information infrastructures.

However, the scope of the project was considerable and required an analysis of; what currently exists; the right model for data collection; the user needs; the best data structures; metadata needs; the business model.

The result was a series of reports examining each aspect in some detail. Comparisons were fascinating and challenging. What level of currency and quality really was optimal in terms of cost and payback? The full details can be found at www.euradin.eu

Addressing Europe Although the UK continues to grapple with its several address datasets it is not unique. Our European partners often have similar problems, explains Intelligent Addressing’s Michael Nicholson who argues that addressing has a substantial economic and practical value. Joining the European Address Forum may help. working language is generally English. It cannot be a lack of expertise. It cannot be because of a lack of funding because generally the arrangements are attractive when taken in the round, even if not highly profitable. Perhaps it is the variety of initiatives and acronyms guaranteed to baffle any lexicographer. Perhaps it is a sense that their efforts would only be a drop in the ocean in comparison to the challenge that the EU often offers. However, as Ghandi said, each ocean is made up of drops.

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Addressing is a fundamentally co-operative exercise, which needs leadership but also crosses administrative and operational boundaries.

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GiSProfessional

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www.gisprofessional.co.uk

Looking Europe wide In 2008, Intelligent Addressing was invited to take up a challenge by Danish colleagues who are also experts in the addressing field. The EU Commission had issued an invitation for tenders within their e-Contentplus programme and a Spanish company, TRACASA, were forming a consortium to seek funding for a project to investigate the viability of harmonising European addresses and making them inter-operable.

Anyone with a modicum of knowledge of addressing within the EU would realise that this concept appears to be hope attempting to triumph over experience. Denmark and some of the Nordic countries are well-advanced with their addressing systems. The UK is generally well served by good addressing (even if the alternatives seem to be more confusing to some than helpful). The Dutch have good plans, parts of Italy are also well-served but after this it is still patchy.

Nevertheless in June 2008, a consortium of 30 public

A resounding success The project, which the Spanish chaired with aplomb and had a different chair for each sub-working group, was adjudged a resounding success by its assessors within the European Commission. The reports helped them to recognise that the use of addresses is all-pervasive and that the vast majority of both public and private sector services are delivered by people to people at a given location described by an address. It gave practical context to crucial parts of Inspire and set a Best Practice framework for countries developing addressing solutions. Some forty-one different addressing models were examined in all.

Addressing is a fundamentally co-operative exercise, which needs leadership but also crosses administrative and operational boundaries. There would be little purpose in an address base that only served one city. It must provide value to the region, to the cadastral authorities (potentially a different shape of administrative area), to the education authority (potentially yet a different shaped area), and so forth, as well as to the country and to other member states. If it fails to do so then the value of the address data is limited and opportunities will be lost. EURADIN gave addressing an overall EU context.

Common views The recommendations from the team examining the business model, whilst acknowledging the potential risks and contradictions, joining the geography jigsaw

Issue No 36 October 2010

the value of addressing

Work was done on trying to estimate the value of addressing to the EU. It is not possible to reproduce the full report here and its authors were uneasily aware that it is very difficult to adjudge the true economic value of addressing. For example, how can one properly compare a situation where there is no addressing to its transformation by the introduction of high quality addressing? The comparison tends to be between one where addressing is poor or inaccessible and is then improved.

The value of addressing In 2002, Denmark spent some 8 million Euros over four years acquiring the IPR of their (2.2 million) addresses. They now distribute addresses without charge and a recent study (http://www.adresse-info.dk/Portals/2/Benefit/ Value_Assessment_Danish_Address_Data_UK_2010-0707b.pdf) concluded that some 15 Euros million per annum of net benefit is derived.

Extrapolating statistics is a tricky business but if the Danish benefit calculation was true of the EU as a whole, it would equate to about 1.5-2.0 billion Euro per annum. Closer to home, if the UK Government was to decide to buy-out all the IPR of the addressing protagonists in the UK at the same rate as in Denmark in 2002, then the cost would be over 150 million Euros, an unlikely scenario although it gives an indication of how important the Danes considered resolution to be.

joining the geography jigsaw

EURADIN looked at the contribution of good addressing to a number of specific applications. For reasons already mentioned the authors found it difficult to make conclusions that were other than tentative but by looking at activities such as transport and taxation, the socio-economic value shown by having a comprehensive and current address list rapidly became stratospheric. The actual figure was up to 63 billion Euros or about 0.5% of the EU’s GDP.

Above: Addressing systems have to be able to meet a variety of often challenging locations such as multiple occupation within buildings and developments.

So what happens next? Work relating to addressing continues in both Inspire and EURADIN. Following a competitive process, Simon Barlow, NLPG Custodian, was selected as an Expert by the EU Inspire team. Simon will be part of the ‘Buildings’ Technical Working Group, tasked with the development of the Buildings theme data specification for annex three of the Inspire Directive.

The EURADIN partners wanted to ensure that their work continues to provide value and so formed the European Address Forum (EAF) to extend, continue and reinforce the work of the EURADIN project over the coming years. The EAF web pages are accessible from the EURADIN website.

Membership of the EAF is free in monetary terms, but all members are expected to contribute an agreed level of voluntary time to further the key aims of the organisation, which are essentially to maximise the availability, efficiency and quality of European address data. Better addressing has a substantial economic and practical value and a very considerable, if often unrecognised importance; the EAF wants to encourage the realisation of its benefits, from emergency response efficiency to new value-added products and application.

As one of the key contributors to the EAF, the UK is leading in its establishment and providing the dynamism that every successful organisation needs. The UK is well represented in at least this European initiative.

About the author Michael Nicholson BSc(Hons) FRICS is the founder and MD of Intelligent Addressing. He is also Deputy Chair of the PSI Alliance and former Chair of the Locus Association, a body of private sector companies concerned by the re-use of PSI.

Above: NLPG Custodian Simon Barlow was selected as an Expert by the EU Inspire team.

www.gisprofessional.co.uk

GiSProfessional

were blunt and not universally popular amongst the consortium members although the recommendations represented the views of the clear majority: • there should be a single national “official” address reference database; • the process should be sponsored and controlled by the Public Sector (its practical operation might, however, be sub-contracted to the private sector if financially beneficial to do so); • the data should be owned by the Public Sector and probably the state; • the dataset must be comprehensive, up-to-date and fit for the purposes of central and local government; • if such datasets are created at regional or local level then they must be capable of national integration and of following the Inspire standard for subsequent Pan-European integration; • there should be an integrated creation and maintenance process. This would not prevent the creation of many “added-value address products” by the private sector, suitable for different applications, but all should have the official address reference database as their origin; • the primary “official” creators of address data should be identified; • those bodies involved in the creation process should be encouraged to participate, preferably by law or possibly by binding contract with associated funding where necessary; • the basic data should be free or available at the marginal cost of distribution.

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Issue No 36 October 2010

valuing GI for

public services Figure 1

Year:

WHILST THERE ARE many case studies that make an eloquent pitch for the value of using geospatial information (GI), few express the benefits in financial terms. This often leads to a “so what?” response from senior managers. In today’s harsh economic environment the mantra is “save money and prove it!”

The only new projects that are likely to be approved are those which can show cashable savings and rapidly.

Policy Drivers To gain credibility, any investment must support the political agenda. The project team identified a series of broad policy directions where geospatial clearly “intercepts” the Coalition Government agenda, to guide selecting areas for further study: • Operational efficiency: the need to reduce costs while delivering high quality services; • Shared Services: working across organisational boundaries and to operate through partnership; • The Big Society: local government as an enabler of a more self-service approach that facilitates citizens to act for themselves; and • Information economy: the move to ‘data democracy’ and greater transparency.

It also identified sector-specific statutory regulation, which relies heavily on GI. Key examples, referenced in the study, include planning; traffic management; flood risk and environmental protection.

Location economics: valuing GI for local public service delivery Proving value from GI and location based services is not always easy. Using proven modelling techniques, the authors show how public service policy makers in England and Wales can be shown clear benefits.

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. . . we can expect the benefits to accrue from enterprise deployment at a faster rate than has been observed to this point.

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This problem is particularly acute for local public sector providers such as local authorities, emergency services and local health services. GI already underpins many services and policy decisions but without economic justification the resources that provide these services and the investment required to extend them are under threat.

Against this backdrop, the Local Government Association (LGA) commissioned ConsultingWhere Ltd. to (i) provide a better understanding of the value that GI offers in economic terms to local public service delivery within England and Wales and (ii) to recommend ways in which this might be further enhanced in the future. ACIL Tasman, based in Canberra, Australia, which had undertaken similar exercises in Australia and New Zealand, were engaged by ConsultingWhere to assist in the economic modelling and the expression of the results in terms that policy makers would understand.

Approach The initial stage of the study included primary and secondary research, interviews, a workshop with key opinion formers and discussions with many interested parties. The assembled evidence was then packaged for analysis using ACIL Tasman’s computable general equilibrium (CGE) model, which provides a representation of the local public service sector in a national and international context. When an economic shock or disturbance such as an increase in a sector’s rate of growth is applied to the model, each of the markets adjusts to a new equilibrium according to a set of behavioural parameters, which are underpinned by solid economic theory.

Adoption Waves To understand the maturity of the implementation of GI across the sector, and to inform predictions of future growth, we looked at patterns of adoption and diffusion of the technology. We identified four waves of innovation commencing around 1990, see Figure 1. The first wave saw basic GIS on desktops, with the second wave the gradual linking of databases gave public service providers wider access to internal data. A third wave began in 2000 with the introduction of web mapping, has seen informational and transactional usage. This wave is still working its way through local government. A fourth wave, involving the integration of these technologies into mainstream enterprise systems and the interoperability of data across organisations is just getting underway. Much of this research is based on work done by the LGA in 2009 in their Geographical Information survey.1 We concluded that the value of GI will only be fully realised once this wave has been completed.

Furthermore, we can expect the benefits to accrue from enterprise deployment at a faster rate than has been observed to this point.

Barrier to Adoption A survey of the local public services community identified the top three barriers to further implementation of GI as (i) lack of awareness of benefits and resistance to change amongst users; (ii) implementation costs (hardware and software); and (iii) inappropriate data pricing and/or restrictions on access.

There is a range of possible explanations for the “sub-optimal” rate of progress in implementation 1. http://www.lga.gov.uk/lga/core/page.do?pageId=6597688 joining the geography jigsaw

Issue No 36 October 2010

based on the experience of the study team in other sectors and geographies: - Capacity building issues – lack of necessary human resources with the right skills and knowledge; - Policy conflicts; - Lack of incentives for managers to make changes; - Concerns about mistakes or inaccuracies in the data or maps impacting on reputation or fears of potential litigation if data are released; - Data “hoarding” – where officials seek to maximise remit or influence by retaining control of information; and - Institutional inertia.

Fortunately, powerful paradigm shifts in the market are offering opportunities for step change, including technological advances such as location-based services designed for the consumer market but applicable to local public service delivery. Open source, shared procurement and site licensing are also positive trends in the market, driving down solution costs and encouraging competition.

Case Study Results The case studies reveal strong business cases in many application areas, including: Channel shift – through deployment of transactional web mapping systems to move the main method of communication between citizens and providers from face to face or telephone contact onto the Internet. South Tyneside (Case Study 1) illustrates the savings achievable.

Improved transport efficiency – by wide application of route optimisation and better streetworks management. Daventry District Council has been through two generations of route optimisation with dramatic results in terms of reducing costs.

Better decision making – using geospatially-enabled local information systems. There has been some very impressive work done to prove savings in this area, led by Professor Paul Foley of De Montfort University2. The Nottingham Insight project is a prime example of using the quantifiable benefits methodology, developed in this study (Case Study 2).

Reduced data duplication – using master datasets such as the National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG). A detailed analysis of the value of the NLPG data sharing alone shows net benefits over a five-year period in the range £15-£24million.

Empowering frontline workers – by speeding up analysis and enhancing mobile working.

Helping identify social deprivation – through data integration and analysis.

The research also found that the average annualised cost to benefit ratio was approximately 1:2.5 considered over an average five-year project life cycle, i.e. for every £1 invested a return of £2.50 2. www.communities.gov.uk/publications/communities/establishlocalinfo joining the geography jigsaw

public services

would be realised over this period. The raw analysis suggests a figure closer to 1:3.75 but we have reduced our assessment on the basis that our sample has a bias towards more innovative and better managed projects.

The case studies also provided insights into the further increases in productivity that could arise by 2014-5. Drawing on the adoption waves, it was estimated that by this period, further innovation could lead to a 33 per cent increase in these productivity estimates for the business as usual case. We assess that an additional 25 per cent increase in take up could be realised under the optimal policy case.

Case study 1: Improved services in South Tyneside enabled by GI The Metropolitan Borough of South Tyneside utilised GI to create the ‘My South Tyneside’ web facility. It is designed to be quick and easy to use and includes a property search facility based on the Local Land and Property Gazetteer (LLPG) and “My Nearest” search facility for finding schools, libraries and other local facilities. An email alert service enables citizens to receive regular alerts about local planning applications, road works, etc.

The web statistics for the council site are impressive and the email alerts service has over 2,000 subscribers since its inception. 2009 saw 38,295 unique visits to the site. Research carried out by SocITM calculated typical transaction costs of £0.17 for a web transaction, £4.00 for a phone transaction and £7.81 for a face-to face transaction. Using these figures, estimated costs for web transactions, as opposed to phone transactions, represent an estimated saving of £146,669 in the calendar year.

Wider Economic Impact The economic modelling estimated that Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was approximately £320m higher in 2008-9 in England and Wales than would have been the case without adoption of GI by local public services providers.

Under a business as usual scenario, this Case study: 2 Better decision in Nottingham would be expected to rise to an estimated Nottingham City Council, working with the local £560m in 2014-5, but with more rapid NHS, police, districts and county council have introduction of government policies to free created a Local Information System designed to up data access and copyright and with provide a platform for better decision making for improved awareness of the value of GI at the city's Strategic Framework and the policies and senior management level, this could be plans that support it. It provides ready access to improved to an estimated £600m by 2014-5, comprehensive, up-to-date information to a very fine-grained level, which in tandem with the site's with significant gains across various areas, analytical tools, enables decision-makers in service but particularly in local health care. planning and policy implementation to assemble Furthermore, taxation revenue was £44m evidence to support strategic choices. Almost all higher than it would otherwise have been the information within the system is geospatially and this could rise to be £95 million higher referenced, so not only does it aid visualisation but than it would otherwise be with favourable supports a wide range of geospatial analyses. The Insight team estimate that at least 70% of all uses policies towards geospatial.

We also estimated that the improved would not be possible without the geospatial services have led to about £120m per information capabilities.

Using the online value assessment tool, from annum improvement in the productivity of the CLG study they assessed the net benefits, the construction, land transport and taking into account development and ongoing business services sectors. In addition, there support costs, of Nottingham Insight at between was a general increase in labour productivity £320,000 and £460,000 per annum. equal to an increase of approximately 1,500 full-time equivalent staff across the economies of England and Wales. This is as a result of the accumulated effects of improved citizen and business About the authors: contact with local service providers.

Andrew Coote is chief executive of ConsultingWhere Recommendations The report’s strategic recom- Ltd., specialist IT consultants in geospatial information. Gesche mendations for improving the rate of adoption of GI Schmid is function lead for and the consequent benefits include gaining political geographic information policy commitment, increased accessibility of public data, a at the Local Government Group “light touch” approach for copyright and licensing, Alan Smart is chief economist raising geospatial awareness and a training for those specialising in geospatial and developing the business case for geospatial projects. earth observation science at The full report can be accessed from the following site: ACIL Tasman. http://www.consultingwhere.com/reports.html www.gisprofessional.co.uk

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valuing GI for

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Issue No 36 October 2010

conference report

Above: This year's opening session included a record number of attendees from 6000 organisations representing 134 countries.

Above: Esri Founder and President Jack Dangermond served as host for the open day of plenary sessions and discussed, among other things, that there's no incorrect way to say Esri!

ESRI’S INTERNATIONAL USER CONFERENCE has become more than just a gathering of users of ArcGIS and related technologies. It’s the umbrella for official co-located events such as the Education User Conference, the Senior Executive Summit, the Survey and Engineering Summit and less formal gatherings of industry groups such as oil & gas and electricity users as well as regional user groups. There are even “birds of a feather” sessions built around timely topics such as the US government’s new geospatial platform or the geospatial community’s response to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

players, but rather are parts of the system, along with ArcGIS.com and ArcGIS Explorer online. Esri’s director of software development, Scott Morehouse and director of software products, Clint Brown compared the vision for ArcGIS to how the world accesses music today: It’s everywhere and accessed with whatever device is at hand (desktop, laptop, tablet, phone, etc.).

Since many users had already installed ArcGIS 10, which was available for download before the conference, Dangermond offered some hints as to what was coming later in 2010:

ArcGIS comes of age

Adena Schutzberg casts an eye round Esri’s (no longer ESRI) vast International User Conference 2010 and gets to grips with the many sub themes and co-located events bound together by the company’s flagship product.

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Key announcements Still, the event must put the huge variety of Esri software users on common ground.

That’s done on the first official day of the event in a huge hall where founder Jack Dangermond and his colleagues (and a few users) show off what the company feels are the key messages. This year that session and hundreds of others brought a record crowd from 6000 organisations, representing 134 countries, up to speed.

The key message for 2010 is that ArcGIS is a complete system for geographic data management and analysis. ArcInfo and ArcView are no longer the star

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Right: Esri and hundreds of partners showed their wares on the exhibit floor.

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Further development and expansion of the company’s Community Maps program (its effort to crowd-source shared basemaps for use in desktop, mobile and other applications) including new global imagery and elevation services and downloadable data: Social and Community Analysts - products akin to Business Analyst - aimed at offering snapshots of geographies for those in policy and other arenas A certification programme - coming early in 2011 that will enhance a user’s “reputation and status” Expansion of the virtual classroom, the online delivery of teacher led classes, which launched in spring 2010.

Easy eesri The other significant announcement related to the much talked about change of the company’s name capitalisation and pronunciation. From here on the logo includes all lower case letters, but the company name is written “Esri”. How is it pronounced? Jack Dangermond, who at one time had a preferred way of articulating the four letters, made it clear he did not care. That means “eee ess are joining the geography jigsaw

Issue No 36 October 2010

conference report eye,” “ezri” or as Dangermond says it, “essri” are all quite acceptable. (As an ex long-time employee I’m still using the first option!)

Awards The user conference always boasts awards.

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Above: Many conversations were held on a spacious exhibition floor.

Exhibit Hall Floor While attendee numbers were up, exhibitor numbers seemed down. Still, the Esri partners had wares to show and stories to tell.

Trimble’s “Yuma” tablet computer runs a full version of ArcGIS, can be used as a portable navigation device, and can call home when necessary using a cell network to upload field data in real time. Like many consumer devices, it sports two cameras, both front and back for additional field verification photography.

Safe Software used the event to launch a new tag line, highlighting how its flagship software FME allows for “Spatial Data Mastery.” Safe was perhaps the only company with a shipping product for ArcGIS 10 at the conference, suggesting a steep learning curve for developers working in the new environment. The new version of FME will help users mix and match 2D and 3D data, deliver data in the INSPIRE XML data model and easily crunch data into Esri Community Maps templates.

Besides vendor booths, Esri also hosted showcase specific demos aimed to illustrate solutions and workflows for public safety, defence and GEOINT, environment and climate change.

Conclusion With ArcGIS 10 as a system, Esri and partners have moved another step toward being all things GIS to all people. If you need tools on a particular platform, say an iPhone, they have them. If you need a cloud implementation, they have them. If you need tools for a particular use, say agriculture or fire management, they have them. If you need free or simple-to-use tools and data, they have them. The goal of this event is make users aware of all that Esri offers, while still making it relevant to individual and organisational users’ needs and efforts to create a better world. Esri’s 2011 International User Conference will be held on July 11–15 in San Diego California.

• All images are courtesy of Esri.

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Like their peers in other enterprises, university champions face many obstacles from those. . . who can’t see the potential return on investment in a GIS implementation.

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Co-located Events The Education User Conference included sessions for educators just starting to use GIS in their curricula to sessions aimed at universities aspiring to build true enterprise use of the technology. The key ideas in some of the former presentations addressed both the opportunity to teach GIS itself and to use GIS to help teach other subjects, such as conservation, social studies, and math. Speakers in a session aimed at university-wide licence holders told stories that would be very familiar to cities and towns or large-scale businesses trying to infuse GIS into every corner of the enterprise.

In the case of the university, that means taking advantage of GIS not just in the curriculum, but also in the management of the physical plant, student safety, and marketing to prospective students. Like their peers in other enterprises, university champions face many obstacles from those who fear technology or job loss or who can’t see the potential return on investment in a GIS implementation.

Esri’s Senior Executive Seminar took a hard look at the business value of GIS. Senior players from governments around the globe (Mexico, Abu Dhabi, Australia, and New Zealand to name a few) shared their stories of how GIS was improving their citizens’ lives as well as saving money. US efforts were shared by Jerry Johnston, Geographic Information Officer (GIO) for the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Michael Byrne (GIO, Federal Communications Commission) as they spoke to how the US government’s data sharing site, Data.gov should work and how the FCC is mapping who has, and who does not have, broadband.

The Survey and Engineering Summit (SEG Summit), in its eighth year, is gaining momentum.

Esri is spending more time and energy working with hardware and software players in these areas as

evidenced by the platinum sponsorships from Trimble and Javad for the User Conference, not just the SEG Summit. The SEG Summit is being spun into a new event for 2011, to be held alongside the User Conference. The American Congress on Surveying (ACSM) and Esri will launch the first of three planned annual Survey Summits next year.

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This year Dangermond gave the Secretary General of the Executive Council of Abu Dhabi, Mohammed Ahmed Al Bowardi the “Making a Difference Award.”

Dangermond noted not only the Emirate’s use of GIS but also its dedication to serving others – those in Haiti, Africa and Afghanistan. He also acknowledged the U. and the City of Frisco, Texas which won the President’s Award for its SAFER, public safety application. The solution includes 1700 live video cameras providing public safety personnel views inside buildings.

Carlos Salman Gonzalez, ESRI’s distributor in Mexico, received the Lifetime Achievement Award and gave an entertaining talk about being happy and following your passions. Gil Grosvenor of National Geographic gave the Alexander Graham Bell medal to both Roger Tomlinson and Jack Dangermond.

More than one hundred Special Achievement in GIS (SAG) awards were also announced.

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Issue No 36 October 2010

PSI & Europe rules

for re-use

Year

Study

PSI value assessments for Europe

2000

The PIRA Study

Investment value: €9.5 billion Economic value: €68 billion

2006

The MEPSIR Study

Market size – all PSI: €27 billion

2006

The Pettifer Study

Market size – weather and climatological services: €530 million

2007

FEBIS Study

European business information market: €1.5 billion

2008

MICUS Study

Market assessments in various Member States in three sectors

Chart 1: overview of the most important studies and reports on PSI potential.

This article has been edited from a paper by the author, who in the full spirit of the re-use philosophy, cordially invites you to use and/or to pass on the link within your networks and other forums. He waives all rights, particularly copyrights, to the paper under the condition that you cite him as author. Readers wishing to read the full article can do so via our website, www.pvpubs.com – select GIS Professional from the “Magazines” menu on the home page.

interact, culminating in a conceptual framework that allows public sector bodies and re-users (and courts where necessary) to apply and rely on the rules involved and to bring to the surface areas for policy action.

PSI a unique European opportunity We are experiencing significant change in the way that governments deal with their information both internally and towards the outside world. This is driven by a changing society in which relations are becoming increasingly horizontal and by technological developments within a ‘Europeanising’ and globalizing economy. PSI – the blood in the veins of government and society as a whole – is both instrumental for, and a part of, these changes.

PSI potential is not yet fully exploited The Review of the PSI Directive (Brussels, 7.5.2009 COM(2009) 212 final) describes the battles going on

Reverse engineering Europe’s PSI re-use rules

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An integrated conceptual framework of rules for public sector bodies and re-users to rely on for the public sector and re-users of PSI, is proposed by lawyer Marc de Vries, in the hope that it will identify areas for policy action.

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DESPITE VARIOUS STUDIES evincing the huge potential locked up in public sector information (PSI), this potential is far from fully exploited. This failure is caused mainly by the immensely complex, legal labyrinth surrounding PSI re-use. This complexity works in two ways: public sector bodies do not comply with the regulatory framework and re-users do not avail themselves of the legal instruments offered, resulting in an unexploited economic potential.

What makes the legal framework so complex is the The underlying principle of the PSI Directive transcending nature of PSI According to consideration 25, the objectives are: “to re-use, as it blends four facilitate the creation of Community-wide information areas of law – freedom of products and services based on public sector documents, information law, ICT law, to enhance an effective cross-border use of public sector intellectual property law and documents by private companies for added-value competition law – which information products and services and to limit have been regulated at a distortions of competition on the Community market,” European, national and even sectoral level, but in What is public sector information? isolation. The fundamental In this article, PSI has the broad meaning adopted by the impact that ICT has had on OECD: “information, including information products and our society – rocking the services, generated, created, collected, processed, legal rules and underlying preserved, maintained, disseminated, or funded by or for principles and axioms – the Government or public institution”, thus also including makes the picture even more public domain material, for instance, cultural heritage complicated. information. In the same context, ‘use’ means further reIn this article I reverse use by business or individuals for commercial or nonengineer these legal commercial purposes, thus (only) excluding internal use by frameworks and governmental organisations. [C(2208)36] demonstrate how they

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in the trenches of PSI re-use between PSI holders and re-users, and among re-users themselves. Complaints from re-users mirror a lack of knowledge on the proper application of the PSI policy by public sector bodies (PSBs), resulting in high prices, restrictive licensing conditions and discrimination.

The focus on short-term cost recovery, triggered by pressure on PSBs to finance part of their activities, as opposed to benefits in the wider economy, results in competition between the public and the private sectors, restrictive licensing and charging policies.

PSBs seem very lukewarm to the basic idea of the commercial re-use of their information. This is more than a cultural issue, as it means changing internal procedures and processes.

There are also practical issues hindering the reuse of PSI, such as the lack of information on datasets available or the absence of accepted standards and metadata schemes. The Inspire Directive may change this picture for the environmental spatial information sector. However, other sectors remain untouched.

Re-users find that PSBs fail to meet transparency requirements, not only with regard to licence terms that they impose, but also in the build-up of pricing schemes. It is therefore unclear whether the conditions for re-use are non-discriminatory.

Re-users also complain about exclusive arrangements that are still in place and the failure of member states to take action against these arrangements, which were to be phased out by 31

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Issue No 36 October 2010

PSI & Europe rules

The PSI Utility Equation The key to understanding these legal frameworks is how they interact. Once that is done, we can make the applicable legal framework work for us in the spirit of the PSI Directive, allowing PSBs and re-users (and courts where necessary) to apply and rely on the rules involved and, at the same time, to bring to the surface areas for action.

So how do we untangle them? If we take the maximization of utility of PSI as a starting point, the four determining factors – Access, Accessibility, Reuse limitations, Fair re-use conditions — can be captured in the following formula: PSI Utility = Access & Accessibility × Fair re-use conditions Re-use limitations

Re-use limitations Note that this is not a mathematical formula. Nor will the result actually be a concrete figure.

It merely indicates the interconnection of the factors and their impact on the Utility of PSI, thus leaving untouched issues such as whether the variables are discrete or dichotomous. In other words, the total utility of PSI is the

joining the geography jigsaw

Chart 3: the four sequential elements determining the re-use potential of PSI. result of: the access to PSI over the extent that PSI is accessible, divided by the legal limitations to re-use the PSI multiplied by the presence of fair conditions for the re-use of the PSI. Let’s take a closer look.

Access The legal right to get to PSI is dependent on the access regimes laid down in national and occasionally European freedom of information regimes (FOIAs), and sector specific regimes. By its very nature access is a relatively quiet area that builds on years of knowledge.

Access regimes need to strike a balance between the public and democratic interests of knowing what the government is doing versus the interests of government (e.g. security) and other stakeholders such as companies’ trade secrets or individuals’ privacy protection. Obviously, it all starts with the factor of access: if there is no right to access the PSI, no re-use can exist (if access = 0, the PSI Utility = 0).

Accessibility However, access alone does not do the trick. In this digital age, where information is detached from its physical carrier and the technical capacity to store information doubles every year, accessibility becomes the crucial factor. Accessibility is the culmination point of the information paradox:

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Experiences voiced by reusers, in particular SMEs, highlight that the Directive fails to be effective, as costs, efforts and time for redress are currently too high. . .

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Legal questions blend four areas of law Clearly, a large part of these battles point to legal issues. Put in the context of PSI re-use, this complexity can best be grasped by looking at the issues a re-user will face to create a product based on PSI. These issues are: a. Can I get to the PSI — is there access? If so, b. Can I find the PSI — is there accessibility? If so, c. Can I re-use the PSI — do I have to get authorization? If so, d. Are the conditions for PSI re-use fair — is there a level playing field?

Chart 3 mirrors these steps and connects applicable rules thereto.

Chart 2: overview of elements and accompanying legal framework impacting PSI re-use.

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December 2008. Such arrangements basically block new market entry and, often, infringe competition rules. Well-established re-users that rely on existing ties and deals with the public sector defend their positions quite fiercely, threatening to take to court those PSBs that want to open up their resources and lower their prices. Experiences voiced by re-users, in particular SMEs, highlight that the Directive fails to be effective, as costs, efforts and time for redress are currently too high in most countries. Moreover, re-users fear deterioration in the relationships with the public sector supplier with whom they need to work in future, and dread the time taken to obtain a court decision.

Concerns are also raised as to trends where content in the public domain, including cultural heritage information, library information and scientific information paid for by the public purse, is being drawn (back) into the private domain not only

by PSBs but also by organisations claiming copyrights and database rights in return for digitizing the content, thus privatising public domain material.

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Issue No 36 October 2010

PSI & Europe rules

for re-use

Factor

Owner

Roles and responsibilities

Access

Press, citizens, companies, researchers, politicians

Citizens, companies and researchers just need to exercise their rights. When these are jeopardized, the press should jump in, voicing the feelings of society. Increasingly, politicians are interested in and appreciative of the publicity value of citizen rights.

Accessibility National governments creating a sound data policy.

Companies offering technical solutions

National governments need to appreciate the strategic and economic value of a well-established (PS)information infrastructure, turning it into a national competitive advantage and seeking healthy collaboration with innovatory private sector providers of technical solutions, obviously observing competition rules.

Re-use limitations

Coordinating governments dealing with PSI re-use policy.

Ministries of Finance and Economic Affairs.

Politicians

Political courage, enhanced by the need to cut costs, will enable national governments to minimize the loss of economic potential by disallowing PSBs from imposing re-use limitations, and by optimizing the length and width of the public task. Transitory measures will be needed to cater to the cash flow needs of PSBs, where incomes are to be (partly) rechanneled.

Fair conditions

Re-users, competition authorities

When the rules of the PSI Directive are not complied with, re-users have a responsibility to exercise their rights. Where infringements are grave, increasingly there will be a case to address national competition authorities that can act spontaneously or upon complaints if Article 101 or 102 TFEU is infringed.

since re-users will not be able to copy and make available the PSI embedded in their products and in essence the only thing that remains is access.

Ultimately, these impediments will impact the entire product reducing the Utility to almost zero (only the PSBs themselves will be able to exploit their PSI).

Fair conditions Even if the first three conditions are favourable — access, accessibility and authorisation — the re-use conditions such as pricing, format, and speed of delivery need to be fair. The conditions need to be transparent or the re-user will not be able to compete on the market. For instance, if a competitor has a much better or even exclusive deal with the PSB providing the PSI, or the PSB exploits the PSI itself in a discriminatory manner, in the long run the re-user will not be able to create an economically sustainable product and, ultimately, will disappear from the market. In other words, if re-use conditions are unfair and discriminatory, the beneficial effects of full competition will not be reaped.

Nothing as practical as a good theory! So how

Chart 4: the owners of the determining factors and their responsibilities to take re-use further making more information available does not lead to an increase in usage, since it gets lost in the mass of information available (a library is the best place to hide a book!). Thus, the accessibility factor is not only a prerequisite for effective access, it is also a multiplier since it will significantly impact the potential re-usability of PSI. For this reason, in the PSI Equation, accessibility is an exponent, hence significantly determining the outcome of the ‘democratic part’ of the equation (jointly comprised by Access and Accessibility).

Increasingly, the accessibility factor is no longer regarded as just a technical issue, but a legal issue. It raises the question whether there is a legal obligation . . . it has become for governments to make PSI accessible and if so, how should be addressed, e.g. by regulation. quite clear that this Re-use limitations Even if there is access and a vast majority accessibility, it may still all be in vain, if a PSB limits of PSBs holding re-use of the PSI by exercising copyrights and, in particular, database rights or, even worse, in absence PSI of interest of these rights, simply relies on contractual means to re-users are disallowing re-use. In this context, it is very reluctant to important to distinguish between access and re-use: a PSB can be under legal obligation to allow access, allow re-use but this does not imply that it needs to allow since they fear (secondary) re-use of that information, as it can act the legal risks. . . against unauthorized copying and dissemination in its capacity as rights holder.

If the re-use limitations amount to full prohibition, re-use becomes practically non-existent

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do we make the equation instrumental in European and national PSI re-use policy objectives?

First, the equation can help PSBs to grasp better the legal aspects surrounding PSI re-use. Having done some empirical research in my home country, it has become quite clear that a vast majority of PSBs holding PSI of interest to re-users are reluctant to allow re-use since they fear the legal risks it may have. In fact, one can see a clear division between those PSBs that rely on the exploitation of their own PSI, which have meticulously studied their position and in particular the (legal) opportunities at hand to continue this business model (like the Cadastre, the Chamber of Commerce and National Meteorological Services) and those PSBs that did not traditionally exploit their own PSI as part of their core activities and, consequently, are very hesitant to step into this legal terra incognita.

Clearly there is a role for national ministries leading the PSI re-use dossier to educate their colleagues. The Spanish Aporta project is a perfect example of how much can be done, even with limited resources.

Second, the Equation allows a connection of the four determining factors to their ‘owners’ so that they get a face, name and address, and can be called upon, as detailed above in Chart 4.

Access and Accessibility: enabling synergy On this basis, stakeholders, coordinating ministries and re-users are able to let the factors work by lining up the right priorities and establishing leverage between access and accessibility.

Examples surfacing throughout Europe and the US — most notably data.gov.uk, which has already made over 4000 datasets available, and the US data.gov — demonstrate that creating accessibility is the spark that ignites a whopping tidal wave of re-use initiatives.

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Issue No 36 October 2010

PSI & Europe rules

for re-use

Database & copyrights: kill limitations top-down

Let competition law set the boundaries Where PSBs are able to disallow re-use on the basis of their copyrights and database rights, there is still hope to be found in the basic principles of competition law and European law. In 1995, in the Magill case, the then European Court of Justice (ECJ) said that the exercise of intellectual property rights is limited by the general rules of competition law. The case concerned three Irish broadcasters who refused to license rights to lists of TV programmes. The ECJ held that the exercise of copyright can lead to an abuse of a dominant position (then Article 86 EC, now 101 TFEU), thus making such conduct illegal.

Of course, interaction between intellectual property rights and competition law will differ depending on the PSI domain. Exertion of copyright may have a quite different impact in the field of meteorological information, where more routes to acquire the data are opening up. Whereas for cadastral information, in most member states, the government has a legal monopoly to register, process and distribute. In other words, what works in PSI sector ‘A’ may not work in PSI sector ‘B’, so one should choose PSI (sectoral) battles carefully.

Let the CJEU do its job Finally, as there is an urgent need to answer a number of ambiguities in PSI re-use, it would be good if national courts would submit preliminary questions to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), which would be the most efficient way to help both PSBs and re-users throughout Europe better understand their rights and obligations.

Final observations I have tried to clarify the legal issues surrounding PSI re-use by reverse engineering the legal framework into determining factors (access,

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Chart 5: overview of European PSI re-use policy measures over the last two decades

accessibility, limitations and fair conditions), thus hoping to contribute to a better understanding of this complex field of law. By examining the four determining factors and connecting them to the various stakeholders and guardian angels, I have underlined the importance of bottom-up policies that enable synergy (access through enhanced accessibility) and top-down policies that restrict re-use.

My observations have been largely limited to the national level, leaving the role of the European Commission untouched. This is because PSI re-use rights are exercised at member state level and, where necessary, in national courts. Apart from that, it is my strong belief that it is now truly down to member states to make PSI re-use work, taking into consideration the full spectra of European policy measures that have been undertaken over time, which is explained in Chart 5.

Wisely, the Commission has considered it premature to amend either the substance or scope of the PSI Directive, calling for additional time for full implementation and allowing PSBs to gain more experience in applying the policies and rules correctly and to address the implications and effects thereof, both towards re-users and internally.

In its last Communication, the Commission stressed that its efforts will be focused on member states ensuring correct implementation and application (in particular in relation to exclusive arrangements), active dissemination of best practices and further study of the functioning of the PSI regulatory framework.

The Commission has launched a thematic network (LAPSI – Legal Aspects of Public Sector Information) for the study of legal impediments that prevent PSI reuse. Also, the Commission has announced the launch of sectoral studies focusing on the identification of drivers for PSI re-use and it is likely that it will maintain the funding for the PSI platform – www.epsiplatform.eu - which has gradually turned into an unprecedented source on PSI re-use.

In the long run there is hope for those that seek a more active (legislative) role by the Commission, as it has announced that it will undertake another review of the PSI Directive by 2012. At least until that time, it is down to us to make things work, without pointing to Brussels.

Acknowledgements The author would like to thank Chris Corbin, Robbin te Velde, Richard Pettifer, Ton Zijlstra and Marco Ricolfi for their highly valuable comments on the first version of this article.

About the author Marc de Vries Ba LLM has professional degrees in both law and economics (Utrecht 1991). He has been active in the field of PSI reuse for more than 15 years, both at national and European level.

He has published various books and articles on (legal) PSI re-use issues. Marc de Vries info@devriesmarc.nl +31 653897002

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Although enhanced access(ibility) will put pressure on PSBs, it will not impact their powers to exercise re-use limitations since the Directive does not impose the obligation to allow re-use and explicitly states that it does not affect existing regimes of intellectual property rights, including those held by PSBs. This legal stronghold is fiercely defended by re-use savvy PSBs, backed by a regiment of in-house legal counsel and high budgets that will scare off almost any re-user, which may have been considering picking up the boxing gloves.

Breaking this spell will require a top-down approach, whereby sufficient political pressure and leadership will coerce (ministries formally in charge of) these PSBs to change their modus operandi.

Interestingly, the Spanish Cadastre changed its reuse regime radically. It now gives away its data for free and allows re-use practically without any limitations.

And, quite amazingly, the UK Ordnance Survey, which had been fighting some re-users for years, has made a similar move. Both would have been unthinkable without political support at the highest levels.

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Issue No 36 October 2010

developing new standards

Steven Ramage is Executive Director, Marketing and Communications at the Open Geospatial Consortium.

IN MARCH 2010, the European Committee for Standardisation’s (CEN), Geographic Information Technical Committee (CEN/TC 287) convened a National Spatial Data Infrastructure best practice workshop in Paris. The workshop provided an opportunity for representatives of TC 287, ISO/TC 211 (the equivalent committee from the International Organisation for Standards) and the Open Geospatial Consortium to discuss how coordination between these standards bodies could be improved to better address European and international standards requirements. The workshop included representatives from participating user communities and led to general agreement for closer, more formal cooperation between OGC and TC 287, as well as agreement to consider continued improvements in OGC and ISO/TC 211 coordination.

Emphasis was also placed on the testing of standards for viability, fulfilment of purpose, ease of

(WMS), and Web Feature Service (WFS) interface standards and the OGC Geography Markup Language (GML), Filter (FE), and Observations and Measurements (O&M) encoding standards.

A close correspondence between OGC standards and ISO international standards supports market development and policy development in Europe, Asia, and other world regions. The relationship also adds a vetting process that “puts more eyes on” the standards, ensuring that they are as good as they can be, addressing all relevant requirements.

ISO has a “Publicly Available Specification” (PAS) process that is faster and less demanding on human resources, and the OGC may make more use of this process in the future. Similarly, OGC members recently approved an OGC “Fast Track” process to allow rapid adoption of de-facto industry standards and “community-of-interest" standard encodings that have been broadly implemented.

Partners for advancing interoperability Standards bodies have been developing closer links and cooperating in developing new standards for geographic information exchange. Steven Ramage of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) explains how they have been forging links with ISO and Europe’s CEN.

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Representatives agreed that “test early, test often” should be a key message.

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implementation and improvements in interoperability.

Representatives agreed that “test early, test often” should be a key message.

The three organisations are exploring the adoption of a common “Change Request / Requirements Registry” and examining ways in which XML schema for adopted standards can be managed more effectively and efficiently. Gathering all requirements and change requests in an open forum visible to the public will also make the standards process more transparent and more responsive to community needs. All parties agreed that continued exploration of process improvements would be valuable to the community, with particular focus on improved coordination, reduction in duplication of effort, and streamlining of standards coordination processes.

These activities reflect growing appreciation of the role of standards in the “Digital Agenda” for Europe, as documented in various European Commission publications over the last two years.

They also reflect a growing trend toward international cooperation in the standards world.

Background In 1998, OGC signed a cooperative agreement and also became a Class A Liaison organisation with ISO/TC 211 (Geomatics). Since then, six OGC standards have been submitted to TC 211 and gone through the formal ISO process to become joint OGC and ISO standards. These include the OGC Simple Features (SF), Web Map Service

The OGC has had a formal liaison with CEN/TC 287 since September 2005. The Liaison agreement was approved by the TC 287 Secretariat for a threeyear term, and continues in accordance with the provisions of the Liaison letter issued to the OGC. CEN/TC 287 and the OGC are currently engaged in discussions regarding cooperative activities that will help both organisations contribute more effectively to the development of a European Spatial Data Infrastructure through the EU Inspire Directive.

Current environment: Location is hot in the standards world! Numerous standards activities and standards development organisations (SDOs) – such as ISO, OASIS, W3C, open mobile alliance, buildingSMART International Alliance for Interoperability, IETF, 911 NENA, and OSGeo (see full names below) – have requirements for encoding and/or using location.

Over the last five years, location has become an increasingly important part of their standards work.

OGC has worked with ISO/TC 211 for more than a decade, but since 2003, the OGC staff and member representatives have also become much more involved in standards work in other SDOs. The primary objective of such work has been to ensure that the encoding and processing of location elements in other, non-OGC standards is, at a minimum, consistent with the OGC and ISO abstract models for content, information, and service.

Through this ongoing effort, the OGC plays a key role in ensuring the common and consistent use of

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Issue No 36 October 2010

developing new standards

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

buildingSMART alliance and buildingSMART International Defence Geospatial Information Working Group (DGIWG) Global Spatial Data Infrastructure Association (GSDI) IEEE GRSS (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers - Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society) IEEE Technical Committee 9 (Sensor Web) International Organisation for Standards (ISO) Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) National Emergency Number Association (NENA) National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS) Open Grid Forum (OGF) Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) Organisation for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) OSGeo (Open Source Geospatial Foundation) Taxonomic Data Working Group (TDWG) Web3D Workflow Alliance World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)

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The IETF and “the ripple effect” The “ripple effect” of standards-within-standards, such as the OGC’s GML standard embedded in the IETF PIDF-LO (Presence Information Data Format – Location Object) standard, highlights the importance of our coordination efforts.

OGC staff have collaborated with the IETF since 2005. The mission of the IETF is to make the Internet work better by producing high quality, relevant technical documents (Requests for Comments – RFCs) that influence the way people design, use, and manage the Internet. Five years ago, the IETF formed the GEOPRIV Working Group which is chartered to:

Above: Figure 1 – An example of the ripple effect: An OGC application schema is embedded in the IETF Location Object, which is now embedded in the JAIN SLEE Application Server.

(Figure from Mobicents open source project).

1) Define privacy mechanisms for location payloads transmitted by the Internet 2) Develop and refine representations of location in Internet protocols.

The group analyses the authorisation, integrity, and privacy requirements for the creation, storage, and use of representations of location. The group has now published a number of internet RFCs. Based on this work, technical amendments have been made or proposed to numerous other internet standards – ones that deal with VoIP, emergency numbering services, the mobile Internet and so forth.

The key document providing a common geospatial encoding for these standards is a GML application schema that is also an OGC Best Practice.

This GML application schema is referenced in a variety of Internet RFCs: 1) An IETF Location Object (LO) is defined in RFC 5491 as a GML application schema (OGC Best Practice document 06-142r1).

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The “ripple effect” of standardswithinstandards. . . highlights the importance of our co-ordination efforts.

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OGC Alliance Partners OGC standards, especially the OGC Geography Markup Language Encoding Standard (GML), have been integrated or incorporated into standards from other standards organisations. The OGC has formal relationships with these organisations to support standards coordination, harmonisation, education and outreach. OGC also has alliance partnerships (primary alliances for standards coordination) with:

These alliances are established to support broad standards coordination, harmonisation, education and outreach. The OGC also has a number of other partner organisations – see (www.opengeospatial.org /ogc/alliancepartners). Already OMA, OASIS and IETF have leveraged OGC standards to address location in their own fields.

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location/geography across the spectrum of information and communication technology (ICT) standards. Location and geography are important in many industries, but often these industries are not aware of standards activities outside their domains of interest. In an era of rapidly evolving technology and business requirements, each of the standards organisations could, without active coordination, develop substantially different geospatial interface and encoding standards that would result in widespread confusion and lack of interoperability.

Viewed from a different perspective, location and geography are also important in localities, countries and regions, and it is very important for agencies and regional commissions to deliver government requirements for interoperability into industryfocused standards activities. Government agencies and commissions also play an important role in advancing market uptake of standards. For example, the Inspire Directive provides an important coordination function to improve the sharing of geospatial data and services across political boundaries. Inspire documents make extensive references to OGC, ISO and CEN standards.

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Issue No 36 October 2010

developing new standards 2) Then LO is referenced with normative text in other IETF standards where normative text appears in code and applications that have a “minor” geospatial component, such as JAIN SLEE (Java standard for Service Logic Execution Environment). The JAIN initiative has defined a set of Java technology APIs that enable the rapid development of Java-based next generation communications products and services for the Java platform.

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. . . the push for international standards influences SDOs to “think globally”.

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When part of an OGC standard is adopted for use by an organisation such as the IETF, the OGC standard content “ripples” into other applications, domains, and business process chains (Figure 1). This is one reason why working with other SDOs is so important.

Embedded standards help ensure future interoperability, despite hyper-competition in markets. For example, the mobile applications community has been developing non-interoperable silos of “interoperability” for market advantage, just as the GIS community did prior to OGC. But open standards are gaining a foothold: The deCarta Drill Down Server, which implements OGC OpenLS standards, is implemented in Samsung and T-Mobile applications. And Ericsson’s recently announced Mobile Sensor Actuator Gateway implements OGC’s SWE standards.

Global standards Global commerce and growth of the global information infrastructure depend on international standards, and the push for international standards influences SDOs to “think globally”. This means seeking input from global stakeholders and it also means coordinating with other standards bodies. Commerce within Europe has benefited from European standards and at the same time Europe’s international competitiveness benefits from strong European participation in international standards bodies, including ISO TC/211 and the OGC. As explained in the Digital Agenda documents mentioned at the beginning of this article, commerce and international competitiveness depend increasingly on active engagement in global standards activities.

Geospatial information technology stakeholders around the world benefit from the growing influence of OGC and ISO/TC 211. They also benefit from growing cooperation and strengthening of relationships with regional standards bodies, such as CEN/TC 287 and other ICT SDOs. It really all comes down to the notion that the value of a network of communicating nodes (people or machines) increases with the size of the network. OGC, ISO and CEN play critical roles in growing the European and global ICT network.

Issue No 36 October 2010

columnist adena

Adena Schutzberg is Principal of ABS Consulting Group Inc. and Executive Editor of Directions Magazine, www.directionsmag.com

schutzberg

“THIS IS THE YEAR OF. . .” began many predictions related to geospatial technology for 2010. So many technologies and process were to “come of age” and become “widely used”. Did they? With a majority of the year behind us, sadly, there’s been far more buzz about clones of existing technologies than uptake of the best location focused offerings.

A year after Foursquare, a mobile social locationbased game, was the breakout hit at South By Southwest in March 2009, 2010 was to be the year of locationbased services. What perhaps happened instead was that 2010 became the year of the “check-in”. That is, more and more mobile services and games tried to figure out how to get users to confirm their location at a music venue, coffee shop or anywhere else they happened to be. The companies behind them began to link up with advertisers, slowly bringing in some well needed, and sometimes the first, non-venture cash.

In August those who checked-in with a service

world scene to help excavator operators and others planning to open up our streets. But for most AR remains a toy – fun apps to amuse and entertain – but really are solutions in search of a problem. Many, many people are happy to use a map or simply point a smart phone at a building to receive that same information.

Volunteers for GI Closer, perhaps, to the world of the geospatial professional was the continued interest in user generated geospatial data, sometimes referred to as volunteered geographic information (VGI). Two projects, OpenStreetMap and Ushahidi, tapped their existing communities and recruited and trained others to provide mapping, services and communication efforts during and after the Haiti earthquake. In comparison, the dozens of apps that appeared and were offered to the public to capture and track the location and damage from BP’s oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico seemed to be a waste of the public’s energy. It was unclear in too many

More fashionable than fashion? Not all that is forecast happens. Not all that happens makes much sense. Adena Schutzberg looks over the geospatial trends as 2010 slides into the final quarter and asks, are we trying to reinvent the wheel?

Check-in shut down Also adding to the check-in

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. . . potential early majority individuals who may know of practice continue to fear it and denounce it without exploration.

excitement was Facebook’s launch of Facebook Places in August. It’s yet another check-in opportunity, albeit with some quirks, including the ability for individuals to checkin their friends. And, as several industry watchers pointed out, the reaction the new Facebook got was just the same as that for its predecessors: “Privacy?” The rush of interest in Places included too little coverage of what Facebook was offering and its potential benefits and far more about how to “shut it off”. While this may be the year of the “check-in” for early adopters, potential early majority individuals who may know of practice continue to fear it and denounce it without exploration.

Another hyped technology for 2010 was augmented reality (AR), that is, using technology to overlay additional information onto the real world. Many readers will be familiar with it from TV sports; AR an enhanced view of speeding hockey pucks and overlain first down lines for American football. In the world of geospatial data it can mean looking through one’s smartphone at a streetscape to see venues of interest or Tube stations overlain on the horizon. Other applications help travellers get more information about historic buildings or identify a mountain on the horizon. For the construction industry, there is serious research underway into how an accurate picture of underground utilities can be overlaid on a real

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cases how much data, and of what value, was collected and how and with whom it was shared. VGI is valuable, but clearly we are still learning how to get the most out of it in times of calm and crisis.

The final trend buzzing around geospatial and other communities this year was cloud computing. Perhaps several dozen geospatial companies with “cloud” in their names or as part of their offerings popped up in 2010. Still there continues to be healthy skepticism on the required investments, returns, and security. And, as Oracle’s CEO Larry Ellison noted two years ago, it’s still quite a fuzzy idea: “The interesting thing about cloud computing is that we’ve redefined cloud computing to include everything that we already do. I can’t think of anything that isn’t cloud computing with all of these announcements. The computer industry is the only industry that is more fashion-driven than women’s fashion. Maybe I’m an idiot, but I have no idea what anyone is talking about.

What is it? It’s complete gibberish. It’s insane. When is this idiocy going to stop?”

Source: C|net http://news.cnet.com/8301-13953_310052188-80.html#ixzz0yfG6WoaY

Ellison may be quite right. What’s going on in geospatial may be a rerun or renaming of what is already in place. That indicates to me a lag between those “inventing” the trends and those meant to explore, champion and implement them. At three quarters gone, 2010 geospatial technology seems to be in a bit of a holding pattern as we reinvent the wheel and try to understand how and why it spins.

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called Loopt at various California airports or taco trucks, received 2-for-1 Virgin America plane tickets to a new route to Mexico. The promotion drove lots of check-ins and plane reservations. Still, per Forrester Research, just 4% of online US adults do any sort of checking-in.

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Issue No 36 October 2010

eurofile

Robin Waters is an independent consultant. He is also chair of the AGI’s INSPIRE Action Working Group and secretary of the BSi IST36 Standards Committee for Geographic Information.

THE AVAILABILITY and use of location based data for the public sector, commerce and the humble citizen is now well established and still increasing. This is facilitated by new and ever improving computer, telecoms and satnav systems and by increasing openness of PSI providers prompted by UK and EU policies. The growth of the internet and the ubiquity of smarter mobile phones have reduced disparities in global access to information and have been achieved in part by unprecedented international standardisation of communications protocols. The availability of accurate GPS signals have also enabled very accurate positioning of people and assets in real time.

In the UK and at the leading edge of developments we have Sir Tim Berners-Lee and data.gov.uk pressing for access to more and better formatted PSI; we have a huge demand for both fixed and mobile broadband; and we have constant innovation in positioning technology to overcome GPS weaknesses – particularly in the urban environment or even inside buildings.

Although the private sector is doing much of the

http://ec.europa.eu/yourvoice/ipm/forms/ dispatch?form=psidirective2010 Commission Vice-President for the Digital Agenda, Neelie Kroes, says: ‘Better and more use of PSI has great potential to generate new businesses and jobs while providing consumers with more choice and better value for money. The mobile apps market, partly based on PSI-generated data, could grow to €15 billion by 2013. We cannot lose out on this opportunity. We need to consider whether and how the EU rules on re-use of PSI should be amended to fully unlock PSI’s economic potential.’

The Commission is reviewing the scope, charging fees and licensing of data, the definition and digital format available to users; practical measures like the need for awareness-raising through national web portals; and the effects of changes that have taken place and/or barriers that still exist.

There are also tensions between intellectual property rights (IPR) and ICT standardisation processes. The Commission and The European Patent Office (EPO) are jointly organising a conference in

PSI, IPR and Sunspots The European Commission has much on its plate at present with public sector information (PSI) and intellectual property rights (IPR) very much to the fore. But shining up there in the sky is something more worrying, says our Eurofile correspondent, Robin Waters. innovation, it does rely on governments to help. The European Commission and Parliament are keen to ensure that these developments continue to our common benefit. Beyond the Inspire stuff there are lesser-known but perhaps even more important initiatives being pursued by the Commission.

Getting rid of the red flags There is an inherent

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The mobile apps market, partly based on PSIgenerated data, could grow to €15 billion by 2013.

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tension between standardization and innovation – particularly if the former becomes embedded in legal requirements that are enforced to the detriment of new developments, which might benefit commerce, consumers or the environment. We used to quote the law requiring a man with a red flag to walk in front of the first motorcars. Now we might feel that some laws on access to data and rights to privacy are completely outdated in the age of the Internet.

The European Commission has launched a public consultation to help review the Directive on the reuse of PSI that was adopted in 2003. PSI covers maps, weather data, legislation, traffic, etc. that can be re-used by anyone for innovative products such as car navigation systems, weather forecasts, and travel applications. The Commission estimated (in 2006) that re-used public data generated business worth €27 billion every year. The questionnaire can be found at:

Brussels on 22nd November with the objective of finding policy solutions for identified challenges. http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/sectors/ict/files/10-0824_announcement_of_the_event.pdf No one with a mobile phone that works anywhere in the world or a web browser accessing international websites can possibly argue that standardisation stifles innovation. We have ISO, CEN and the OGC (see elsewhere) to help in our own markets. However, as the promoters of this event say, “as key ICT standards are perceived by many as critical technology platforms with a strong public interest dimension, concerns are voiced that Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) and their potential for exclusivity may hinder or prevent standardisation”. The conference flyer continues: “Consensus building between stakeholders on relevant technical matters often leads to standards. . . But the rights of those owning intellectual property incorporated in standards compliant solutions also need to be taken into account and rewarded.”

Among other topics the conference is to address: • How to ensure certainty on the availability and continuity of essential IP rights for licensing?

• What is the best relation between standards and open source software and freely available technologies?

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Issue No 36 October 2010

eurofile It’s the sun what might stop it! Arguably even more important than these two legally-enmeshed debates is the possibility of our current power, telecommunication and satnav infrastructure being catastrophically damaged by increased sunspot activity in 2012/13 at the next ‘solar maximum’.

In a written answer to a question posed by two Polish MEPs, Mrs Geoghegan-Quinn, the Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science, admitted that there were substantial concerns because recent technologies and business plans have been deployed during a solar minimum. According to one US study a geomagnetic superstorm might generate an economic loss of up to $70 billion, including the disabling of about 80 satellites, and additional impacts through the potential failure of satellite navigation systems.

Those additional impacts might not be very serious for the loss of a ‘find-your-nearest-pizza’, but might also include the loss of vital navigation systems – and, at the very least, increase the required separation of aircraft in crowded airspaces. In a couple of years time when drivers who have not used an ordinary route finding map for at least ten years will right up lovers lane!

But, if the extra radiation begins to affect the internet infrastructure (in 1859 many telegraph lines succumbed to a previous event) then even

those of us that work at home are going to be affected. No telecoms for several days – it doesn’t bear thinking about.

Big mistake? But back to the legal stuff. Former UK prime minister Tony Blair has recently written that legislating for Freedom of Information was his biggest mistake! Will David Cameron rue the day that he signed up to the ‘greater openness’ agenda set by Gordon Brown? Both appear to be in thrall to Sir Tim Berners-Lee and it appears to be taken as read that more open access to government data is a “good thing”.

Yes Minister’s Sir Humphrey would not of course agree – and may well have a trick or two up his sleeve to frustrate the new coalition government’s ambitions in this respect. But some of us remember the white spaces on Ordnance Survey maps – the evil empire surely targeted every one of them as a probable military airfield. If it’s in the real world it is very difficult to hide it – whether of military, commercial or personal value. The days of the censor are gone; only the sun can stop us now! (No offence to newspaper proprietors intended!)

Sunny times could spell trouble ahead for some of our high-tech systems.

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• Networking with an international community of GIS professionals

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Issue No 36 October 2010

ESDIN: maximising

Figure 1: The components needed to make INSPIRE useful.

location

LEGISLATION ALONE is typically ineffective at changing public or institutional behaviour. So it is unlikely that the INSPIRE Directive obligations on EU member states will, of themselves, have the desired effect of creating interoperable panEuropean location data. Nor will they be enough for the increased prosperity, efficiency and societal benefits that properly standardised services and datasets could achieve.

Traditional publishing models are often cited as the greatest barrier to exchange of data - and therefore innovation - in the digital content world. Relaxing these models requires considerable behavioural change in order that Sir Tim Berners-Lee’s dream of “linked data” across the internet can really happen.

Recent history shows how legislation often has

basis of behavioural change in our treatment of location data. This is the focus of Eurogeographics and its partners in the ESDIN (European Spatial Data Infrastructure and best practice Network) project. It is our ambition to make Inspire “useful”.

The combination of best practice, interoperable specifications, and an active community network will help to unlock digital datasets and release the many societal benefits of shared location information.

Together, this combination can build a European Location Framework that will make Inspire useful. (see Figure 1)

Understanding requirements: a propositions approach Changing the pricing and licensing models in order to maximise the use of location data requires a determined effort to understand user needs. But even if all users (and potential users) are known it takes new skills to understand all of their implicit – as well as explicit - needs. The ESDIN

ESDIN makes Inspire useful Maximising the use of European location data is essential argues David Overton of Eurogeographics and colleagues. The ESDIN project goes beyond Inspire requirements to make practical, desirable and usable mapping products and services. little more than a supporting role in realising the strongest societal benefits. The change in smoking habits for example is dominated by awareness. Very little has been credited to legislation on labelling and smoking in public spaces. Ultimately research and publicity has driven smoking levels down from 82% of male smokers in 1948 to 22% in the UK today, with corresponding drops in lung cancer rates as a consequence. Like smoking it will be the resolve of the data providers to kick old habits based on the knowledge that the alternatives are better.

The Inspire legislation is a component of change, but it is the commitment to best practice in data and services for location information that will form the

project now employs user-centred design techniques to unlock these implicit needs, working with the main beneficiaries of future harmonised panEuropean data. This will take us beyond what is mandated by Inspire to what becomes genuinely useful in practice.

ESDIN examines new business models from a proposition perspective. The approach is to look at what will meet the needs of the particular market and users and evaluate the gap between the current situation and what would meet their needs. The project then proposes best practices that enable these future uses of national mapping data in a panEuropean context.

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Figure 2: Migrating existing harmonised pan-European specifications into the Inspire framework.

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Issue No 36 October 2010

Changing the offer The European Commission wants a European spatial data infrastructure (ESDI) built from the national spatial data infrastructures in Member States.

EuroGeographics has been harmonising national mapping datasets to create European level products like EuroGlobalMap, EuroRegionalMap and Euro BoundaryMap for over a decade. This experience is critical in extending the harmonisation process to larger scales, larger regions and greater numbers of themes such as all of those encompassed by Annex I of Inspire. (co-ordinate references; administrative units; transport networks; cadastral parcels; hydrography; and geographical names).

To create the ESDI, EuroGeographics will help all member states to prepare their data for Inspire by proposing consolidated data specifications.

Interoperable topographic and administrative reference data from European NMCAs then becomes possible at both European and global levels.

The ESDIN project goes beyond Inspire requirements to make practical, desirable and usable mapping products and services. So it proposes “extensions” that still conform to the generic conceptual model of Inspire (see Figure 2). The specifications developed in ESDIN will significantly raise the prospects of success for the European spatial data infrastructure.

For example ESDIN provides a model to enable discovery and evaluation of services based on quality.

It also goes further to create a web-based data quality evaluation tool for reference information.

Once the quality of data has been evaluated and brought up to the desired specification, the transnational edge-matching process and the application of unique identifiers can take place. ESDIN proposes best practice for services that perform these steps.

Together with the project’s work on generalisation and transformation, these allow sustainable data connectivity within cross-border areas whilst meeting user needs like delivery of incremental updates. A harmonised pan-European offering can then be created and readily maintained from multiple feeds of national data.

And with the growth in usage of data by broader communities, services are needed to automatically authenticate the use (and distribution rights) of data to users. ESDIN therefore contributes to the OGC’s (Open Geospatial Consortium) Interoperability Experiment on Authentication. ESDIN has already created an open source extension to the Degree software and has also created a federation of mapping agencies and academic institutions with services administered using this open source based authentication service.

Applying the benefits of best practices As a

Making it grow: A European Location Framework community Specifications and best

baseline, in the creation of pan-European harmonised data, the quality of the data needs to be assessed. We will then be in a position to confidently edge-match, generalise and apply consistent unique identifiers. All of this happens in a dynamic environment with different providers updating their data at different rates. All these processes are becoming increasingly automated, and the ESDIN project is proposing best practices to embrace these advances.

practice are never completed in the dynamic world of geographic information. The macro environment will always provide new technologies, ideals, rules and challenges, which will necessitate a constant iteration of best practices and specifications.

We are already growing our community. From the 19 members of the ESDIN consortium of mapping agencies, academics and commercial developers we are now embracing more “non-beneficiary” members. In the main

location

“

. . . the quality of the data needs to be assessed. We will then be in a position to confidently edge-match, generalise and apply consistent unique identifiers.

“

ESDIN: maximising

The ESDIN Project

The partners are: • • • • • • • • •

EuroGeographics Bundesamt für Kartographie und Geodäsie (Germany) NGI Belgium IGN France Statens kartverk (Norway) Geodeettinen laitos (Finland) Lantmäteriverket (Sweden) Kort & Matrikelstyrelsen (Denmark) National Land Survey Finland /Maanmittauslaitos (Finland)

joining the geography jigsaw

• Interactive Instruments • Bundesamt für Eich- und Vermessungswesen (Austria) • Geodan Software Development & Technology • 1Spatial Group • National Datacentre University of Edinburgh • National Agency for Cadastre and Real Estate Publicity (Romania) • National Technical University of Athens • Institute of Geodesy, Cartography and Remote Sensing (Hungary) • Helsinki University of Technology • Beuth Hochschule für Technik Berlin

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GiSProfessional

ESDIN is a collaboration of 19 organisations part funded under the European Commissions eContentplus programme. Intentionally set up to include the supply chain for a European spatial data infrastructure the partners include 12 national mapping and cadastral agencies (NMCAs) from the EuroGeographics Association plus commercial and academic developers, solution suppliers and researchers.

EuroGeographics has been instrumental in pulling together the concepts and consortium behind ESDIN. The head office staff project manage and coordinate the ambitious ESDIN workload as well as leading three of the 12 work packages.

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Issue No 36 October 2010

ESDIN: maximising

location harmonised production of pan-European offerings from national spatial data Infrastructures.

EuroGeographics

GiSProfessional

Figure 3: The process needed for sustainable development of the European Location Framework.

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these are mapping agencies that do not benefit from the project’s eContentplus funding, but identify that the benefits to their communities far outweigh the cost of contribution to the project. The same can be true for data providers, solution vendors and end-user beneficiaries of pan-European offerings (such as insurers, academics, cross-border projects and services, European Environment Agencies and other federated organisations).

As the project draws to a close (in February 2011) EuroGeographics will facilitate platforms for this growing community that will help others develop, extend and adopt the services, specifications and best practice (See Figure 3). We hope this will generate new intellectual property, collaborations and sustainable products and services in the journey toward the fully

brings

this

together

EuroGeographics members are all part of a community of European national mapping, land registry and cadastral agencies. The ESDIN project has been able to foster collaboration between this community, the best commercial developers in our sector, and the users and service providers in the public, private and academic sectors. ESDIN has therefore provided a unique opportunity to crystallise the experience and innovation needed across the whole supply chain of the European spatial data infrastructure.

Maintaining, supporting and facilitating the proposed European Location Framework clearly needs leadership and commitment. Through the leadership of ESDIN and participation in related pan-European projects such as EuroRoads, RISE and EuroGeoNames, EuroGeographics members and its head office team have proved more than capable of taking this role.

About the authors David Overton, EuroGeographics; Jörgen Hartnor, Lantmäteriet, Sweden; Anja Hopfstock, Bundesamt für Kartographie und Geodäsie, Germany; Laila.Aslesen & Morten Borrebaek, Statens Kartverk, Norway; Chris Higgins, EDINA,UK.

Issue No 36 October 2010

software delivery

Carl Hancock is the Executive Marketing Coordinator at Aligned Assets (www.aligned -assets.co.uk), a company that specialises in gazetteer management software. One of his primary focuses is in market intelligence and the conversion of this into new, cost-effective solutions for both the public and the private sector.

models

THE SOFTWARE INDUSTRY has always been in a state of permanent revolution, driven by customer need for that which is “faster and better”, combined with a philosophy within the industry to strive for the innovative and the new. This revolution has fuelled commercial competition, with companies trying to outdo one another to be the most innovative, and through that increase their profit margin.

But this was the limit of the revolution. Newer, better, more innovative: these were superlatives that remained in the domain of software development.

This product-based thinking never crossed the boardroom table into the way that software and solutions were actually purchased; until recently.

Traditionally, and in the majority of cases today, software is bought in much the same way as someone buys a toaster, i.e. you purchase the product outright, with the price determined by the cost of production, plus a healthy profit margin.

In some sectors there is a “maintenance” fee, which is normally paid in exchange for the correction of bugs, and upgrades and improvements. In the public sector, this means that most software incurs two costs: a one-off cost to buy the software and an ongoing cost to keep it maintained.

In both instances, the advantage to the end user is through cost savings, which is always an advantage, but never more so than today, especially in the public sector.

SbS Aligned Assets has always liked to consider itself part of the revolutionary brigade, and by focusing solely on gazetteer solutions, we’ve always managed to remain flexible and responsive to customer needs.

Despite this, we too had focused on trying to be the best in terms of software and our business model had remained relatively unchanged since our inception over 14 years ago.

As a keen watcher of the GI world it has been hard to ignore the changes occurring in the delivery of software and as someone who spends a large amount of their time conversing with people in the public sector, the horrendous effects of budget cuts is something I see daily. Change was needed, which is why we created Software by Subscription (SbS).

We liked the way that SaaS removed the upfront costs of buying software, but we weren’t convinced by all the arguments for hosted solutions. For one thing, we’ve all had the experience of our internet service going down – it’s hugely annoying, but even more so if you’re reliant on that connection to do your work.

Subscribe or pay-as-you go?

How you pay for software is changing. Carl Hancock from Aligned Assets believes that changes in the way software is delivered can revolutionise how supplier companies do business with the public sector.

“

. . . unlike with your toaster, there are restrictions on who can actually use the product and where it can be installed.

SaaS In addition to cloud computing, Software as a Service (SaaS) is becoming one of the key business models that moves away from the traditional model.

Though its precise origins might be open to debate, it is undeniable that recent years have seen significant growth. SaaS, put very simply, is the process of using software over the Internet, rather than installing it locally on the user’s PC or system. The process has many benefits, though two tend to stand out from the crowd.

Firstly, you pay for what you use, when you use it.

Consider: you use two computers, one at work, one at home – traditional software licensing would require you to pay twice, not so with SaaS. Consider also that if you use a piece of software for only one hour a day – traditional software licensing means you pay the same as someone using it for eight hours a day; not so with SaaS. Secondly, although software costs money, whether locally installed or accessed over the web, with SaaS, the vendor hosts your data, hosts the application, upgrades the application etc, all of which reduces the hardware/infrastructure costs to the customer.

“

joining the geography jigsaw

More importantly though it’s a question of mindset – people, quite rightly, like to have control.

There will always be things that interrupt the functioning of systems, but what people like is the control to get it back working themselves, rather than blind reliance on a third party.

And so was born SbS – a business model in which the user pays one simple, unrestricted subscription fee, with all the support and maintenance included, but the security and flexibility of having control over how and where that software is installed.

It’s all about choice I’m naturally going to be an advocate of SbS, but what I’m more in favour of is choice. Too often the end user wants X, but has to settle for Y because that’s all the market will offer.

Some people will like the security that comes from paying for software and ongoing maintenance, hosted on internal infrastructure (traditional model), whilst others will be more than happy to hand all of this over to a third party in exchange for a fee (SaaS). Some on the other hand will prefer a combination to two (SbS), and then there are also those looking to embrace open source.

We live in a world of market forces but it should be the customer who dictates the market and not the other way around.

To find out more about Software by Subscription, visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk/sbs

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GiSProfessional

Another element of this traditional model is licensing, which in essence means, unlike with your toaster, there are restrictions on who can actually use the product and where it can be installed. Though the industry needs a method to defend itself against piracy, licensing is far too often inflexible and expensive.

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Issue No 36 October 2010

AGI column AS YOU READ THIS the AGI GeoCommunity ’10 conference will no doubt be over, but that does not mean the close of the AGI year by a long stretch!

Below are just some of the activities and events still to run in the AGI calendar. Further details and bookings at: www.agi.org.uk/events/

A: AGI Northern Ireland: Quick Savings, Quick Wins using Geographic Information W5, Belfast, Wednesday 27th October, 2010 (08:45am to 13:45pm)

Chris Holcroft is Director and CEO of the AGI.

In the current economic climate both public and private sectors are coming under increasing pressure to reduce costs, increase efficiencies and realise greater business benefits. The utilisation of GIS has delivered significant efficiencies and benefits to many local organisations and the technology is increasingly recognised by Government as having potential strategic and other benefits in a range of areas, across many sectors of the economy, for example:

A National Conference on Location Economics London, Tuesday 2nd November, 2010 (10:00am 4:30pm) Special early bird rate available until Monday 11th October Keynote Speaker: Alan Smart, Chief economist, ACIL Tasman, Australia Geo-economics – how economists evaluate investments in geospatial Alan is Harvard trained and has previously been a government minister in Australia. He has more recently been in the vanguard of establishing the value of national investments in location-based applications.

Whichever way you look at it, public and private sector executives are going be very focused on cutting costs over the next few years. Fortunately, there is a growing body of evidence that geospatial can be demonstrated to make real cashable savings with rapid payback of investment in many

It’s not over yet! says AGI Director and CEO Chris Holcroft as he reviews an exciting series of events between now and the end of the year.

• • • •

30

... a growing body of evidence that geospatial can be demonstrated to make real cashable savings with rapid payback of investment...

“

GiSProfessional

“

www.gisprofessional.co.uk

delivering more for less, better service delivery, enabling the provision of innovative new services, and enhanced interaction and transparency with other businesses and the public

Registered delegates will have the opportunity to be informed on how GIS can add value to corporate data sources, streamline operational procedures, improve services and provide efficient and effective evidence-based decision making in an ever challenging environment.

There will be two main sessions, with the morning starting with a keynote industry overview of current and projected national developments in GI, followed by a number of varied presentations focused on local regional examples in Northern Ireland, with a number of practical demonstrations of how GIS is delivering effective benefits, relatively quickly, in a number of organisations. Also included is an exhibition area and of course, there exists the usual opportunity to network with other delegates and fellow AGI members.

This event will be of benefit to anyone interested in the potential of GIS implementation and related solutions to realise organizational efficiencies and benefits.

B: AGI: Exploiting location information to save your organisation money!

applications, from supply chain optimisation, customer relationship management and enterprise resource planning, including many customer-facing services. Come and learn from economists and senior managers who have successfully developed robust financial business cases and the experts in how to present the arguments at chief executive and political levels.

The event will include presentations on: • • • • • • •

Location in the political agenda Transport route optimisation: the universal solution Jumping through hoops - the practicalities of board approval Evidence-based decision making Ubiquitous Location The scene of the crime - the business case for location based mobile applications Dispelling the ‘Intangible’ Myth

C: AGI Annual Awards 2010 The Royal College of Physicians, London, Thursday 25th November, 2010 (18:45pm to 23:00pm) One of the main AGI annual events, every year, AGI judges and presents a set of industry awards. This is just one of the ways in which AGI encourages best practice, innovation and maximum use of geographic information. It is also a great way for our members to get actively involved and be recognised for their efforts and achievements.

joining the geography jigsaw

Issue No 36 October 2010

AGI column

• •

• • • • • • • • •

Innovation & Best Practice (Central Government) - Sponsored by IGGI Innovation & Best Practice (Local Government) - Sponsored by Pitney Bowes Business Insight Innovation & Best Practice (Private Sector) Sponsored by ESRI (UK) Innovation and Best Practice (Business Case & ROI) - Sponsored by ConsultingWhere AGI Student of the Year - Sponsored by Ordnance Survey Best Paper from the AGI Conference Sponsored by Informed Solutions Past Chair’s Award Director’s Award AGI Volunteer of the Year Best Young Researchers Paper - Sponsored

by Cadcorp Best of GISRUK Paper

D: Location Wales 2010 City Hall, Cardiff, Wednesday December 1, 2010 The AGI Cymru conference this year comes off the back of the successful launch of “Location Wales – opportunities and challenges”. Location Wales sets out the exciting opportunities that can be achieved by the intelligent use of geographic information. It presents 26 challenges to Wales that will need to be overcome in order to deliver the tangible benefits of it.

The conference streams are: • Delivering data; • Innovation in geography; • Leadership in geography; • Lightning talks on ‘anything geo’.

A full programme will follow shortly.

The AGI exists to “maximise the use of geographic information (GI) for the benefit of the citizen, good governance and commerce”.Membership details are available from info@agi.org.uk or by calling: +44 (0)20 7036 0430

GiSProfessional

Each Award is announced and presented at the Annual Awards Dinner, which takes place this year on Thursday 25th November 2010. The award categories ensure a spread of entries from across central and local government, the private sector, research and education.

Awards are presented in ten categories:

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Issue No 36 October 2010

books

Clear explanations with screen shots for those at the ArcGIS workface but what does “lining up data mean�?

By Margaret M. Maher ESRI Press, Redland, California.

ISBN: 9781589482494, 184 pages, $24.95 This book describes itself as a practical guide to lining up data in a geographic information system – specifically with reference to ArcGIS, but with potentially some applicability to other systems. The author, Margaret Maher, is described as a veteran member of the ESRI support team, who in the course of handling some 12,000 customer queries has come across just about every problem there is that concerns map projections and data conversions.

The book is organised into a chapter structure that mostly

illustrated with screen shots of the ArcGIS interface. However, in pitching itself as a practical guide it then veers away from being an ordered explanation of the principles and is not an easy read for someone trying to get to grips with the subject: it really needs to be propped up next to the screen by a user who is going through all the suggested options, clicking and editing where directed to do so.

So it’s potentially useful, but I do have a couple of problems with it. One is that it is very much centred on the US: I mean, seriously so – about the only reference to “abroad� is a mention of somewhere called the “Greenwich Naval Observatory� in England. If your data mismatches north-south by about 200 metres, then you’ve got a problem with mixing NAD1927 and NAD1983 datums: no equivalent possibilities, such as examples relating to OSBG36, are suggested for other countries. In general, the assumption of using variations on the State Plane Coordinate System is hard-wired throughout.

My other concern is that in addressing itself to solving a problem there sometimes seems to

be a bit too much emphasis on making it “look right� (maybe that’s what “lining up data� actually means) at the expense of understanding the underlying cause.

True, the author does suggest in a couple of places that contacting the data supplier for a correct definition of the coordinate system is the ideal, but elsewhere there seems to be something of a trial and error approach. Does it not line up when you change the datum to NAD1927? Try changing the units to feet. Or if that’s still not quite right, try international feet instead of US feet. At one stage the false eastings and northings of the coordinate system are adjusted until things line up.

So I can imagine that there will be plenty of people (predominantly US based) for whom this book is something of a God-send, as they struggle to integrate road networks with building plans and utilities data; but I would perhaps advocate a greater emphasis on the use of these techniques as diagnostic tools that should support proper coordinate descriptions.

Jonathan Iliffe University College London

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Lining Up Data in ArcGIS – a guide to map projections

reflects the generic operations that a user is likely to need. Thus, for example: “Identifying the correct geographic coordinate system�; “Identifying the projected coordinate system�; “Aligning rotated CAD data�; “Applying geographic transformations�; and so on. These chapter titles are usefully supplemented by the typical cries for help that would result in each chapter being consulted, examples being: “when I add a client’s data to ArcMap it draws at an angle – how can I fix that?�; “how can I find out what datum my data is on? I tried to find out from the source but they didn’t know�; and “when I add the data I get an error message saying there’s a missing spatial reference and the data doesn’t line up�.

As a reviewer I’m slightly hampered by the fact that I’m not a daily user of ArcGIS, and generally have to go crawling to PhD students with offers of pints of beer if I need a map knocking up to illustrate something. However, I can see that as a practical guide for those with datasets that are not aligned and are close to pressing the panic button, it explains the options clearly and is extensively

products & services analyses, location-based marketing programmes and risk management calculations. The data catalogue includes both free and fee-based geospatial data from PBBI as well as content from third-party data providers such as Ordnance Survey and TomTom. The new platform supports GIS mapping and analysis applications like MapInfo Professional and Stratus, plus applications from other GIS vendors.

Updates for Zeno series The Zeno Office v1.1 and Zeno Field v1.1 software updates are available for the Zeno series of GNSS/GIS products. The Zeno GIS from Leica Geosystems provides a one-click automated workflow between field and office to enhance productivity and ease-of-use. The Zeno Field software is an OEM version of ESRI ArcPad 8. New features include: the support of several radio devices to receive RTK GNSS data; CDMA phone support for internet connectivity and receiving RTK GNSS data; and Italian language support in Zeno Field. Meanwhile, Zeno Office maintains, manages and post-processes GIS, GNSS and surveying data. New features include: the software is now based on ArcGIS 9.3.1; Zeno Office v1.1 databases are 100% compatible with v1.0 databases; support of 64-bit operating systems; and support of SQL Express databases in Zeno Office on ArcGIS.

Shared access to data The data sharing platform, Contractor Portal v2.0, can be hosted or installed whilst the pricing model supports end user and organisation payment options. In addition to providing self-service access to data licensed under collective purchase agreements, from Ordnance Survey and other data suppliers, the portal enables organisations to share their own, internally-generated data in a secure environment.

‘Simplification is key to opening up important data access as it enables more people in more organisations to make better decisions,’ says Ben Allan, managing director of Dotted Eyes. ‘That access is critical to meeting the imperatives of localised data sharing

inherent in new government drives.

Contractor Portal equips local government organisations to work collaboratively and cost effectively, breaking down traditional barriers, opening up GIS siloes and releasing vital information for sharing across organisations with the minimum of fuss’.

Data on demand The Geosk platform is a location-based data-asa-service (DaaS) offering with a comprehensive geospatial data catalogue delivered via a cloud-based portal that lets customers pay as they go. Introduced by Pitney Bowes Business Insight, the platform enables customers to access and integrate current geospatial data into business

GeoMedia goes 3D New 3D capabilities in GeoMedia product line integrate advanced spatial analysis and data capture with the 3D “virtual earth” style of presentation. The Intergraph software suite is a set of wellintegrated applications that provide a range of geospatial processing capabilities. With GeoMedia 3D, users can navigate with full freedom of movement in all dimensions to evaluate geospatial assets and analytical results. The software is a fully integrated, add-on product for the desktop version of GeoMedia.

For more information, visit www.intergraph.com/geomedia3d.

Inspecting utilities A new version of Trimble’s Field Inspector software for utility infrastructure and smart grid asset maintenance and inspection includes versions for handheld computers and desktop PCs. Designed to be scalable and easy to deploy, it leverages the company’s GPS and handheld computing technology to automate a variety of field applications for electric, gas, water and wastewater utilities – from smart meter deployments to routine asset maintenance inspections. For more information, visit www.trimble. com/fieldinspector.shtml.

New historic Photos Bluesky has added over 100,000 aerial photographs to its online historical photo archive, www.oldaerialphotos.com, following an agreement with Land and Property Services (Northern Ireland) to supply the entire Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland photographic archive.

joining the geography jigsaw

Flexible mapping on the move The StreetMapper mobile mapping system is now available with four system specifications, ranging from dedicated survey vehicles to a portable system that can be checked in as standard luggage at the airport. In addition to the conventional 360 system, the newly launched StreetMapper Pod from 3D Laser Mapping offers improved protection with a compact case that can accommodate up to two scanners and three cameras.

New management tool The online mapping website, FIND, has launched the expired data licence management tool. The new tool helps organisations demonstrate transparent licensing during audits for hundreds of datasets they may hold. It allows companies to centrally manage and track data licences, as well identifying when they are due to expire to help quickly renew licences. The management tool is free to use; log-in to view expired data licences at www.findmaps.co.uk.

BRIEFS Software By Subscription is the new model adopted by Aligned Assets. It offers smaller organisations an affordable method of using the National Land and Property Gazetteer.

With SinglePoint NLPG, now available on subscription, organisations can hold the NLPG centrally and utilise web services to give users access to NLPG data at lower cost. More at: visit www.aligned-assets.co.uk/imatch Location information and GIS company, eSpatial, has announced that its iSMART product supports access to the OS OnDemand services provided by Ordnance Survey of Great Britain.

The Global Software Institute (GSI) has announced that a suite of image analysis and raster GIS capabilities, including image enhancement, geometric correction, measurement and statistics is available for free download. Visit www.opendragon.org for details. www.gisprofessional.co.uk

GiSProfessional

Issue No 36 October 2010

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Issue No 36 October 2010

calendar

| seminars | conferences | exhibitions | courses | events | workshops | symposiums | We welcome advance details of conferences, seminars, exhibitions and other events which are likely to be of interest to the GIS community. Please mention the name of the event, venue, date and point of contact for further information and send to Hayley Tear, GISPro, 2B North Road, Stevenage, Herts SG1 4AT Fax: +44 (0)1438 351989, e-mail: hayley@pvpubs.demon.co.uk GeoDATA 2010 Seminars 10 Nov, Glasgow Audi / 16 Nov, Hastings Stormont Hotel, Belfast.

OCTOBER 2010 Leica Geosystems' GeoWorld 10 Roadshow Multiple dates and venues. More information: www.geoworld10.co.uk/ Intergraph UK 2010 User Conference 12-13 October, Intergraph Technology Centre, Swindon

More information: www.training4gis.com GEOTUNIS International Congress 2010 29 November - 3 December, Tunisia.

More information: www.geotunis.org/2010/

More information: www.intergraph.com/global/uk/sgi2010.aspx Everything Happens Somewhere 2010 – NLPG NSG annual conference 20 October, Cutlers' Hall, Church Street Sheffield S1 1HG.

NAV10: Position, Location, Timing: Everyone, Everything, Everywhere.

30 November - 2 December, Church House, Westminster, London.

More information: www.rin.org.uk/

More information: Email, Gayle Gander ggander@intelligent-addressing.co.uk NOVEMBER 2010 One Wales - One Voice: Aligned Assets' Gazetteer Best Practice Day 2 November, Media Resource Centre, Llandrindod.

DECEMBER 2010 StreetMapper 2010 International User Conference 2 December, The Hague, Netherlands.

More information: Email, info@3dlasermapping.com

More information: www.aligned-assets.co.uk/events/events.html

JANUARY 2011

Trimble Dimensions 2010 - 8-10 November, The Mirage, Las Vegas, USA

GIS in Mining & Exploration 2011 18-19 January, Venue to be Confirmed, Stockholm.

More information: www.trimbledimensions.com

More information: http://gisinmining.com/Event.aspx?id=383902

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GIS SOFTWARE

UNI__GIS MSc/PgDip/PgCert courses in GIS by distance learning Delivered by the universities of Huddersfield, Manchester Metropolitan and Salford

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D I G I TA L M A P P I N G

SOFTWARE

A DV E RT I S E R S ’ I N D E X Aligned Assets p. 35 Bluesky p. 32 Cadcorp inside frontcover Intelligent Addressing p. 09 Intergraph p. 22 KOREC p. 31 Leica Geosystems p. 04 MapMechanics p. 07 Ormston Technology backcover Positioning Resources p. 28 Star-Apic p. 28 UNIGIS p. 25 joining the geography jigsaw

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