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Geospatial World 2002
Where: Renaissance Waverly Hotel, Atlanta, Georgia
When: June 9 - 12
Ordnance Survey... a model for e-Government (or perhaps G-Government!) - A Special Session Report from GeoSpatial World 2002
We've already briefly touched on the welcome address at last week's GeoSpatial World Conference, however,
there were a number of other "special" speakers that took to the stage as well. On Tuesday morning conference attendees
were treated to a very interesting presentation on e-government with a focus on the British Ordnance Survey
- www.ordsvy.gov.uk.
You may be familiar with the Ordnance Survey - Britain's National Mapping Agency - but chances are your not
familiar with Vanessa Lawrence. If you are then you've done your homework... or perhaps you're a frequent
visitor to one of the hottest e-Government portals on the web. Lawrence is the Director general and chief
executive of the Ordnance Survey, Great Britain, having joined the OS in 2000 after leaving her position
as regional development manager in the UK, Ireland, the Middle East, and Africa at Autodesk. She is now
frequently referred to as the OS's "e-champion".
Vanessa Lawrence addresses GeoSpatial World 2002 attendees
Having traveled across the Pacific and likely assuming that many attendees were not terribly familiar
with the OS, Lawrence opened with a brief history lesson. She explained:
the OS was established in 1791 as part of the effort to stop Napolean from invading Britain
now 1,900+staff members
official "status" is determined by Ministers of Parliament every 5 years
revenues MUST exceed costs
no tax payer subsidies are used
as of April this year, generated some $100 million revenues and $8 million profit.
The Mission
Since her tenure at the helm, Lawrence has spearheaded the campaign to collect data for the entire country
at a scale of 1:1250... she tells us that spatial data for every building, fence, and post is/has been collected.
Currently the OS has 70 offices and maintains the ambitious mapping project with a crew of 550 pen-based &
GPS equipped field staff. These mobile data collectors perform roughly 5000 spatial edits to the digital land base
every day. Proudly, Lawrence explained how changes are made within 6 months/3 years in rural areas - the National Interest Mapping
Service Agreement (NIMSA) ensures that rural areas are fully mapped and a budget of 13.7 million pounds ensures this - ... what that means
is that if a new subdivision is built, the changes are reflected in the digital data within 6 months. In times of emergency or crisis, data can
be delivered to users within 4 hours.
Who are the users of the data? For starters, OS digital data products have been used recently in the 2001
Census, crime mapping projects, neighborhood renewal schemes, emergency response, and the recent foot and mouth disease crisis.
Industries dependent on the data include fire, police, ambulance, utilities, local government, and agriculture, to name a few.
So where do the revenues come from? With all this up-to-date, accurate digital data would you believe that
paper maps still account for 25% of the OS's revenues! More than 8.5 million paper prints are sold each year,
the 1:50,000 scale product being the most popular, accounting for roughly 40% of sales. Lawrence points out that
her current mission involves developing a modern system for delivering OS data products, a challenge many of us face
as we evolve from the 80's (email based) through the 90's (web-based), and now into the 2000's (web-services).
Those of you in government facing similar challenges would be wise to keep an eye on the OS for some direction!
History of the e-strategy
If we step back a bit and look at the development of the OS's e-strategy it all started in 200 when Lawrence
took over at the helm. She initially sought volunteers for an "e-team", an effort she found to be very
successful, and an effective way to learn about her employees and their interests. Out of this effort came 60
volunteers forming the basis for the new e-strategy. The first mission, to talk with customers,
business partners, and staff. Out of this, confirmation of a need for an e-champion as well as the adoption of
5 initiatives:
deliver information immediately and tailored to users needs
required an agent's network and "one-stop" shops
free maps for 11 year olds - every child gets a free paper map of his/her local area (if they wish) - more than
705,000 children have taken advantage of this offer (see http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/education/ for info)
the ability for customers to order site-centered maps (ever need 4 maps because your area of interest lies
at the intersection of 4 maps!... no more!)
With the implementation of these initiatives has come what Lawrence describes as the [her] greatest achievement -
OS MasterMap, an intelligent, accessible, nation-wide, spatial data coverage.
OS MasterMap data has been gathered using GPS & the EUROPEAN TERRESTRIAL REFERENCE SYSTEM 89 (ETRS89) - the UK National Grid reference system.
Every feature has a unique ID or 16 digit TOID (topographic ID). Digital terrain models have also been developed
and all existing digital datasets have been integrated into the product. Currently, there are in excess of
423 million unique topographic objects, with every TOID having an associated version number, enabling users to
view the history of each object.
Sample from OS MasterMap
OS MasterMap is a seamless database of discreet features.
Users of the data can select and order data online and pay a set cost per TOID. Custom data products
can be purchased, for example, one can request digital data for a 100m buffer zone surrounding an object or linear feature.
Users are notified about the availability of updates and these are made available via FTP download. Of particular interest,
Lawrence referenced a time when she was a consultant and user of the former digital data product. She would spend
countless hours having the data cleaned and finally building topologies, only to then become aware of an update to the data
which would once again require cleaning and building of topology. Those days are now gone, as digital updates are available
and data are served via e-services, harnessing the powers of GML.
"OS MasterMap is a revolutionary new concept in mapping,
developed through the Digital National Framework™ (DNF™)
project and extensive consultations with digital map users.
Ordnance Survey will continue to enrich and enhance the data as
the revolution in OS MasterMap gives the power to deliver better
services to customers." (Source: Ordnance Survey)
The Future
As Lawrence and staff move on to the post OS MasterMap era, the task at hand is focused on gathering
additional data layers, including transportation features, digital imagery, parcel data, and places/point features.
Staff are more focused and motivated, a sign of this being that roughly 98% of the staff came together for a voluntary
retreat last December.
With the close of her address, Lawrence reiterated the importance of partners, a key element in reading and
understanding the audience. The OS has since implemented a new partner program, providing unlimited access
to data by developers for a mere $500 fee. There are currently 289 registered developers building data and applications
based on OS data products.
Of interest, when asked why the OS does not make data products available to users/the public for free,
Lawrence noted how free information is often not maintained, resulting in inferior data. Additionally,
millions of $ per year are required to simply maintain existing data - a pretty good case for cost recovery!
If you have news, announcements, or comments from the event, please be sure to tell us about it. Are you a user of
MasterMap or other Ordanance Survey data products?
Send details to Glenn (editor@geocomm.com)
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