The value of a map
Posted 13 February 2008 at 8:20AM by Ian Betteridge in Email and communications
Perhaps it's because of our cultural heritage of exploration and global travel, but the British are obsessed with maps. You can see this in our absolute love of GPS satellite navigation, sales of which made Halfords one of the more profitable high-street companies over Christmas.
For businesses, knowing where you are, where your customers are, and how to get to them is a vitally important thing. What's more, as we move deeper into the data-driven internet age, map and location information is only likely to increase in importance. Services like BT Out and About, which lets you find nearby wireless hotspots, depend on good quality mapping data.
And, of course, our government has sensible spent several hundred years spending generations of taxpayer's money and spending it on extremely accurate and constantly-updated maps of Britain. Ordnance Survey, founded on fears of French invasion in 1791, is one of the leading mapping organisations in the world.
For business, Ordnance Survey data is massive important. As the organisation notes on its web site, "an independent study has calculated that around £100 billion worth of economic activity in Britain is dependent on it." And as location data becomes more important, that amount is only likely to increase.
So why, then, is this mapping data - which has been gathered using taxpayer's money - not made available for free to everyone in the UK? The extra value to business and extra convenience to consumers would be massive. That's the question that The Guardian is posing with its "Free our data" campaign, which is asking for government-collected information, paid for by taxpayers, to be made available to taxpayers.
The government's argument is that licensing the map data to commercial companies supplies vital revenue that is then invested in better data which, in a free-market age, makes some sense. However, if such a strategy is to work, the licenses need to be broad-ranging, fairly-priced, and easy to understand - something which a group of MPs have argued isn't happening at the moment.
Whether it's made available under license, or simply given away to the people who posted in the first place, mapping data is important - too important to be simply left on the shelf, unused.
Tags: bt, bt broadbandoffice, halfords, map, mapping, maps, ordnance survey
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Comments
2. At February 13, 2008 11:43 AM, Chris Sabin wrote:
I agree with Carl. We should be grateful that we have such a vast and advanced mapping system.
If you want something for free then check out Google Maps or Multi Maps.
Considering some places use the above to mark directions for stores etc, then they don't have a right for complaint!
3. At February 13, 2008 2:50 PM, Ian Betteridge wrote:
"Taxpayers money is spent on war and home securirty too but we wont get info regarding that would we?"
Well actually, yes, we do get lots of information about both those things - the exception, of course, being where it's necessary for national security reasons.
I think you're wide of the mark with your claim about "getting it for free". We're not getting it for free - we're paying for this data with our taxes.
4. At February 13, 2008 4:47 PM, Ade wrote:
I agree with Ian, if its not a matter of national security, and it is being paid for by our taxes (just like the other things we pay for via tax - school, health services etc.), then it should be made available freely.
5. At February 15, 2008 9:35 AM, Iain Martin wrote:
Thing is, if we started getting stuff like maps for free, taxes would have to go up in order to pay for them. Thye things we currently get for 'free' from the government are the things we actually need, like schools, police etc. I'd hardlyput maps in the same class as them. Also, it's not being paid for soleley by our taxes. It's being paid for mostly by the money received from selling them!
6. At February 18, 2008 11:55 AM, Carl wrote:
I agree with Iain Martin as I would not like to pay more tax for the availablity of maps to become freely available to a selct few that want want/need them. Yes we do get access to matters of national security to a certain degree but you do also have access to free maps online.
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1. At February 13, 2008 10:47 AM, Carl wrote: