Mappy days! Ordnance Survey offers up free map of UK greenery The Ordnance Survey has launched a free online map of Britain's green spaces with an open dataset for developers to get their hands on. The mapping agency's latest offering pulls together geospatial data to create a map of concrete-free areas across the country – everything from your local park to an allotment. The work …
I have four apps on my phjone's home screen which can display maps, of which two are explicitly mapping apps. One of the four uses OS map data. So they are failing dismally to be a monopoly. And OS maps app (which is, not surprisingly the one that uses OS data) costs me, I think, £20/year for full offline everything across a couple of devices and the web. Which is cheap: so they're also failing to enforce any kind of monopoly pricing.
So no, not a monopoly: you're just making stuff up.
"I use Viewranger at present, what App do you use that gives you full UK access for £20/yr and what scale does it go to?"
I use Backcountry Navigator, which has OS maps (although only 1:50000 I think) as well as a wide variety of maps worldwide (including quite a few government-run maps similar to OS, various open maps such as OpenStreetMap, and some more unusual ones like NOAA ocean charts) for a single payment of about £10.
I use the OS maps (iOS but I think it is on other platforms as well), which has 1/25k ('explorer') maps for everywhere, as well as all the other more fashionable ones (including this new one). The digitisation isn't quite as good as their older iOS app which is mildly annoying, but for that app you had to buy tiles.
As someone else said: check the subscription prices, as they may be better direct. They are also very approachable -- I botched my renewal and spent some time exchanging mail with someone to get it fixed.
Perhaps they have a monopoly on truly great maps and excellence, all the others being just rubbish in comparison, unable to compete?
I have a fetish for OS maps and have pored over them for hours plotting my routes and looking for oddities to visit. I caress my maps with a strange light in my eyes and a longing in my restless soul...
The Ordnance Survey was a branch of the government until two years ago (and it's still wholly owned by The Crown), originally it was part of the Army (hence the name). So yes, OS do have a monopoly on the data that they have collected, in the same way that the Police have a monopoly on law enforcement, or the Royal Navy has a monopoly on nuclear submarines.
Unless you're suggesting that the heads of other mapping firms have woken up with a horse's head in their bed, or perhaps been discovered off Scarborough pier wearing a concrete overcoat, then perhaps calling them a 'mafia' is a bit of an exaggeration?
(Note, they don't have a monopoly on mapping, it's entirely legal to go out and map the entire UK yourself, and to do what you like with the data)
"The mapping agency's latest offering pulls together geospatial data to create a map of concrete-free areas across the country – everything from your local park to an allotment."
That's a small proportion of concrete-free areas:
- Public parks or gardens
- Play spaces
- Golf courses
- Sports areas or playing fields
- Churchyards or burial grounds
- Allotments or community growing spaces
Almost everything I can see from my window is concrete free and none any of it falls into any of these categories.
Is this what is meant by not seeing the wood for the trees?
I suppose that numerically the number of National Parks is quite modest, but not in terms of acreage. The author has overlooked her surname as a potential category of greenery, and Dr Syntax beat me to mentioning moorland.
However since google came along, they have been loosing their position. That being said, things that the US do not have, such as public footpaths are only availible from the OS.
For basic location applications then there are a fair amount of datasets, some with only minimal errors that may be ignored if you check against aerial photography.
Mobile mapping products just do not have to be that accurate as it isn't a legal issue if you get it wrong.
Back when I was doing GIS maintenance, capture was using OS landline as a reference, this may have changed but it used to be that OS was the standard datum that everything else relied upon and I think landline cost something like £40,000 a year
For old farts like me who spent geography lessons trying to fold them back up right, OS maps rock. Example, eldest daughter likes triathalon, still just a beginner though. Planned herself a nice route. I took a quick look on Bing's OS maps thingy, pointed out that part of her route had quite a steep hill. Whatever mapping software she'd used didn't mention this, but with your OS map it was all too clear. Being a cocky little git, she didn't take a bit of notice of the old fart. She had a near death experience on the hill I'd warned her about, and I was pleased.
Copied from merriam-webster.com because I wasn't interested in subscribing to the OED.
"Definition of ordnance
1
a : military supplies including weapons, ammunition, combat vehicles, and maintenance tools and equipment
bombers dropped heavy concentrations of ordnance on every targeted airfield — Ron Dick
b : a service of the army charged with the procuring, distributing, and safekeeping of ordnance"
My question: Is this another color vs colour spelling mismatch or is something more sinister afoot?
To explain further (same source):
Definition of ord.i.nance
1
a : an authoritative decree or direction : order On that day the king signed three ordinances.
b : a law set forth by a governmental authority; specifically : a municipal regulation A city ordinance forbids construction work to start before 8 a.m.
2
: something ordained or decreed by fate or a deity
Let ordinance come as the gods foresay [=foretell] it. — William Shakespeare
3
: a prescribed usage, practice, or ceremony observes the ordinance of abstinence during Lent
It's ordnance, and it means what you suggest. They started off a few hundred years ago surveying (i.e. making maps) for ordnance, on account the English picking fights with everyone.
Several interesting background articles on the web explain the history of the OS.
It's the first, 'ordnance', because when originally commissioned, the maps were used to locate caches of weapons (magazines (<- not as in 'Time Magazine', but as in a battery of weapons (not as in 'AA' battery, as in an array of weapons (not as in an ordered list, but a collection))))
OK, I'm done now. ; -)
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
