Ordnance Survey Releases Mapping Tools

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday March 26, 2015 @07:02PM from the map-it dept.

rHBa writes The BBC reports that the UK mapping organization Ordnance Survey has added 4 new products to its open data portfolio: OS Local, Names, Rivers and Roads. Perhaps the most interesting of the free data sets is OS Local which provides a base map to identify "hotspots" such as property pricing, insurance risk, and crime. The OS are not creating a new Google Maps-style service of their own but rather are providing their data for use by other third-party apps and online tools. They expect developers and designers to use the data to enhance their own products and improve the information people can access via the web.

1 of 18 comments (clear)

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

Re:What do you mean not providing a service? by rHBa · 2015-03-27 02:18 · Score: 3, Interesting

"The OS are not creating a new Google Maps-style service of their own" was taken from the BBC article.

I figured I'd already broken the first rule of Slashdot by RTFA so I might as well break rule 1 of journalism by not verifying the source.

I suspect what they meant was that the OS is not trying to replace Google Maps. Also, if you were going to provide a (large) dataset for people to use don't you think it would be a good idea to give them a convenient way to browse it before downloading?