Feb/Mar 2008

Web sites can now incorporate live interactive mapping from Ordnance Survey data in a way that some commentators have compared to that offered Google and Microsoft.

The organisation has launched a service called OS OpenSpace, which allows Web developers to create 'mash-ups' that include zoomable, draggable OS mapping pulled directly from the OS's own Web site. Location features specific to the application can be overlaid on them.

The service is free for non-commercial use, though commercial operators still have to pay a licence fee in the normal way.

The public service aspects were given prominence in a launch presentation by Iain Wright MP, the Minister responsible for Ordnance Survey, who said: 'In launching OS OpenSpace, Ordnance Survey is taking a lead in providing greater access to public information. The launch will allow others to innovate using geographic information, with confidence in the national consistency and currency of the data they use.'

 

Peter Haar, Ordnance Survey's director of products, said his organisation was hoping to see 'many people making exciting and innovative use of the API and Ordnance Survey's world leading geographic information.'