The Prime Minister, Gordon Brown and Communities Secretary John Denham, have made an important announcement regarding the provision of 'free' Ordnance Survey data for the benefit of 'open government'. This is part of the 'Making Public Data Public' project.

For further details please see:

The announcement

The Ordnance Survey press release:

Communities Minister John Denham has also recently instructed the Shareholder Executive to consider the long-term strategic options for Ordnance Survey, as well as short term actions to make more data public. This work will be reported to John Denham and Digital Britain Minister Stephen Timms in December. Following this a public consultation on the subject is expected.

These announcements represent a set of very significant events for the geographic information community and wider public. The consequences of the announcement will be better understood once more details become available.  AGI especially looks forward to clarity on:

• the Ordnance Survey datasets covered;
• the interpretation of 'freely available';
• an understanding of the impact on the Ordnance Survey Partner Network;
• an understanding of the impact on other government departments,

before the impact can be clearly assessed.

AGI is also keen to understand:

• where the funding shortfall to Ordnance Survey will be made up from;
• the impact on the ongoing work on the OS Business model so recently endorsed by Ministers;
• the lack of any mention of the major issue of derived data;
• the effects of a pending General Election on this activity.

AGI will monitor developments and looks forward to responding to the planned consultation.