New single source of online information for every property in the District

25 January 2012 - St Albans City and District Council has launched a new web service through which residents can view detailed information tailored to any individual address in the District.

The new service is based on Geographical Information System data.  From one web page you can see, for example, the planning history of your home and overlay map information to see details about planning applications related to properties in your neighbourhood. 

With specific reference to your address, you can check when your waste and recycling collection is due, find the name and contact details of your local ward councillors, find your nearest library or household recycling centre and report anti-social behaviour such as fly-tipping and graffiti. 

Cllr Julian Daly, Executive Leader of St Albans City and District Council and Portfolio Holder for Resources said:  “This new web application is easy to use and available to everyone via the Council’s website.  It presents personalised local services information specific to each home in the District.  We want to give the public access to the same data as council officers.”

To see the St Albans City & District online Local Information Service please visit http://gis.stalbans.gov.uk/wmlcustomerservice/ or see the link on the Council’s homepage.

The Council is keen to receive feedback on the new Local Information Service and learn what additional information people would value on this site.  Please email your views to gis@stalbans.gov.uk, or telephone 01727 819324.

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O’Neill praises community heritage project

Wednesday, 1 February 2012 - ‘ENVISION’ a new community heritage project was officially launched today at An Cárn, Tikrane, Maghera by Rural Development Minister Michelle O’Neill.

Carntogher Community Association is working in collaboration with the Friends of Ballynahone Bog to deliver the ‘ENVISION’ project. The objective of the project is to collate and present the heritage assets of a rural community for the benefit of the local community and for the advancement of a successful rural economy in south Derry. These heritage assets include Archaeology, Built Heritage, Environment, and the Irish language.

The project will involve the use of Geographic Information System (GIS) to record heritage assets associated with Ballynahone National Nature Reserve and Drumnaph Woodland. This will include the creation of computerised 3D Visualisations of the evolution of how today’s landscapes have evolved through human history in Ireland.

Launching the project Minister O’Neill said: “I have a keen interest in any project which will protect and enhance our rural landscape and can contribute to sustainable rural development by utilising our past and present heritage assets. ‘ENVISION’ is an excellent example of such a project."

The Minister added: “I hope through the development of the ‘ENVISION’ project it will give the local community an opportunity to experience, enjoy, care for and protect our heritage for many years to come.”

The Carntogher Community Association was awarded £44,000 funding by Local Action Group SWARD, under a funding stream designed to create opportunities to preserve and upgrade the north of Ireland’s rural heritage and to use the natural and built environment as the basis for sustainable economic growth in rural areas.

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Socium launches Online Validation Service to users worldwide

Cambridge, UK, 2^nd February 2012 - Following the highly successful UK and Ireland launch of the cloud based, Online Validation Service last November, Socium are today opening up the service to give access to users worldwide.

The Online Validation Service, Socium’s first offering to the market, provides an independent, simple and easy to use way of validating spatial data against a set of standard or user-defined business rules. The validation process takes a matter of seconds to run through and once completed provides the user with a quantitative analysis of their data quality against each of the rules selected.

In addition a user can download the error report in the same file format as they loaded the data e.g. SHP or TAB. This is then ready to load directly into their own GIS application so that they can visualise exactly where the errors are located and which rule each error has broken. Up until now, the download of this report has required users to purchase credits, but Socium are also announcing today that their freemium version of the service has been extended, to enable users of the free rules to download their error report at no charge.

The global launch comes earlier than originally planned and is the result of both the success and uptake seen in the UK and Ireland and the market demand shown by both government and commercial organisations worldwide.

Duncan Guthrie, Managing Director, Socium Limited said:

“We are thrilled to be able to open up the service, to enable users around the world to start benefiting from using the Online Validation Service and very much look forward to working with them. When we launched the company it was our aim to develop the services that we offered in line with our user community’s needs. This is why we have taken our users’ feedback and decided to extend the freemium version to include downloading the error report.

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1Spatial delivers end-to-end chart production solution to the RAF

Cambridge, UK, 1^st February 2012 - 1Spatial is delighted to announce the successful completion of the latest stage of a long term development project for No1 Aeronautical Information Documents Unit (No1 AIDU), supporting paper and digital chart production.

As provider and distributor of aeronautical charts to the MOD, No1 AIDU has to distribute mission critical data that is accurate and up to date within set timescales. Their 28-day update cycle requires production of up to 72 different En Route Charts in both paper and digital format for use by pilots and flight planners. The actual chart generation, following the data update process, takes place in a short window before final manual checks are carried out.

The new system introduces 1Spatial’s rules-based Radius Studio platform to provide configurable, automated processing capabilities to the production workflow. The new system is also based on one single database, rather than multiple datasets. By relying on a single source of truth for both En-Route charts and digital data exports, the effort of the maintenance task and the risk of inconsistencies between datasets are both reduced.

By automating large sections of the workflow, including processing the data, placing labels and cartographically clarifying the output, No1 AIDU can reduce the risk of inconsistencies between charts. This reduces both the time taken for processing the charts and the amount of manual effort required meaning they can produce a more accurate and consistent product in less time, with less risk and at a lower manual overhead.

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AddressBase Premium Gazetteer System Made Available To All Emergency Services

Woking, Surrey 31^st January 2012 – Symphony Bluelight, the Country’s most advanced emergency service gazetteer management system from Aligned Assets, has been formally released to the UK market.

After four months of intensive development work and the successful live deployment at Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service, all police forces, fire, and ambulance services can start to integrate the Ordnance Survey’s AddressBase Premium into their frontline and back office systems.

Combining a corporate gazetteer management system, web services, data matching software and the ability to automate updates to all other systems, Symphony Bluelight is a comprehensive software suite, built in collaboration with the emergency services to address their specific needs and requirements.

It will enable them to hold AddressBase Premium, import change-only updates, build in and maintain local records, add access points, security classifications and high priority flags to addresses, plus incorporate a customisable list of abbreviations to make searching the data far more intuitive and user-friendly.

“For many, the transition to AddressBase Premium will be a lengthy process,” explained Dinesh Thanigasalam, Managing Director of Aligned Assets.

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