Data.gov.uk - 2012 User Survey

As Chair of the UK Location Evaluation Subgroup I’m looking forward to reviewing the results from 2012 user survey of data.gov.uk. If you’ve not seen it yet the survey can be accessed here.

User participation is key in developing the data.gov.uk service, and we hope that a formal user survey will provide another way in which users can get their voices heard and the service fully tailored to user needs.

The integration of the UK Location Infrastructure into data.gov.uk by the UK Location Programme has been an ongoing task. Location (spatial) data sets are a key part of the data.gov.uk service, which already provides access to over 1000 location datasets and provides services to enable users to access them.

Recognising this the UK Location User Group set up a data.gov.uk location data evaluation subgroup (which I chair). We carried out our first survey last year, involving the location data user community with some interesting and illuminating results.

We’ve kept the survey largely the same to enable trends to be identified, with some additional questions designed to test new elements of the current service. The 2012 Survey is open to anyone, as we’re keen to get feedback from across the board, irrespective of whether or not this is your first visit or if you’re a regular user of data.gov.uk.

Finally, while I can’t promise that any suggestions that are made will change the way the data.gov.uk service works immediately, rest assured that I will ensure that the results are fully considered by the Cabinet Office Data.gov.uk Team and the UK Location Programme in deciding on the future investment needs of data.gov.uk.

Stefan Carlyle, Chair of the UK Location Evaluation Subgroup

Please click here to take the survey.

Getmapping Maps Dorset’s Olympic Infrastructure

Hartley Wintney, UK, September 24th 2012 - Getmapping completed a 2012 aerial survey of Dorset in preparation for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Specially commissioned by Dorset County Council the high resolution data provides up to date information for all the recently built Olympic venues and associated infrastructure. The data was supplied at 12cm pixel resolution together with a 1m digital terrain model (both DTM and DSM) derived directly from the aerial imagery.  

Dorset County Council's GIS team was responsible for managing the spatial data requirements for the Bournemouth, Dorset and Poole Local Resilience Forum, which is in turn responsible for the local ‘Recovery Plan’, a process of rebuilding, restoring and rehabilitating the community following an emergency or disaster.  This was particularly relevant during this summer as Dorset hosted the Olympic and Paralympic sailing events in Weymouth and Portland. The Games also prompted a series of requests for up-to-date mapping and spatial data. The need for-up-to date data had become especially urgent as the area has benefitted from extensive improvements including changes to the highways network, as well as the extensive new infrastructure built to accommodate the Olympic family. 

The new data was provided along with 50 or more other Olympic data sets via the council's own web-based mapping system OlympicExplorer.

Click to read more ...

Dotted Eyes partners with 1Spatial to deliver a free data validation service

There’s now a quick and easy way to check that your data is right, rather than waiting for a problem to tell you it’s not.  What’s more, this service is completely free of charge.

Dotted Eyes, one of the UK’s leading GIS service providers, is pleased to announce the launch of yet another valuable service on its cloud platform – MISO.  Data Validator, delivered in partnership with 1Spatial, is a new validation service that means not only can you get your data prepared, styled and optimised on MISO but you can now get it validated too. 

Data Validator makes data quality accessible to you without any cost of ownership or on-going fees!  It also enables you to have real confidence in the data you use and share, saving you the headache of discovering data problems once a project is well underway, by which point a data fix can be significantly trickier and take much longer to resolve than if it had been identified at the outset.

Ben Allan, Managing Director of Dotted Eyes, commented: “We’re delighted to be partnering with 1Spatial to deliver this highly valuable service to our customers, especially as it brings Dotted Eyes another step closer to making MISO a one stop shop for all your data needs.  It also fits perfectly with MISO’s goal to make a GIS professional’s life easier by giving them real confidence in the data they use.

“We look forward to developing further exciting solutions with 1Spatial.” 

Duncan Guthrie, Strategic Alliance Director at 1Spatial, commented: “Dotted Eyes have been a trusted and highly valuable supplier of solutions to the Government market place for a number of years. Their understanding of the market’s needs is exceptional and we are extremely pleased to be working in partnership with them.

Click to read more ...

Large-Scale Water Infrastructure Project Chooses Blom for Technical Expertise

Blom has signed a contract to deliver technical assistance for the “Extension and rehabilitation of water and wastewater infrastructure in Hunedoara County, Romania”. The expected value of the agreement is approximately €3M and will start in 2012, lasting for an estimated period of 43 months.

As part of the project Blom will supply technical assistance and supervision for the extension and rehabilitation of infrastructure for water and waste water treatment.

The contract confirms that Blom's strategy to expand its activity in the growing economies in Central and Eastern Europe continues to yield results. The contract also cements that the company has successfully been able to expand into new services to its established customer base in this region.

The infrastructure in many Eastern European countries has a significant need for renovation and expansion. During the last years funding for this kind of projects has increasingly been made available by, among others, the EU and the World Bank. Blom has experienced an increased level of public tenders related to infrastructure projects, of which the water and waste water management project in Hunedoara County, Romania, is an example.

About Blom
The Blom Group is the largest provider of geospatial services in Europe for both government agencies and private commercial organizations and companies. Blom owns exclusive spatial databases composed of maps, images and 3D models. Focused on online services, Blom provides data and solutions to its customers in many markets and allows its partners to create high added-value applications based on Blom data models and services. This strategy is backed by Blom’s major technical capacity in aircrafts, cameras, laser scanners and mapping systems. This makes it possible for all projects to be carried out within the company, assuring a high quality product is delivered both on-time and to budget. Blom has more than 900 employees and offices in 13 countries and its HQ is located in Oslo, Norway. Blom is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange (ticker BLO). For more information, visit www.blomasa.com

The demand of advanced and high quality geographical information is steadily growing from year to year. BLOM holds a strong position in the digital geodata market and aims to be the most innovative service provider and preferred choice for its customers.

The publication of AGI member press releases is a member service. The AGI neither approves or endorses the contents of member's press releases, nor makes any assurance of their factual accuracy.

Aligned Assets Release the Symphony Blackbox

Woking, Surrey 18^th September 2012 – Gazetteer specialists Aligned Assets can today announce the release of its latest software product – Symphony Blackbox.

Designed to allow local authorities to easily share their central address databases with other council departments, and in doing so reduce costs and increase efficiency, the Symphony Blackbox can be used by any council, irrespective of which other software systems they have installed.

Aligned Assets are the first UK company to offer this level of integration, which is based on technology already in use by over 50 local authorities.

Up to 100 different council systems use address data and in many cases the creation and management of those addresses are untaken within each department.  This expensive duplication of work can result in a multitude of errors as different addresses are entered with different spellings and formatting.  These errors inhibit joined up working and can see a reduction in services to the taxpayer.

Each council in Great Britain will maintain a central database of all addresses within their administrative boundaries known as Local Land and Property Gazetteers (England and Wales) or Corporate Address Gazetteers (Scotland).  Symphony Blackbox works by allowing changes in these single databases to be automatically exported to other systems, thereby removing both duplication of work and the errors that result from it.

Managing Director of Aligned Assets, Andy Hird, said, “We’ve calculated that the Symphony Blackbox has the potential to save each council tens of thousands of pounds every year.”

“It’s compatible with existing infrastructure, so requires no restructuring or upheaval, and its flexible, intuitive design means that those savings can start to be recognised almost instantly.”

For more information visit: www.aligned-assets.co.uk/blackbox

About Aligned Assets

Aligned Assets are an industry leader in AddressBase, gazetteer and address management solutions.  They supply software across the public and private sectors including over 100 Local Authorities, Fire & Rescue Services and Police Forces.  In addition to software and data solutions, they offer a complete range of consultancy, training, bespoke development and project management.

The publication of AGI member press releases is a member service. The AGI neither approves or endorses the contents of member's press releases, nor makes any assurance of their factual accuracy.