Getmapping Street Layer Integration wins Exemplar Award

Hartley Wintney, UK, November 19th 2012 - Getmapping’s integration of its street level imagery (Getmapping Street Layer) has won Bath and North East Somerset Council the GeoPlace Exemplar Award for Services. The locationally accurate 360° high resolution street level images are seamlessly integrated into the Council’s mapping applications which are hosted by Getmapping.  

Street Layer imagery is available to all staff within the Council via Getmapping’s District Online Web GIS. Functionality includes full NLPG integration with search made on an address or UPRN(unique property reference number), with multiple viewing angles displayed in up to three windows. The imagery can be viewed with OS MasterMap or other PSMA data in a split screen arrangement. It is also possible to take point and line measurements at centimetre accuracy with full CSV data export. All the data, is hosted remotely so there is no hardware overhead. The total solution helps to make staff more productive, reduces the number of site visits and car journeys and therefore cuts carbon emissions in line with Council targets. Staff in the contact centre now have an immediate view of a property when people call, all that is required is the caller’s address. This makes it easy to identify, street lights, access or highway problems.

“We are delighted to have won this award,” said Martin Laker, GIS Manager for Bath & North East Somerset Council. “Getmapping Street Layer imagery and its integration into Getmapping’s Web GIS has made it possible to reduce our staff car usage. Planning, Property and Highways are all reporting that they are reducing the number of site visits. A 3% reduction is sufficient to pay for the service and we have achieved that with ease. Elsewhere our CRM team are reporting improved response times from being able to find and visualise the property at the outset of a customer call. Being able to validate what is being reported is now much easier. All the imagery is date stamped which is a great help in determining precisely when events occur,” continued Laker.

“Getmapping Street Layer imagery represents an affordable and superior alternative to other street imagery available on the web. The savings being made will be sufficient to refresh the imagery every two years,” said Chris Mewse, GIS,Business Development Manager at Getmapping. “By integrating the imagery and tools directly into our web applications users can look at aerial photography, a full range of Ordnance Survey maps and then click straight into detailed geometrically accurate street level imagery to understand specific detail. The imagery also provides a very accurate historical record of roads and buildings within the authority much of which falls within the City of Bath, a UNESCO World Heritage Centre,” continued Mewse. 

About Getmapping Plc

Getmapping Plc is a leading provider of aerial photography, digital mapping and web based services. With offices in Hartley Wintney, Hampshire and Cape Town, South Africa and Nairobi, Kenya, Getmapping was the first company to have up to date nationwide coverage of Britain and pioneered online delivery of aerial photography to business and the public at large. A reseller of professional mapping, oblique photography, height data, OS maps and third party aerial photography, Getmapping services a wide variety of markets including press and media, local authorities, property and construction, environmental consultants and the public. It also provides a number of value added mapping products and services tailored to specific client needs including data hosting, online data delivery and web-based GIS. A pioneer of many online products through its website, Getmapping is the only company currently re-flying the whole of the UK at enhanced 12.5cm resolution.

www.getmapping.com 

For further information please contact: Pete Bonham

T: +44(0) 1252 849423 E: peter.bonham@getmapping.com

GeoPlace Exemplar Awards

The annual GeoPlace Exemplar Awards celebrate excellence in address and street information enabled service delivery across local government. The Awards recognise the vital role address and street information professionals play in local service delivery. They celebrate their achievements, providing external acknowledgement of innovation, creativity, best practice, hard work and achievement. Awards.

www.geoplace.co.uk

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Ordnance Survey’s New Picture Perfect Maps

Have you ever wanted your face on the cover of an Ordnance Survey map? A new development for the popular Ordnance Survey custom made maps now allows customers to add their favourite image to the front cover of their personalised map.

Based on the popular OS Explorer Map and OS Landranger Maps, custom made maps give the customer the ability to create a bespoke map centred on any chosen location. Since its launch in Spring 2012, thousands of personalised custom made maps have been created centred on home addresses, favourite walks, holiday destinations and other chosen locations across Great Britain.

A range of customisable options are available to the customer. They are able to choose their own title, such as ‘My New Home’, a unique subtitle and were previously able to select an image from a database of pictures to have on the cover.

This latest advance gives customers the option to create a personal map by uploading any image they wish to feature on the map cover. For example they could upload a picture of their house, school photograph, favourite orange tree or even, if it is their dog walking route, a picture of their dog.

Robert Andrews, Head of Communications says: “Since the launch in Spring the custom made maps have been very popular. The new option to upload your own photo is a fantastic addition making these maps truly individual. It is a quick, simple process to upload an image and order. I look forward to seeing people out and about with their personalised map.”

Customers can still choose between the 1:25 000 or 1:50 000 scales which are recognized as the ideal companions to outdoor activities. Custom Made Maps are available as a standard folded map or in a flat map which could be framed or used as a wall hanging. However, personalised photographic covers are only available on folded maps. Either way both make perfect gifts for those wishing to explore or simply enjoy their chosen area in the same quality and detail Ordnance Survey customers have come to love for just £16.99.

These maps are easy to order via www.shop.ordnancesurveyleisure.co.uk and are specially printed to order in Ordnance Survey’s thinner, tougher and easier to fold paper. Uploading an image to the front cover is as easy as clicking a button and is an even better way of creating a map which is totally unique and personal to the customer.

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.

Call for comments: APPSI paper on a National Information Framework

The importance of maintaining a sound physical infrastructure; roads, railways, utilities, etc; is well-recognised. Government has accepted this and a national physical infrastructure plan now exists. Professor Dieter Helm has estimated that the cost of Government's physical infrastructure plans is about £500bn over the next decade. Alongside investing in physical infrastructure, however, developing an information infrastructure offers a relatively inexpensive additional way of growing the economy, and helping society.

Government has made major steps in easing access to the wealth of public sector information (PSI) through the Open Data initiative. Various studies have projected large economic and social benefits from easier access to such information and the exploitation of new technology in mining it to provide new or better services. To date, however, the approach has not been as strategic as that followed for the national physical infrastructure.

APPSI has been considering the strategic dimension to PSI re-use since 2010. It has now summarised its views on what should be done in a paper entitled A National Information Framework for Public Sector Information and Open Data (see: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/nif-and-open-data.pdf . The purpose of this paper is to seek comments on the proposal so as to help APPSI carry out its advisory role.

If you have comments on the ideas and proposals contained in this paper, please email them to secretariat@appsi.gsi.gov.uk .

About APPSI

Government's Advisory Panel on Public Sector Information (APPSI) is an independent UK-wide Non-Departmental Public Body of the Ministry of Justice. APPSI advises Ministers and the Director of the Office of Public Sector Information (The National Archives) on matters relating to Public Sector information re-use. Its members are drawn from the business and entrepreneurial, economic, academic, ICT, legal and public sector communities, also including local government and health sector experience and representing all three Devolved Administrations. Members have operated at senior level in numerous different organisations, acquiring many years of relevant experience. Members give their time for free.

Aligned Assets Bring Address Point and NLPG Compatibility to AddressBase Premium

Woking, Surrey 13^th November 2012 - With the release of Symphony Bluelight iExchange, gazetteer specialists Aligned Assets can now offer the emergency services a method by which they can automatically convert AddressBase Premium into Address Point and NLPG (National Land and Property Gazetteer) formats.

Designed to allow the emergency services to start working with AddressBase Premium, without the requirement to wait until other systems have been modernised, Symphony Bluelight iExchange will enable a greater level of data integration, efficiency and joined up working.

As a core component of Aligned Assets’ emergency service corporate gazetteer system, Symphony Bluelight iExchange is designed to work alongside the Symphony Bluelight Gazetteer, which enables full management of AddressBase Premium and the creation of local records, plus Symphony SinglePoint, which provides a series of web services for further integration options.

Many emergency services have systems, such as Command & Control, that still run off address data in either the Address Point or NLPG formats, which means they are currently waiting on these systems to be updated before moving to AddressBase Premium.  With AddressBase Premium being the most accurate and up-to-date address data currently available, it is important that they can start using it sooner rather than later.

Symphony Bluelight iExchange allows for changes in a corporate AddressBase gazetteer to be automatically converted to Address Point or NLPG and then exported to other systems at set frequencies – daily, weekly, or even hourly if required.

“Symphony Bluelight iExchange will enable emergency services to have one central source of address data and integrate this data into their third party systems,” explained Andy Hird, Managing Director of Aligned Assets.

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Ordnance Survey staff get baking for the Red and White Appeal

The passion for baking that has swept the nation in the last few years has led to a delicious day at Ordnance Survey recently. Inspired by the Great British Bake Off on BBC2, staff got out their mixing bowls and produced endless goodies for categories including a technical bake using a classic scone recipe and glorious sponge cakes both large and small.

The entries were judged by a lucky panel of three who were expertly guided by staff member Elaine Owen who in her spare time is a judge for the British Great Taste Awards. As the final cakes were being tasted and scored a rather hungry lunchtime queue had formed at the doors of the judging room with friends and colleagues happily donating a total of £381.00  to the Red and White appeal collecting tins in return for some really delicious cakes and bakes.

As 1 in 25 of the population will develop a blood disorder in their lifetime, Southampton Hospital Charity’s Red & White Appeal is raising funds for the building of a specialist outpatient treatment centre for patients with leukaemia and other life threatening blood disorders. Southampton General Hospital provides specialist services for haematology patients and is regarded as a ‘centre of excellence’ meaning demand for its specialist services is extremely high.  Ordnance Survey has, to date, raised enough funds to purchase three of six infusion pumps required by this unit to deliver fluids to patients in a controlled manner.

http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/

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.