Locatum

The entry of the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) into the "free"/"open" debate is not surprising ( http://www.cps.org.uk/cps_catalog/it ). It feels though like another missed opportunity to move the debate on hampered as it is by political point scoring. Varney has it that the government needs to hold “...a ‘deep truth’ about the citizen based on their behaviour, experiences, beliefs, needs and rights”; the CPS report argues for something they call "Government Relationship Management" at whose heart lies choice in the location of your personal data and access to it based on standards (and, not mentioned, rights). Whether or not data "belongs" to the individual, that data should be exchanged using open standards - the web services and metadata chestnut. Hence my interest. The report focuses on cost, ownership and security and that the solutions to this lie with a change to the model. From the perspective of opening up access the report actually of

I would have liked to have gone to last weeks OGC event about which Adena ( http://www.directionsmag.com/article.php?article_id=3202 ) and Ed ( http://www.edparsons.com/2009/06/the-tla-nobody-likes-drm/ ) have recently reported/blogged. Didn't go to Glastonbury or Hyde Park either but Springsteen honouring Strummer worth the nod of the title I think. As you can imagine as a geoportal understanding licensing, sub-licensing and licence management, provising licence advice and so on are key competitive advantages for emapsite. However, we all know that getting to grips with licencesis something of an on-going challenge, be they public sector or commercial licences. We like to think we're on top of it and have worked very hard to provide appropriate components to the control module of our 'emapsite inside' web services platform ( http://www.emapsite.com/corporate/Solutions_and_services-emapsite_inside-Overview.aspx ). Talking over the years with Graham Vowles, who heads up

Started off rebuffing belief that shapefile is proprietary but then went a bit deeper into the article and re-read Mr C's speech - then had to filter to end up with something that linked (my) data (awful pun, apologies to Sir TBL); so worth cross-referencing here - http://www.freeourdata.org.uk/blog/?p=449&cpage=1#comment-120970

Think we might be seeing some joined up thinking in government? Consider the OEP, the still unpublished Trading Fund Review, the OS Revised Strategy, the appointment of web-founder and Linked Data evangelist Sir Tim (as well as Martha LF in another parallel advisory capacity) and the Digital Britain report - consistent references are made (and this is my shorthand interpretation admittedly) to the value of digital content, both in its creation and its distribution and consumption, to UK plc. As the economic profile of the creative industries rises and advertising revenues and the financial services sector suffer, there is creeping recognition that just because you can (copy and distribute digital content for next to nothing) don't make it right. File sharing and DRM are inevitably at the forefront of this debate for the consumer but, in business, enterprises value their integrity to the point of making such copying or use a dismissable offence (I've seen the noticeboards, belie

Thanks to Bob Barr to his tweet alerting me to Ms Spelman's question and the DEFRA written response - http://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2009-05-19a.275782.h . I had the pleasure of working on a number of land information systems development initiatives in emerging economies back in the 1990s where the establishment of rights in land (and property) were (and remain in some countries we are involved in as I speak) a key plank in the transition from centrally planned to "western" economy. The focus tended to be on the creation of what mainland european counterparts would recognise as a cadastre - land demarcation and subsequent registration - recording, protecting and securing rights in land and providing a stepping stone for investment, entrepreneurial activity, sustainable land use practices, improved yields and farm-gate incomes and a market in land and property. To this day I find it ironic that it was often British organisations with British personnel who were w

Prescient or what - malaria is the coming story after all - swine flu "pandemic" dissipates in the heta of election expenses while the malarial parasite is revealed as becoming immune to one of the major prophylactics. And, one can only assume that because this was broken on BBC, ITN News for whatever reason chose to ignore it (this was last week in France and this was what was on!) - more brucisation of news, only from the opposition - very disappointing.

It always happens - the gestation period, the testing, the iteration, the collateral...and finally, the release - it all takes longer than you think! emapsite has been a 'dynamic' site, adding new content and functionality and altering usability to reflect new norms, embrace emerging standrads, assimilate feedback and so on. As such we haven't majored on new "releases" of the website. However, on this occasion I do think that something more is merited as the site update includes a re-branding of the business, enhanced usability and a little lifting of the lid of our services platform - at this juncture in marketing and communications terms only but if you are interested to learn more you can.... So, if you are interested in or use digital mapping or if you are a user of broader digital geographic content or if you wish to embed location content within your business there are even more reasons to visit www.emapsite.com .

Just back from a fantastic 9 days away in La Vendee. Some who know me will know that good friend, co-boat owner, man who got things done and enjoyer of life Marcus passed away very suddenly in January leaving a vast hole in the lives of his family. The same friends with whom we have just had our holiday in the sun, sand and swimming pool (well the sea was a little cold still!) - I am not alone in missing a friend but I really really don't know how they do it - much loved, sorely missed.