Ordnance Survey and Linked Data

Dr John Goodwin

Ordnance Survey

• National Mapping Agency of Great Britain

• Best known for paper maps

• Digital mapping now 90% of business

• Variety of applications for public and private

sectors

Ordnance Survey - Research

What we do:

• Understanding and predicting user needs

• Data capture methods, techniques and technologies

• Spatial data modelling

• Product and information derivation

• Spatial data capture, management and delivery infrastructure

• Information usability, Interoperability and the Semantic Web

Information usability, Interoperability and the Semantic Web

• Three strands of research Semantic Web (what’s it all about?) Enabling semantic interoperability Data integration

• Convergence on the

use of semantic web technology

• Rise of the Linked Data Web

Programmes of Work…

• Spatial Data Infrastructures

•Linkable data – use of unique identifiers

“There remains too much duplication, too little reuse and too few linkages across datasets which are required to support policy implementation in, for example, planning, housing, flooding, social exclusion and traffic management”

All Change…Encourage Open Innovation

• As of April 2010 a range of Ordnance Survey mapping data available for free

• Two aims: to foster innovation and encourage government transparency

• Free for commercial and non-commercial use for anyone wanting to build applications underpinned by geography

Open Data and Transparency

“Our ambition is to become the world leader in open data, and accelerate the accountability revolution that the internet age has unleashed”, and “The benefits are

immense. Not just in terms of spotting waste and driving down costs, although that consequence of spending transparency is already being felt across the public

sector. No, if anything, the social and economic benefits of open data are even greater.”

“revolution that the internet age has unleashed”

“revolution that the internet web age has unleashed”

Ordnance Survey Linked Data

Code-Point® Open

Boundary-Line™

Towards a URI for every ‘place’ in GB

http://data.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/id/7000000000037256

http://data.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/id/postcodeunit/SO171DP

Postcode

WardDistrict

European RegionCounty

warddistrict

within within

within

within

A Big Bucket of Data – Hyperlocal Example

“Find me all GPs in my ward, and bus stops within a 100 metre radius of those GPs”

EnvironmentTransport

Health

Education Heritage

Weather

Crime

Council

≠ opendata

Where Next?

• Improved settlements, localities, landforms gazetteers

• Large scale – new opportunities, new business models

• Self describing data

• UK Location Programme

Getting Started

• Identify core datasets

• Start Small…think BIG…

• Be Agile – incremental updates

• Others can do the heavy lifting

• It’s really not that hard (the easy bits are very easy)

Summary

• Usability: Common data model and reference of common URIs (e.g. postcodes) allows for easy data aggregation and integration

• Shift in focus from cartography and geometries to ‘things’ and the relationships between them

• Spatial no longer special – part of the bigger information world

• …but location and geography is a very important information hub bring many datasets together