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back to article Blighty's coolest mapper will flog its stuff to global buyers

Ordnance Survey (OS) is launching an international service intended to make its expertise about data collection and maintenance, product development and geospatial data management available to overseas governments. To be known as Ordnance Survey International, the new organisation will be launched in September. It will be …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Optimists

    A bit late for the party, if you ask me.

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    1. Ru
      Reply Icon

      Re: Optimists

      Really? They're overdue, but that is mostly because the maps available to the public in most parts of the world are absolutely atrocious in comparison with the OS

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  2. MJI Silver badge

    On line maps

    It used to be easy to find online mapping using OS data, OK OS data in OS Map form.

    However now it is difficult.

    All I want is an easy to access online version of the orange maps

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    1. Ru
      Reply Icon
      Paris Hilton

      Re: On line maps

      Bing maps has had that for a while. Set the map mode to Ordnance Survey and zoom right in; you'll get the purple cover Landranger stuff first, then the orange cover Explorer when you zoom in a bit further. What's wrong with that?

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        1. EddieD
          Reply Icon

          Re: On line maps

          Working just tickety-boo here, currently looking at the 1:25000 of Glen Eagles - and it's the reason I use bing for mapping, or Streetmap - OS maps are awesome.

          When I'm at work, I can access the entire OS collection through my browser - and it's slightly awesome, though 1:500 and better is a bit too detailled...

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      2. MJI Silver badge
        Reply Icon

        Re: On line maps

        Problem is I would not expect a tinplate toy manufacturer to supply online maps.

        I used to use I think multimap

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    2. AJB
      Reply Icon
      Thumb Up

      Re: On line maps

      The OS have an online JavaScript based API called OpenSpace: (http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/web-services/os-openspace/index.html)

      It is trivial to use this in a webpage with default map controls - works across browsers, tablets, smart phones. Let's you see all the classic cartography, loved by many users of the traditional paper maps.

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  3. Pen-y-gors
    FAIL

    No thanks

    These are the people who 'upgraded' their online Getamap service using some proprietory Microsoft stuff (Silverlight) which means it doesn't work on any *nix machines (including Android).

    OS was once a brilliant example of a world-leading publicly funded service, then it was privatised....'nuff said.

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    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: No thanks

      Get a clue more like... OS is not privatised, even a quick wiki would tell you that!

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      1. Pen-y-gors
        Reply Icon

        Mea culpa

        okay, not technically privatised ...

        "although a government agency, since 1999 it has been required to act as a Trading Fund or commercial entity. This means that it is supposed to be totally self-funding from the commercial sale of its data and derived products" (result of quick qiki)

        Before: working for the public good, Now: making as much dosh as possible.

        if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, quacks like a duck...

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        1. Peter Gathercole Silver badge
          Reply Icon

          Re: Mea culpa

          Other trading funds - DVLA and Met Office, and many more.

          A trading fund does not actually have to make a profit (a major difference between a trading fund and a share-holder owned company), it is just distanced from ministers and civil servants to allow the organisation to operate more like a company (including borrowing money on the open market) and be less influenced by current political thinking.

          And I think that any difference between their costs and their income (profit or maybe described better as a trading surplus) does not have to be returned to the treasury, but can be invested internally. They have customers (which can be other government institutions - for example the DVLA has contracts with the Police and VOSA), and all of the relationships with customers and suppliers are governed by commercial law except in the few areas where the organisation involved in direct legislation.

          There are no shareholders, and little in the way of bonus culture, so it may quack a little, but there is also a woof and a miaow in there somewhere.

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          1. Peter Gathercole Silver badge
            Reply Icon
            Headmaster

            Re: Mea culpa

            (....and on reflection, I use too many parentheses.)

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  4. Magani
    Thumb Up

    Please...

    ...please, pleeeeease can we have decent OS type maps in Oz?

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  5. John Brown (no body) Silver badge
    FAIL

    un-tap?

    "help other countries around the world un-tap the multi-million pound potential of accurate geographic information".

    Un-tap? Does this mean they will be blocking the access to resources? Can't see that being much help or generating much income.

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