Highlights of AGI Council Meeting, 18th March 2010

AGI Council met at Land Registry in London on Thursday 18th March.

The following list shows the salient topics covered from a wider agenda:

• AGI will be sending a letter to the Prime Minister concerning the recent Ordnance Survey consultation (now done)
• Briefing on the UK Location Council and its activities
• AGI is planning to launch its new website in mid-April (now set for April 12th)

As always, a full copy of the Council minutes will be available to members on the AGI website within a fortnight.

Prime Minister announces free Ordnance Survey data from 1st April

The Prime Minister Gordon Brown in a broad ranging speech concerning "Building Britain's Digital Future" on Monday 22nd March 2010, made the following reference to Ordnance Survey and the recent public consultation:

"And following the strong support in our recent consultation, I can confirm that from 1st April, we will be making a substantial package of information held by ordnance survey (sic) freely available to the public, without restrictions on re-use. Further details on the package and government's response to the consultation will be published by the end of March."

Click to read more ...

AGI letter to the Prime Minister concerning the recent Ordnance Survey consultation

Whilst AGI provided a response to the public consultation, an AGI letter to 'Number 10' was sent on the 19th March to raise at the highest level some of the concerns we have about possible developments surrounding Ordnance Survey digital data. This is also in consideration of the Prime Minister's direct involvement and interest in this activity.
This letter was authorised by the AGI Council is shared here with AGI members

Complete our AGI GeoCommunity '10 on-line questionnaire; win an IPOD Touch

AGI GeoCommunity 2010 is the UK's leading independent all-encompassing event for all aspects of the exploitation and use of geographic information.

AGI GeoCommunity is an event that is created by AGI members for AGI members and the whole GeoCommunity. The success of the event is part driven by the quality of its content - timely, pertinent and of tremendous value to the challenges and opportunities we all face.

This questionnaire addresses WHAT MATTERS TO YOU. In a series of questions we hope to get a steer from YOU to help us shape a great conference in 2010.

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AGI responds to the CLG consultation into Ordnance Survey

The AGI response to the CLG consultation into Ordnance Survey can be found here.

This is an extremely important consultation.  AGI strongly encourages all members who have not yet submitted responses to CLG, to do so before the 17th March deadline.

About the Consultation
Summarised as a 'Consultation paper on the Government's proposal to open up Ordnance Survey's data relating to electoral and local authority boundaries, postcode areas and mid scale mapping information', the CLG consultation forms a 91 page report outlining the Smarter Government policy drivers, the Government's position on a number of areas relating to Ordnance Survey, and what Government is mindful to do. Notably there are 3 business models for consideration, along with their respective pros and cons. There are 12 consultation questions included which can be answered.

The official consultation document is available here.