OS/Google maps mashup competition progress report

WRITTEN ON July 21st, 2005 BY William Heath AND STORED IN Online Maps

Who knows about it? I told Bill Thompson, emailed Dave at NTK, and posted to BBC Backstage. Is that everybody?

What’s in there so far? g-Traffic info and the UK speed cameras map. I also really liked the urban tapestries, pubs in Folkestone, find the landmark, Mad Max locations, life of Jesus etc but they’re not sourced from UK public-sector data.

So at this stage any further eligible entry looks set to win a prize. But that might change.

Neighborhood Statistics is really good. Why does it make me angry? Because it’s further living proof of the reality of the e-gov channels policy: government kills off innovative startups, perhaps without intending to, then cribs their ideas. And I love good ideas and hate tax.

The election maps illustrate how superior the OS mapping data is.. But Google’s interface is better. So who will win – better interface or batter data? Which is easier to rectify? Google’s investor-funded commercial interests posing as pro bono freebie, or the Ordnance Survey’s tax-funded quality forced to pose as a cut-throat business? That is such a paradox – perhaps they should just swap marketing policies so the OS goes all open and developer-friendly, and Google drops the mask and shows its teeth in monstrous Ts&Cs.

4 Responses to “OS/Google maps mashup competition progress report”

roger wrote on July 21st, 2005 1:01 pm :

Here we have an argentinian guy mapping himself; crimes commited at Chicago’s libraries; Irak casualties by country…

check it

http://www.mobuzztv.com/shows/198.html

William Heath wrote on July 21st, 2005 4:50 pm :

Stefan also starts to give vent to his frustrations about Neighborhood Statistics. Yes, ONS has good data, but it should have, shouldn’t it?

1. It’s “optimised for IE 5.5 with popups”
2. No explanations to make the data understandable by humans
3. No easy way for humans to get the data and build a better site.

“I could go on,” he says, “but I’m too depressed.”

Richard S wrote on July 21st, 2005 8:01 pm :

Time for tougher laws!

We can’t allow outfits like mobuzztv.com to bypass the traditional broadcasters: The’re far too sharp.

William Heath wrote on July 21st, 2005 8:21 pm :

Said with irony I trust. MobuzzTv seems pretty cool to me – very short, sharp and to the point, well edited and beauthifully presentd with a quite different touch. And they seem to be multilingual – I’m just checking out the scope of what they do.