Good news for those living in the UK that like the outdoors

[viking777]

At long last the Ordnance Survey have been forced to make their digital map data available for public use.

http://www.techradar.com/news/internet/ ... ata-680930

Up till now the OS have claimed 'ownership' of not only the mapping data but also any device that is licensed to use it. I myself have been a victim of this. About 5 or 6 years ago I bought a complete set of OS maps along with a handheld gps to run then on. The maps cost about £250 (~$380). After a couple of years of use the navigation device (basically just a pda) got broken. When I enquired about buying another from the same company I was told that they no longer produced the one I owned but had replaced it with another, supposedly better one. This sounded great until I asked about the mapping data. I was told that the new device would not support my existing map data and I would have to purchase it all over again - but they would give me a £25 discount as I already owned the maps

Naturally I complained about this, and I was told that it was not their doing, but was at the insistence of the Ordnance Survey. I didn't believe them at the time but it looks like they were right. I wrote to the Trading Standards and a computer magazine to further the complaint, I even tried going onto 'warez' sites to get a file format converter to switch the maps away from the proprietary format, but I got nowhere. So for the past 5 or 6 years this expensive map data has been largely unused (I replaced the device with an etrex from Garmin, but their map data is crap in comparison). I can still look at it on my computer, but I can't really carry a laptop around the hills and fields with me!

I hope this spells an end to that kind of iniquity in this particular area anyway.

BTW this only happened today and the OS website is unreachable at the moment, so I guess I am not the only one that feels strongly about this

[Oscar799]

viking777,
Site is back up.
The outdoors is fairly uninviting at the moment though - hailstones the size of frozen peas bouncing off the pavement.

[emorrp1]

site still down. I've been anticipating this for ages, since I am very involved in hiking. However I'm very disappointed as the *original* article states that the Explorer (1:25k) and Landranger (1:50k) scales are not included (so your complaints are still valid). Indeed, a quick browse of data.gov.uk reveals relatively little content being released. However, this is still a landmark result since interesting things can still be done with the data, which will hopefully encourage more to be released in the future. Thankfully, as I am a student, I can still access Digimaps for "academic" purposes, provided I delete the data when I graduate.

[viking777]

site still down. I've been anticipating this for ages, since I am very involved in hiking. However I'm very disappointed as the *original* article states that the Explorer (1:25k) and Landranger (1:50k) scales are not included (so your complaints are still valid). Indeed, a quick browse of data.gov.uk reveals relatively little content being released. However, this is still a landmark result since interesting things can still be done with the data, which will hopefully encourage more to be released in the future. Thankfully, as I am a student, I can still access Digimaps for "academic" purposes, provided I delete the data when I graduate.

I see you are right, I obviously didn't read it carefully enough. So basically you can have access to anything you don't actually want to access, doesn't surprise me.
The OS make Microsoft look like Open Source champions!

[viking777]

I have actually seen the site now, and it is even worse than I thought. You can zoom in to an area down to about 1:10000 which gives a lot of detail, but at all resolutions they have removed any trace of the footpaths, bridleways, even long distance paths so all it shows are streets, houses, railways, rivers etc. So basically you have a street map of a road map and that is it.

Open data my bleep bleep ****.

[simiain]

Hopeful Enquiry.

Just got my hands on a set of Ordnance Survey 1:25 and 1:50 Scotland maps in the .qct format. They run quite happily in Alpine Quest on android but I also want to plan routes etc full screen on my desktop. I've searched about but found nothing that will open them. This is most likely as a result of my stupidity. Any help gratefully received.

Cheers
Simiain.

[Spearmint2]

After a couple of years of use the navigation device (basically just a pda) got broken. When I enquired about buying another from the same company I was told that they no longer produced the one I owned but had replaced it with another, supposedly better one.

Have you checked on EBay to find a used same type device you could install the maps into?

[Portreve]

Several years ago, a friend who lives in Northern Ireland shared the following tale of licensing woes...

He works at a printshop and they needed to upgrade their systems. In the process, they needed to upgrade to the then-latest versions of Adobe Creative Suite and Quark XPress. They needed I believe five licenses of it, and when he was checking into the pricing, it was very high. He checked around and found the price was significantly more than in the US.

Once he confirmed US copies would install and run on UK localized systems, he got his boss a round-trip ticket to New York and two nights at a hotel, and his boss bought the software from the then-new Glass Cube Apple Store in Manhattan. It was still $2500 cheaper than if they'd simply bought the UK localized copies.

The reason I share this story is there is a widespread need for competition in many areas.

viking777, would using Google Maps or shine of the open source stuff been a viable alternative to Garmin's products?

[Flemur]

I thought you were going to say the sun came out!

[Spearmint2]

I thought you were going to say the sun came out!

ROFL! At least they had a sunny day for that recent wedding.

[andyO]

I've recently been using maps compiled from the Ordnance Survey open data and OSM data. A helpful chap has compiled all the data sources for the UK to make a map that is usable in QMapShack. The result is a darned decent map that is good for planning hikes etc.

You can download it for a very minimal fee* from this site:
http://www.the-thorns.org.uk/mapping/help/ukgarmin.html

*I think the price is very reasonable considering the effort put in by the author.