environment magazine

By Glen Hart and John Goodwin, Ordnance Survey

Whether we like it or not, we are entirely dependent on the use of computers and the internet to do business. Increasingly this dependence is spreading to our social lives too and the notion of an “always connected” life is almost reality for some.

Underpinning this dependency, the raw opiate of our digital world, is data and it is the one thing we are not short of. But for the most part that data, if viewed from a distance, can be seen to be a chaotic assemblage.

 By Jonathan Coleman, Environmental Business Manager for FIND Maps and EnviroFIND

It’s a question that’s been hotly debated for some time now within the environmental geo-information community. Having experienced the impact of the ‘first tranche’ we’re now in a better position to argue the pros and cons of the release of further free datasets.  However, while we continue to talk, an array of programmes and UK government initiatives are being proposed that will result in the release of a deluge of free data.  We therefore need to resolve this debate within the environmental geo-information community and make our views known – before any big decisions are made.  The results will, after all, shape the way we work for many years to come.