Forum on Open Geo-Data

Contents

Contents

  1. Forum on Open Geo-Data
    1. Contents
    2. Further Information
    3. Materials: Slides, Audio etc
    4. About the Forum
      1. When and Where
      2. Subject Matter
      3. Speakers

Further Information

The OKFN geo project which brings together several of the groups at the forum is at: http://www.okfn.org/geo/. It has a wealth of information as well as contact details.

It has a public mailing list: http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/geo-discuss. Anyone interested in open geo-data issues or policy is welcome to subscribe.

If you want to be informed about future forums please join the forums mailing list: http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/okforums-discuss. Or you can simply mail us at okforums-info [at] okfn.org.

Materials: Slides, Audio etc

If anyone has further material relating to the forum such as recordings or video, or intends to blog it we'd love to hear from you so please send us a mail (okforums-info [at] okfn.org). Either we can host it or we'll post a link. So far we have, in order of arrival (latest first):

About the Forum

When and Where

When: Thurs April 14th 2005, 7-9pm

Where: Stanhope Centre, Stanhope House, Stanhope Place, Marble Arch, London W2 2HH.

Subject Matter

One thing the projects in the civic information forum share, is a dependency for spatial information in their service; even if that's as simple as 'enter my postcode'...

The Open Knowledge Forum on geo-data brings together those who wish to use such data, for example in local government or at NGOs, with those working to produce it (for example by creating free of copyright maps).

The UK is one of the best-mapped surfaces on the planet, but our national mapping resources are highly-priced and administered by a semi-private company that acts as a monopoly based on Crown Copyright.

The Public Sector Information Directive emphasizes the benefits and importance of access to geographic information. But local governments don't own the information they gather, and arguably millions are wasted providing expensive "viewing" services which present pictures of the data, instead of raw information.

This forum will be a discussion about different applications with a civic society focus, such as participatory planning or problem reporting, which could be initially built using free base maps and geocoding facilities.

Speakers