For some time I have thought that the public should boycott post codes... develop an open source alternative and use that... Yes it would be *nice* if our existing postcodes were 'freed' but without the threat of an alternative it won't happen, but without commitment to a new system it will never be created - so people who care should make a decision and stick with it.
Couldn't postcodes be extracted from a public source via an freedom of information request? It is insidious that so much of our lives is under the thumb of a proprietary system. UK-ZIP... a new two part code something like zone = <postal-city-code><direction-from-city-code><distance-from-city-code> (or direction/distance in once sprially code like paris). property within zone = ?? don't know yet :-) It can't be difficult - and if the switch over make is difficult for the authorities, that is their look out... should have listened earlier. Paul /)/+) 2009/10/6 Francis Davey <[email protected]> > 2009/10/6 Paul Waring <[email protected]>: > > > > I think the whole idea was that they didn't tell people where their data > > came from, so the access couldn't be cut off. As far as I can remember > > from a talk at OpenTech, it was taken from a variety of unnamed sources. > :) > > That's right. They were (rightly) coy about where they were getting > the information from. > > > > > As has already been said, it doesn't matter whether they were taking it > > directly from the RM database or a copy used by someone else (e.g. a > > licensee). It's a shame to see the service go, but if the RM does have > > the rights to the information then they're entitled to stop people using > > it without their permission. > > Yes, though there is an "if" in there. Alas, EM(P)L was never intended > to fight the matter out, the plan outlined at OpenTech was to fold > with bad publicity when the heat got too strong (or something like > that) so we will never know. > > -- > Francis Davey > > _______________________________________________ > Mailing list [email protected] > Archive, settings, or unsubscribe: > https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/mailman/listinfo/developers-public >
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