I wrote this in expectation of sending to the west mids list only, but decided to copy also to the talk-gb list as well. Apologies for cross posting.
With the election process underway we might think about a topical map. If we can get the ward boundary data into OSM in time then we could show a map with some colouring that shows what the current lay of the land is in the west mids and which are marginal seats, retiring candidates, etc etc. It's just an idea and I appreciate that it needs a lot of work to see fruition, but it's an opportunity should there be time to take up the challenge. I'm sure there will be others who will be working on the boundary-line data nationally, but I suspect they will take some time to get moving and realise the data in OSM, like NaPTAN if we take and deal with our little area we can perhaps push it on a bit. I'm envisaging a manual process of ward placement on the basis of loading an OSM file as a layer in josm for each ward boundary. These would need to be generated from Boundary-Line shape file extract. I'm guessing the data we need is in the DISTRICT_BOROUGH_UNITARY_WARD_REGION shapefile though need to check the product user guide to be sure. http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/products/boundaryline/pdf/userguid e.pdf http://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/index.html?bdy_wmids_summary.html is a useful resource. One fly in the ointment is that the ward boundaries in Boundary-Line are I believe the 2009 positions and not the new ward boundaries that will shape this next election. The changes are discussed in the User Guide (Annexe A). I assume that OS OpenData Boundary Line will be updated to the new boundary data in May, but I don't see anything specific on that yet. Cheers Andy
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