For those who don't live on Twitter: The UK Government has just announced its decision on freeing Ordnance Survey data. Full document is at http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/corporate/pdf/1528263.pdf
Quick summary of what'll be released: - medium-resolution vector data (Meridian2), includes street geometries and names though the curves are a bit angular: see http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/products/meridian2/ - another new vector dataset called OS VectorMap District, scope as yet unknown - StreetView raster data (includes street names, building outlines) - postcodes, though with points ("unit centres") not areas (Code-Point Open) - administrative boundaries (Boundary-Line) - gazetteer (OS Locator) - terrain data (Land-Form PANORAMA) - a couple of negligible very small-scale maps Contrary to original proposal, Landranger and Explorer rasters (1:25k/1:50k) will not be included. Data available tomorrow (Thursday) at http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/opendata . Licence will be "without restrictions on use and re-use". Original proposal was CC-BY. The response notes that several respondees (many of whom read this list, I suspect) suggested either pure PD or the ODC licences because of the database rights issue, but doesn't actually say what the licence will be. I'm sure there are a few other things we'd have liked to have seen (aerial imagery, for example) but on balance this is a great result IMO - and one that wouldn't have happened without OSM. Suggest follow-ups to talk-gb. cheers Richard _______________________________________________ talk mailing list talk@openstreetmap.org http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk
