Google Maps

This is a pretty short section as we didn’t learn much we didn’t already know about Google Maps but let’s start with stating the bleedin’ obvious – Google Maps is the most popular mapping system with consumers right now. There are 150,000 developers using the API to create apps and change the web. Some of them are in local government.

So we had a quick whizz through the business centre, maps and StreetView. Then the Ordnance Survey question popped up and not to be harsh but Google looked perplexed. This is a pretty major sticking point for lots of us so it would’ve been nice if they were a little more aware of the issue. They are however ready to learn about it now and take it forward so who knows, maybe we can work something out.

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11 thoughts on “GoogleLocalGov”

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  2. Thanks for some really detailed notes. I just wanted to ask you to clarify what “The Ordnance Survey” question is, for those of us not in local government and who can only guess at what it might mean 🙂

    Thanks.

  3. Ah, yes, sorry!
    It is around the issue of copyrighted information – I’m not completely on top of the details but understand OS have some issues with putting geo-information they see as theirs into Google or some other mapping systems. That is a very broad overview and may be slightly missing the finer point of the issue! Hopefully someone will correct if I am wrong / missing something!
    🙂

  4. Great write up, Sarah! Just to elaborate on the OS issue, it’s basically that any GIS data produced by an OS system is then subsequently owned by the OS and cannot, say, be exported to use in GMaps. Microsoft seem to have an agreement with OS that gets around this and Google aparently do with their pro version of the maps API, however it’s not clear if these issues have been cleared up for the basic version. It’s kind of akin to Microsoft turning round and saying “Okay, you’ve made that Word doc. You can’t now turn that word doc into a PDF because we now own it. Kthxbai!”

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