[Freegis-list] Announce: Forum on Open Geodata, London, April 14th

[Jo Walsh]

List members concerned about the issue of access to state-owned geodata
in the UK and Europe might find the following event interesting...


Forum on Open Geo-Data
======================

== Where and When ==
  * When: Thurs April 14th 2005
  * Where:  Stanhope Centre, Marble Arch, London. 
[http://www.stanhopecentre.org/about/directions.shtml Directions]
  * Who can attend: public. Registration is optional but useful so 
please notify us if you can via okforums-info at okfn.org.
  * Who is speaking:
   * Steve Coast ([http://openstreetmap.org openstreetmap])
   * Roger Longhorn (geodata policy expert)
   * Giles Lane ([http://socialtapestries.net social tapestries])
   * Jo Walsh ([http://mappinghacks.com mapping hacks])
   * TBC

== 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 is bringing together people working 
on free of copyright mapping and open geo-data projects, with those 
working on local government and NGO which need maps and spatial analysis.

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 emphasises 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.

For more information please see:
  * http://www.okfn.org/geo/
  * http://okfn.org/wiki/OpenKnowledgeForums
  * http://okfn.org/wiki/OpenGeoData