Virtual London, developed by order of the mayor and paid for by the taxpayer, ran in Google Earth but used data from OS MasterMap, a framework owned by the national mapping agency Ordnance Survey. The agency holds the copyright on all data derived from OS Mastermap and licences government bodies and institutions by fee to use it.
But London boroughs werenotallowed to put Virtual London on freely accessible websites unless Ordnance Survey was paid per user. Google Earth and the Centre of Advanced Spatial Analysis tried to arrange with Ordnance Survey to pay just one licence fee legitimising use by Londoners and others, but they were refused. The breakdown of further negotiations led to a defeated Virtual London team announcing their model would not be run on the web in Google Earth.
The Guardian Technology Free Our Data lobby thinks Ordnance Survey should open up its database because it’s paid for by taxpayers and should therefore also be available to them. I agree with the lobby on opening up resources to the public. Certainly in this case, but in many more as well. And not just because the information gathered, processed and modified by Ordnance Survey is paid for by taxes.
To continue reading this editorial, please follow to our partner GIM International clicking here.
