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Ordnance Survey OpenData and April visitors offer from Mapyx Ltd
Today, it was announced by Ordnance Survey that certain OS data would be free to download and it is called "OS OpenData".
Dusan Pecek, our Technical Director said:"This is excellent news. For me it is a very good free data campaign. It will enable us to boost our plans and potentials and important as ever - free our ideas even more!"
BUT "..the Ramblers' Association and private makers of paper maps expressed disappointment that OS is not forced to release the details necessary to produce competing commercial versions of its popular Explorer (1:25,000 scale) and Landranger (1:50,000 scale) maps." (source Guardian.co.uk)
So what exactly is this "free" data. We have identified below what you can download, BUT Explorer 1:25k maps and Landranger 1:50k maps are NOT free, either in digital or paper versions.
Specification of OS OpenData
OS OpenData product set is defined as follows.
OS Street View
1:50 000 Gazetteer
1:250 000 Scale Colour Raster
OS Locator(TM)
Boundary-Line(TM)
Code-Point® Open
Meridian(TM) 2
Strategi®
MiniScale®
OS VectorMap(TM) District (available 1 May 2010)
Land-Form PANORAMA®
So what does it mean to you?
Some products are free for you to download, but outdoor maps are not free; its great for developers, but not too much help to the general public. So all of you who had hoped to get free Landranger and Explorer maps that we all rely on in the outdoors, may be a bit disappointed. And the free products would still need to be converted to work in Quo, but that is what we do and that is what you pay for.
What does it mean to us?
We are very excited. The Gazetteer, the 1:250k Map and the Land-Form Panorama (DTM), which we utilise and sell, no longer attract OS royalties so we can review our pricing structure for these products.
But the best news is that we can develop new products based on the OS StreetView at 1:10k and the other free data. Unfortunately, this does not allow us to produce our own outdoor maps, so we will continue to sell the brilliant OS Explorer and Landranger Maps. But, we think that this is a major step forward for OS and will allow massive innovations to be made.
Support Mountain Rescue England & Wales and get OS maps at -15%
As Mountain Rescue England & Wales Official GIS and Digital Mapping Partner we pledge to Support MREW in their work whenever we can.
We decided to give 10% off each purchase to MREW, but THAT'S NOT ALL - we will give your visitors 15% off TOO!
So if you were holding back no need anymore..you have the answer and we know that some of you will have missed our March Offer and the opportunity to sponsor Mountain Rescue, so just for you, we will extend that same offer to you for the month of April 2010, so get your maps and get out there this Easter!
All you need to do is promote this offer to your visitors. They can then select the maps and at our shopping cart use the discount code: 2MREW
For information about Quo digital maps check out the website here.
