[Talk-GB] OSMUK and the Open Geospatial Data Stimulus Fund

[Steven Horner]

I was thinking recently how my local council could use OpenStreetMap.

A couple of months ago I put a freedom of information request in to Durham
County Council in the hope of getting a full list of all Waste Bins in the
area with locations. I wanted to use this as a basis to survey for
OpenStreetMap using Mapillary imagery I've been capturing.

I got an initial file back but it was obvious to me that there was massive
holes in the data. I responded pointing out that whole former Council
districts were missing data and the dats that was there was incomplete or
just wrong. The council conducted an internal review and much as I
suspected they admitted they didn't know where their bins are, the data
they had released was from before the Council became a unitary authority 10
years ago.They are reliant on local staff who empty them, there is no
central database.

In this time of cut backs to council services I would imagine it would be
more important than ever to ensure they have the information electronically
to effectively manage the staff that remain and to not lose knowledge if
staff do leave. This would explain why some bins appear to be forgotten
about and are never emptied.

It would make sense to use OpenStreetMap to record their locations then the
Council would be giving back and the public could help. I have been
intending to get back in touch to suggest how this could work but not had
chance recently. I may not be the best placed person to do this either.

I imagine other Council's and public services have similar problems.

On Tue, 7 May 2019, 13:21 Jez Nicholson, <jez.nicholson at gmail.com> wrote:

> Behind the scenes, your OSMUK Directors are engaging with various groups
> to raise the profile of OpenStreetMap in the UK. We don't always get to
> shout about it at the time, but here goes...
>
> We now have good rapport with the Open Data Institute (the ODI). This in
> part encouraged them to send 2 representatives to State of the Map in Milan
> on a fact-finding mission. They then included OSM as a data source for
> their Open Geospatial Data Stimulus Fund which gave grants to joint
> public/private sector Open Data projects.
> https://theodi.org/article/the-projects-were-funding-to-explore-open-geospatial-data-in-local-government/
>
> We were contacted by thinkWhere on Fairer Falkirk
> http://futurescot.com/fairer-falkirk-thinkwhere/, and Open Data
> Manchester on Mapping Mobility Stockport
> https://medium.com/@opendatamcr/mapping-mobility-in-stockport-1a099758a1eb to
> help them understand how they could use, and add to OSM.
>
> Open Data Manchester have done a great job with making OSM approachable to
> the public through 'Joy Diversion' which I believe they have run 5 times
> now, and an Intro to OSM workshop.
>
> Our key message is that the public sector can benefit by creating and
> enhancing data held in OSM as well as consuming it. e.g. why build your own
> database of local libraries when instead you could budget to improve the
> data held in OSM?
>
> I'll put my trumpet down now ;)
>
> Regards,
>               Jez
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>
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