Found this on the Google Earth Blog by Frank Taylor reporting on the Where 2.0 Conference last month:
Ordinance Survey – the last talk from Ian Holt was – intriguingly amusing. The last organization I expected here was Ordinance Survey from the UK. They have been universally panned by most of the Where 2.0 generation of geospatial technologists. The primary reason being that OS refuses to let anyone use their mapping data without their collecting a license fee. I guess they are trying to improve their image because they came here saying they will be offering an “open source” project. Only it wasn’t clear how this would change anything. Ian demonstrated an application which amusingly lets you compare the OS data to “other” maps (specifically Google Maps) to show how the OS data is so much better. For those of you who don’t know, a former OS technologist named Ed Parsons left there and is now one of the top dogs on the Google Geo team.
I guess the Ordinance Survey is our National Mapping Agency. What a poorly informed and condescending piece – “the Where 2.0 generation of geospatial technologists” yuck.
I wonder if Ed Parsons relishes his ascension from the depths of an “OS technologist” (CTO, I thought) to the stellar heights of a ” top dog on the Google Geo team”
Friday afternoon ….
