Ordnance Survey and Earthware

Whilst many will be familiar with the Ordnance Survey maps, few will probably be aware that Ordnance Survey has their own API that can be used in websites (under license) or that Ordnance Survey mapping has been integrated into Microsoft Bing Maps.

This is great news as we are a fan of Ordnance survey maps in the right context (we used Ordnance Survey maps to help United Business Media promote opportunities within the Thames Gatewate region). Moreover you may be interested to see the video of what Jim Lynn and the BBC R&D team developed and presented at the Bing Maps User Group: a fantastic Bing Maps Silverlight interactive map using OS maps as the underlying map tiles. It really shows the ‘art of the possible’ with Bing Maps (using OS) and Silverlight.

About Ordnance Survey Maps

The Ordnance Survey started in 1747 to compile a map of the Scottish Highlands to facilitate the subjection of the clans following the Jacobite rising of 1745. It has come a long way since then with their R&D group active in several areas of geographical information science, including spatial cognition, map generalisation, spatial data modeling, remote sensing and analysis.

In recent years the Ordnance Survey has come under criticism as it possesses a virtual government monopoly on geographic data in the UK. It has been perceived to be expensive and inflexible to use OS maps in a commercial context to the point that Ordnance Survey mapping and the OS API have been rarely seen in commercial websites. However, all that might change with the recent announcement from Gordon Brown that "mid-scale" data from Ordnance Survey would be made available for free reuse, including commercial applications from April 2010.

Please contact us to find out more about how you might create amazing mapping experiences using Ordnance Survey Maps.