Thursday 18 December 2008

Essential Maintenance: 8 January

On Thursday 8 January 2009, EDINA will be undertaking some essential maintenance on the servers which run Digimap.

This means that all Digimap Collections should be regarded as unavailable between 08.00 hours and 17.30 hours on this day. We will endeavour to restore full access to all services as soon as possible, but given that it is not possible to predict exactly how long the task in hand will take, you should anticipate that the service will be unavailable for the full period.

Notices to this effect will be posted on the Digimap login page and a reminder will be sent to site representatives nearer the time.

Monday 15 December 2008

Carto Bookmarks

On Wednesday 17 December, EDINA will be removing all bookmarks from Carto which contain references to Land-Line maps.

The data which underpins these bookmarks has been withdrawn and consequently, any bookmarks which reference Land-Line data will not draw maps. Therefore, to avoid any confusion created by maps which do not draw as expected, EDINA is removing the appropriate bookmarks from all users accounts.

As a result, you may notice that some of the bookmarks in Carto no longer appear in the Bookmarks tab.

Friday 12 December 2008

Changes to Digimap Registration

On Friday 12 December, EDINA will make a small change to the Digimap registration pages. Currently, users logging in to Digimap with new (un-registered) login credentials are given the option to link their new details with an existing registration that they may have with Digimap. This option was implemented to aid the transition between Athens and the UK Federation in August 2008.

EDINA has discovered that many users are not logging out of the UK Federation properly, and are inadvertently allowing other individuals to access services using their login details. This is because the only way to log out of the UK Federation is to close *all* browser windows.

As a result of this, some Digimap users are linking their Digimap registration with the UK Federation login details of other users who are not registered with Digimap. This allows both users access to the service, when only one individual has agreed to the terms of the licence.

In order to avoid this problem, EDINA is removing the option to link a new registration with an existing registration. This change will take effect from the evening of Friday 12 December 2008. Users registering for Digimap with a new set of login details will be automatically requested to submit these details as a new registration. This simplifies the registration process and ensures that users cannot link accounts inappropriately.

If you have questions about this change, or would like to discuss it further, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Tuesday 9 December 2008

Hardware failure update

The hardware which failed has now been replaced and normal service resumed. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.

9 December: Hardware failure

Users are currently unable to access any Digimap Collection. At 17.40 on Monday 8 December, one of Digimap's service machines suffered a disk failure. In order to fix the problem it has been necessary to order replacement parts for the machine. Our current estimate for restoring full access to Digimap is late this afternoon at the earliest.

When we have a more definite timescale for resolving the problem, we will post the information here, and on the Digimap login page.

Monday 8 December 2008

Win a prize worth £1750!!

Are you using Ordnance Survey data in an innovative way? If so, enter the competition and you could win a prize!

EDINA and Ordnance Survey are pleased to announce a competition to find the most innovative use of Ordnance Survey data. To enter the competition you need to submit a summary of your work which describes what you were trying to achieve, what Ordnance Survey data you used (and how), what makes the work and the use of the data innovative, and how the data could be improved to make the work easier, or to have made more possible.

Full competition details
Full details of the competition can be found here. Please ensure you read this document carefully before submitting your application.

Grand Prize
The winner will receive £250 of Amazon vouchers to distribute amongst project colleagues plus travel, accommodation and conference fees for one or more researchers, up to a total value of £1,500, to a conference of your choice. There are second and third prizes of £250 and £100 in Amazon vouchers.

Closing date
The closing date for entries is midnight on Saturday 31st January 2009. Entries may be submitted by email or on paper.

Questions
All questions regarding the competition should be addressed to Ordnance Survey directly, on universityenquiries@ordnancesurvey.co.uk


Good luck!