Reminder: OS Collection Licence Renewal

Remember that you need to renew your institution's subscription to Digimap's Ordnance Survey Collection BEFORE 30 September 2009 in order to ensure continuity of service.

If your institution has not completed and returned the appropriate licensing forms by this date, access to Digimap's Ordnance Survey Collection will be removed.

Owing to the way access is controlled under the UK Federation there will be no exceptions to and no leeway given for this date. If you have already requested an invoice, you still need to return the subscription forms to the address supplied on the forms by 30 September 2009.

Should you have any questions please contact either JISC's Subscription Agent (subscriptionshelp@jisc.ac.uk) or the EDINA Helpdesk (edina@ed.ac.uk)

CHEST / ESRI Technical Event - 15 Sep 2009

The following event may be of interest to Digimap users.

Following the success of the ESRI Technical Event held at the University of Leeds in 2008, Eduserv and ESRI have arranged a second meeting, to be held at the University of Birmingham on 15th September 2009. The meeting is intended to bring together people from universities and colleges who are either using ArcGIS (or other ESRI software) or providing and supporting ESRI software in their institutions. In addition to an overview of the new facilities in the latest version of ArcGIS, other topics include a visit to Birmingham University's 3-D Visualisation Suite, a discussion of how to make the most of the ArcGIS licence management system and an introduction to ArcGIS in virtualised or server environments. There is also plenty of time to meet and talk with colleagues from other institutions and staff from ESRI UK.

Lunch will be provided and there is no charge for the event. However, you do need to register your interest in attending. You can do this online at MyESRIUK here:

• Registration Page (go to CHEST Seminar on 15th September)

Date: Tuesday 15 September 2009
Time: 10:00am tea and coffee for a 10:30am start
Location: University of Birmingham (specific details and map will be provided upon registration)

Timetable:

10:00am - tea and coffee

10:30am - ESRI Introduction: Angela Baker (ESRI UK)

10:50am - Virtualisation vs. ArcGIS Server: Peter Halls (University of York) and Alison Rumble (ESRI UK)

11.20am - User Experience Talk

12.00pm - 2.00pm - Lunch with time for networking as well as guided
tours of the Virtualisation Suite at University of Birmingham

2.00pm - Interoperable Landmap and EDINA data and services: Kamie Kitmitto (Mimas)

2:30pm - new features of ArcGIS 9.3.1 and extensions - demonstration by Alison
Rumble (ESRI UK)

3:00pm - Break for tea and coffee

3:30pm - Licensing Issues: Anna Clough (University of Leeds) and Peter
Halls (University of York). Topics include: how to find out how many
users you really have and who those users are (flex logfile analysis);
non-dongled support; use outside of the British Isles; licence servers.

4:00pm - Question and Answer

4:30pm - Tea / Coffee to close.

For full details of the Chest Agreement for ESRI please visit www.eduserv.org.uk/ESRI

If you have any questions, please see the Eduserv website or contact Eduserv Help at help@eduserv.org.uk

Ordnance Survey Licence Renewal

On 1 August 2009, the Ordnance Survey Data Sub-Licence Agreement was extended and amended by a Variation Agreement. If institutions wish to continue their subscription to Digimap's Ordnance Survey Collection, the Variation Agreement must be signed and returned by Wednesday 30 September 2009. Institutions not submitting renewal forms by this date will have access to the service removed. There will be no exceptions to this. Details of how to re-subscribe are given on the JISC Collections website.

When an institution re-subscribes to Digimap's Ordnance Survey Collection, it agrees to the terms of the Ordnance Survey Data Sub-Licence Agreement AND the Variation Agreement. Some of the clauses in the Sub-Licence Agreement are superseded by those in the Variation Agreement. Both documents must be read in conjunction with one another, since one is not valid without the other.

EDINA has drawn up a set of Frequently Asked Questions to help you understand what the the Sub-Licence and Variation Agreements will permit in terms of map and data usage. These can be found at: http://edina.ac.uk/digimap/support/faq_oslicence.html


The following is a summary of the changes which are brought into effect on 1 August 2009 by the Variation Agreement. The original Sub-Licence Agreement holds good unless it has been amended by the Variation Agreement. Please read the Variation Agreement itself for full details of the amendments.

1. The definition of Authorised User has changed. An individual must fulfill three conditions in order to be an Authorised User. Individuals must:
   1. be a student of, staff (both current or retired) of, or visitor to an Authorised Institution
   2. be authorised by an Authorised Institution to access the Authorised Institution's electronic information services via secure authentication; and
   3. be registered with EDINA Digimap
   
   Overseas Students are also specifically excluded from being Authorised Users, unless they are resident within the UK. Check the wording of the Variation Agreement carefully. Note also that it is the institution's responsibility to ensure that students who are not eligible for access to this service are not given the means to access it. Under the UK Federation, EDINA is not able to check eligibility.


2. All references to Athens have been superseded by references to the UK Access Management Federation.


3. Class Registration is no longer possible. This has been the case since the introduction of the UK Access Management Federation in August 2008, but has now been formalised in this Variation Agreement. Assigning one username to more than one individual (as per a Class registrations) is not permitted under UK Federation policy.


4. Authorised Users are now explicitly permitted to share data with other Authorised Users, either in the same or another Authorised Institution. This was previously implicit, but has now been made explicit. Sharing data between Authorised Institutions is still subject to completion of the Transfer of Data form as specified in the original Sub-Licence Agreement (Schedule 7, section 8.1)


5. The Permissible Publication Sizes have been amended. These now offer a significant improvement on the previous restrictions to the size of maps published. For example, it is now possible to publish a map of Great Britain in electronic format. Please read Schedule 2 of the Variation Agreement for specific details of the new rules.


6. Two new datasets have been included in the agreement: MiniScale® and the 1:250,000 Scale Colour Raster. A full list of products available can be found on the EDINA website.

Both the Sub-Licence Agreement and the Variation Agreement are available from EDINA's website:

• Sub-Licence Agreement
• Variation Agreement
• Licence FAQs

Questions regarding the subscription process and the licence agreements should be directed at JISC Collections. Questions relating to the Digimap service should be directed at the EDINA Helpdesk.

Name Poll Closed

The poll regarding a new name for Digimap's new mapping facility has now closed.

New facility, new name

As indicated in a previous post, EDINA is creating a new version of the existing Classic mapping facility.

A sneaky peek at the new interface under development....
Given that the new facility works in a very different way, we would like to give it a new name. We have a number of suggestions, and would like to know your views on them. To this end, we have posted a poll on this blog (look to the top right hand side of this window) for you to vote with.

There are a number of things we need to take into account in choosing a name. For example:

1. It needs to give the mapping facility an identity. When users contact our helpdesk asking for assistance with it, they need to be able to refer to it by name with confidence that we will know what they are referring to. Similarly, our helpdesk need to be confident that they understand which facility a user is talking about, and using an easily identifiable and catchy name for it is an easy means to that end.

2. It needs to be memorable - users need to know which facility they are using.

3. It needs to be unique, not used by any other mapping organisation for a mapping service or product.

Vote on the blog here, or if you would rather, send us an email with your ideas. Thanks for your help!

ShareGeo for Sharing Data

Have you created geospatial data for your research project or teaching module?
If so, why not put it in ShareGeo and share it with other Digimap users?

ShareGeo is a facility in Digimap where users can share and re-use geospatial data, whether they have been derived from exiting Digimap data or created entirely from scratch.

Why should I put my data in ShareGeo?

• increase the visibility of your research
• share datasets easily with colleagues and peers
• create a record of your data with simple metadata
• manage your data for future use

Also, you will:

• find datasets you may be interested in
• save time by re-using existing data that others have created

What's new in ShareGeo?

New datasets available in ShareGeo include: UK Digital Terrain Model (DEM), UK National Parks boundaries, Government Office Regions, Strategic Health Authority boundaries and many others.

A full list of all datasets in ShareGeo can be found here.

How do I access ShareGeo?

ShareGeo can be accessed by logging in to Digimap and following the link on the Collections page to ShareGeo. http://edina.ac.uk/digimap/

More information about ShareGeo can be found at: http://edina.ac.uk/projects/sharegeo/index.shtml

Let us know what you think about ShareGeo by sending an email to: mailto:edina@ed.ac.uk?subject=ShareGeo

Forthcoming changes to Digimap

The current version of Digimap's Classic facility (available through the Ordnance Survey Collection) is currently undergoing both a facelift and some reconstruction work!

Later this year we will be introducing "slippy" maps (drag the map with your mouse to move it around) and some new ways of saving your maps and producing printed copies. The new facility will offer the same maps and the same functions as those currently available but will be easier and more intuitive to use. Everyday use of online mapping technology has grown dramatically since the current version of Classic was released. Users' familiarity with online mapping has increased and there are now common expectations of how map services online should work. The current re-engineering aims to accommodate these changes and build a service which meets those expectations.

Although this is still work in progress, below is a sneak preview of how the new version might look.

EDINA will operate both new and existing versions of this facility in parallel to ensure that a smooth transition is made between them. If you have teaching materials or help pages which are currently based on the existing version, there will be plenty of time to update them before the existing version of Classic is withdrawn.

Survey for Support Staff

EDINA is undertaking a survey to understand more about support for online geospatial resources, spatial data, GIS and related software. We would like to learn more about what support and training is currently available, what is useful and what might be provided to improve the support available.

If you have any kind of support role with respect to spatial data, GIS, CAD or geospatial resources we would be grateful if you would complete the following survey and would pass it on to others who are also involved in supporting users of all things geospatial.

The survey link is here: http://tinyurl.com/geosupportsurvey

The survey will remain open and available until TUESDAY 23 JUNE 2009.

This is NOT a service-specific survey, so anyone involved in supporting users of geospatial data and resources has something valuable to contribute. Please pass it on. Gathering feedback is a challenging task, so your efforts to complete these questions is very much appreciated.

The survey should take around 20 minutes to complete and the majority of questions are multiple choice checkboxes. There will be a prize draw for four £25 Amazon vouchers. Please enter your name and email address at the end of the survey if you wish to be entered into the draw.

Many thanks for your time.

What do you know about postcodes?

There is a lot to know about UK postcodes! Here are some interesting key facts:

• There are around 2 million postcodes in the UK, covering something like 29 million addresses.


• A postcode is made up of four constituent parts. Take the postcode EH9 1PR as an example:


• The postcode Area is indicated by the initial one or two letters: EH
• The post District is indicated by the one or two numbers following the Area: EH9
• The postcode Sector is indicated by the number after the District: EH9 1
• The postcode Unit is indicated by the full postcode: EH9 1PR


• Some buildings can contain delivery addresses with different postcodes. High-rise residential buildings are a good example of these. As far as the Code-Point dataset is concerned these are called Vertical Streets, and their boundaries are recorded as regular squares. These are clearly visible when the postcode boundaries are mapped.


• Usually postcodes cover around 15 delivery addresses, although this isn't a hard and fast rule.


• Some postcodes apply to only one address or building. Ordnance Survey's postcode is SO16 4GU. Buckingham Palace also has it's own postcode, SW1A 1AA, and 10 Downing Street's postcode is SW1A 2AA. The House of Commons is SW1A 0AA


• Postcode unit boundaries (which form the OS Code-Point Polygons dataset) are mathematically calculated around a centroid and are not based on physical boundaries visible on the ground. This centroid is calculated using the coordinates for the delivery points in each postcode. These are not necessarily the precise geographic coordinats of the letterbox in your front door!


• The Code-Point dataset offered through Digimap provides much more information than just the postcode and the coordinates of it's centroid. Additional information includes the NHS Region code, Ward name, how many delivery addresses are in that postcode, how many of those are domestic or business delivery points. The range of information given is different for Scotland from England and Wales.


• These enable you to link additional information to the postcode if it is already associated with a code common to the postcode dataset e.g. you can identify which postcodes are associated with data you have collected using Ward codes.


• You can use Digimap's Postcode Query facility (in the Ordnance Survey Collection) to look up the additional information about a particular postcode.


• You can use Digimap's Boundary Download facility to download the Code-Point data and the associated polygons.

Reminder: Service Maintenance 26 May

This is a reminder that all Digimap Collections will be unavailable between 17.30 and 20.00 hours on Tuesday 26 May. This is for essential service maintenance.

A further reminder: if you register for Digimap after 5 pm tonight, Monday 25 May, your registration will not be processed until the night of Wednesday 27 May.

Digimap and Licence Numbers

I’ve been asked to provide my institution’s “Digimap Licence Number”. Where do I find this?

There is no such thing as a “Digimap Licence Number”. If you need a specific licence number, we would suggest the OS Educational Copyright Licence number is the most appropriate one to use.

This licence is arranged directly between the institution and Ordnance Survey and therefore doesn’t relate to Digimap specifically. Institutions can hold an OS Educational Copyright Licence without having a subscription to Digimap, although the licence is required in order to take out a subscription to Digimap.

A copy of the licence (on which you will find the licence number) is held by your institution and the licence number is submitted with your institution’s Digimap subscription forms, which are sent to JISC Collection’s subscription agent. Ordnance Survey will also have a record of it.

Service maintenance - registration delay

EDINA is undertaking some service maintenance on Tuesday 26 May, as previously advertised.

If you are registering for Digimap between 5pm on Monday 25 May and 9am on Wednesday 27 May 2009, your registration will not be processed until the evening of Wednesday 27 May 2009.

This means you will not be able to access Digimap until the morning of 28 May 2009. Applications received on Wednesday 27 May will be processed as usual that night.

EDINA is undertaking significant work on the databases underlying Digimap, and as a result, registration applications will be collected but not processed while this work takes place.

Reminder: Digimap Training in June

EDINA would like to remind you that booking is now open and there are spaces available on the following Digimap training courses, which are open to staff members in UK higher and further education institutions:

• Digimap Essentials 4 June 2009, Bilborough College, Nottingham
• Digimap Collections Training 9-11 June 2009, Exeter University

You will find more details of course content and booking forms on EDINA's Training and Events page. If you are uncertain about the relevance of a course for your needs, please contact EDINA for advice at edina-training@ed.ac.uk.

All EDINA training courses are free of charge and lunch is provided. Regretfully, however, we will charge £25.00 for each day of absence from a course without giving us advance notice.

Supporting you remotely

EDINA's User Support team has recently delivered some short online workshops about elements of various EDINA services, including Digimap, using a web conferencing service called Instant Presenter. In order to join in with online training, you just need a web browser and a set of headphones.

We plan to develop a fuller programme of such online workshops in the next academic year. Although our initial aim is to deliver these workshops to staff in order to allow them to support users, in time we may open the workshops to students too. You can subscribe to our Training and Events feed so you can be the first to know about forthcoming training dates.

We would really like to hear from you about your requirements. Are there particular elements of our services on which you need more information? Do you have any particular topics of interest?

Ad-hoc online workshops can also be arranged at a time that suits you, so if you need support, please ask! You can contact us via the EDINA Helpdesk or you can call our Training Officer, Vivienne Carr, on 0131 651 1852.

Updated Digimap Training Materials

We have recently updated all the training materials available via the Site Representative Support Area within Digimap's Ordnance Survey Collection. To access these materials, log in to Digimap's Ordnance Survey Collection and click on the the Site Representative Support Area link in the left menu panel. Once in the Site Representative Support Area use the index on the left to click first on the Training Materials item, then the Download Materials item.

You are free to take any of the documents to either brush up your own Digimap knowledge and skills or to pass these on to others. Materials can also be downloaded from the EDINA website without logging in to Digimap.

As always Site Representatives are encouraged to use these training materials to run their own local courses on Digimap, both for other staff and for students.

For details of scheduled courses run by EDINA, please visit our Training and Events page. Details of our new online training sessions are also available from here.

FAQs about Change-only Update

Why does my Order say that CoU is not available?

Check the date on which you created the original Order. If you created it after the last set of CoU was released but before the next set of CoU is released, then you already have the latest version of the data. If a release of CoU is imminent, you should wait until after the release date, and then check your data order for the availability of CoU.

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I have downloaded CoU for my area, but having applied it to my existing data holding, nothing looks different. Why is this?

Not every feature changes every time a Change-only Update is released. It may be that none of the features in your data holding have been updated this time. It is not possible for EDINA to determine exactly whose orders contain changed features.

You may also find that there are some small changes to the attributes for your data. These are harder to identify if you are simply looking for changes visible on a map. It isn't necessarily the geometry or position of a feature which has changed. When you plot the changes on a map, you may not see them, because the changes may relate to data in the attribue table.

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Why can't I have CoU for other datasets?

Only OS MasterMap data offers Change-only Update. This is because other datasets are not structured in a way which enables CoU to be identified and extracted separately. Other datasets are also not updated so frequently.

Service maintenance - 26 May 2009

EDINA will be making use of the advertised 'at risk' period on Tuesday 26 May 2009, in order to carry out essential database updates. All Digimap Collections will be unavailable between 17.30 and 20.00 on this day.

EDINA will endeavour to restore full access to all facilities 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 advertised above. Notices to this effect will be posted on the Digimap login page.

Emails sent in error

On Tuesday 21 April, some Digimap users may have received email from EDINA entitled "Activating os registration".

These emails were sent in error and have no bearing on the status of a user's Digimap registration. Please ignore the email and accept EDINA's apologies for any confusion caused.

Ordnance Survey Licence Agreement Renewal

Lorraine Estelle, CEO of JISC Collections, has issued the following as an email to all institutions subscribing to Digimap's Ordnance Survey Collection. EDINA will also be distributing this information to site representatives and other support staff.

The current Ordnance Survey Licence Agreement for Digimap ends on 31st July 2009. Ordnance Survey and JISC Collections are working on the renewal of licence which will cover the period from 1st August 2009 to 31st July 2014.

Although the new Licence Agreement is not yet available from the JISC Collections' website, the subscription fees for first year of the new Agreement from 1st August 2009 to 31st July 2010 are confirmed: in light of the current economic situation the subscription fees for this period will remain at the current level, with no retail price index increase.

JISC Collections will be consulting with users about a new subscription model from 1st August 2010, which it hopes will enable more institutions to afford the other datasets available from the Digimap Collections: Historic Digimap, Marine Digimap and Geology Digimap. The consultation will commence in the autumn of this year.

Given that the pricing model for 1st August 2010 to 31st July 2014 is uncertain until the consultatation is complete, institutions signing the new Licence Agreement for 1st August 2009 31st July 2014, may opt-out at 31st July 2010 if they need to.

Digimap Essential Maintenance: 7 & 14 April 2009

On Tuesday 7 April 2009, EDINA will be undertaking essential maintenance on the servers which run Digimap. In order to minimise disruption to the service, there will be two short periods of downtime on this day (rather than a single long period of downtime).

These periods of downtime will be between 08:00 - 08:45 AND 17:30 - 20:00. All Digimap Collections will be unavailable during these times.

EDINA will also be making use of the normal 'at risk' period on Tuesday 14 April 2009, to carry out further essential maintenance. All Digimap Collections will be unavailable between 17:30 and 18:30. 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 periods stated above. Notices to this effect will be posted on the Digimap login page and a reminder will be sent to site representatives.