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.

AGILE Initiative - Spatial Data Access Survey

Higher and Further Education in the UK already has access to a significant quantity of mapping and spatial data from Ordnance Survey via the Digimap agreement. EDINA is conducting a survey in order to understand more about current academic access to maps and data from other national mapping agencies (i.e. the European equivalents of Ordnance Survey) in other European countries. While we are happy for Digimap users to complete the survey, you can help us further by passing this link on to friends and colleagues within Higher or Further Education elsewhere in Europe: http://tinyurl.com/NMCAUserSurvey Please read on for more details.

*****

Are you are a teacher, lecturer or researcher at a Higher Education Institution in Europe?

Do you use geospatial data (maps, aerial photography, satellite imagery etc.)?

http://tinyurl.com/NMCAUserSurvey

What is the purpose of this survey?
The purpose of this survey is to find out how easy it is for you, as a teacher or researcher, to gain access to the geospatial data sets held by the National Mapping and Cadastral Agency or Agencies in your country. Europe’s Network of National Mapping and Cadastral Agencies (NMCAs) hold and maintain the majority of Europe’s ‘core’ geospatial information including:

• topographic data;


• cadastral information;


• aerial photography; and


• land use information and historical map data.

We believe that Higher Education in Europe should be an important market for the NMCAs, as there are around 4,000 Higher Education institutions, with over 17 million students and 1.5 million staff.

With your help, we hope to find out how easy it is to access these data. We will use this information to encourage more NMCAs to make their data available to teachers and researchers in Higher Education across Europe. Our goal is to help you gain access to the quality geospatial data that you need.

Who is carrying out the survey?
Our research team is part of the EDINA National Data Centre, based in the University of Edinburgh, UK. The survey has been endorsed by the Association of Geographic Information Laboratories for Europe (AGILE) and EuroGeographics, which represents 52 National Mapping and Cadastral Agencies from 43 countries across Europe.

When will the survey finish?
The survey will be open for you to complete until Tuesday 21st April 2009.

During this time we would like your help to get as many teachers and researchers as possible to complete the survey. So, once you have completed the survey, please pass on the email and web link to this survey.

How do I complete the survey?
The survey can be found at http://tinyurl.com/NMCAUserSurvey

Who should I contact for more information?
If you have any questions please contact: Dr David Medyckyj-Scott, by email at edina.surveys@ed.ac.uk

Reminder: April Digimap Training

This is a reminder that there are still spaces available on the following Digimap training courses, open to staff members (and postgraduates for the OS MasterMap courses) in UK higher and further education institutions:

• Digimap Collections: 31 March-2 April 2009 - Leeds University
• OS MasterMap for Users: 22 April 2009 - York University

The following courses will be offered but booking is not yet open:

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

You will find listings and booking forms (where open) for these and all other EDINA training events here: http://edina.ac.uk/events/ These courses are free of charge. Regretfully, however, we will charge £25.00 per person for each day of absence of which EDINA is not given prior notice. This is due to the increasing number of no-shows at courses.

Note that all attendees MUST be registered users of Digimap's Ordnance Survey Collection in order to participate in the OS MasterMap training.

OS MasterMap: CoU release on 24 March

The next release of Change-only Update data for OS MasterMap will be put into service on Tuesday 24 March 2009. The currency date of the new data will be 20 January 2009.*

Change-only Update (CoU) applies only to the OS MasterMap data. It does not apply to any other data product.

EDINA collates all the data changes released by Ordnance Survey over a 6-month period, and makes these available through Digimap approximately every 6 months. The previous update was released in September 2008.

What is the point of Change-only Update?
Change-only Updates enable you to update your data holding without needing to store multiple copies or versions of the same data. By taking only the changes to the data you hold you can minimise the storage requirements for your data, while still maintaining an up-to-date dataset. This is particularly useful if you are studying changes to an area over time.

Most users will not need Change-only Update. CoU is only useful to you if you already have a full copy of the original data to which you can apply the changes.


How do I download CoU?
You can download Change-only Updates only for data orders you have already submitted within Digimap's Mastermap Download facility. Go to the Your Account page within Mastermap Download and scroll down to the table of Orders.

You will see a list of all your previous Orders, and in the final column you will see whether or not CoU is available for that Order.

If CoU is available, click the radio button in the far left column for the Order you require. Below this table, you will see two buttons in a blue box:

Click the first button to Order Change-only Update. The data file will be delivered in the usual way: you will receive one email to say your Order has been received and is being processed, and a second email to say your data is ready for collection.

If you submit a new order for OS MasterMap data, by defining the Layer, Themes and your chosen area, you will automatically receive the latest version of the data; this will include all the latest changes. Change-only Update will therefore not be available for such an Order until the next batch of CoU is released.

Example
You submit an Order for data on 20 March 2009. In the Orders table under Your Account, the Order details say that CoU is not available. This is because you already have the latest version of the data.

If you submit a second Order for data on 27 March 2009, you will also see that the order details say that CoU is not available. Again, you have the latest version of the data; it includes the changes which were released on 24 March.

If you go back to look at your first Order (submitted on 20 March) on 2 April 2009, you will see that COU is now vailable for this Order. This is because the changes released on 24 March are now available; they were not available when you submitted the original order.

* Although the latest update is dated 20 January 2009, it takes time for Ordnance Survey to process and release these data, to send them out to EDINA and for EDINA to process and load the data into the database. This accounts for the time delay between the "freeze date" of the database (20 January 2009) and the release date (24 March 2009).

Northern Ireland map data: JISC Consultation

JISC Collections has an opportunity to add Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland (OSNI) data to the Digimap Collections. Before a final decision is made to pursue this agreement JISC Collections would like to guage interest in these mapping data from existing subscribers. JISC Collections would welcome feedback on whether or not your institution would participate in an agreement to supply OSNI data through Digimap Collections.

It has been proposed that the following data be included in the licensing arrangement. The suggested formats are also given for each dataset:

• OSNI Largescale Vector (ntf, dxf, dwg)
• OSNI 1:50,000 Vector (shapefile, mapinfo tab)
• OSNI RegionalMap (pgdb, shapefile)
• OSNI GlobalMap (pgdb, shapefile)
• OSNI Road Network (shapefile, mapinfo tab)
• OSNI Boundary Map (pgdb, shapefile)
• OSNI Pointer Product (format: csv) (Pointer includes Royal Mail Group PAF postcodes)
• OSNI Place Name Gazetteer Product- OSNI 1:10,000 Raster Product (format: tiff, ecw)
• OSNI Raster Activity Map Products (format: tiff, ecw)
• OSNI 1:50,000 Raster Product (format: tiff, ecw)
• OSNI 1:250,000 Raster Product (format: tiff)
• OSNI Parliamentary Constituency Raster Map Products (format: jpeg)
• OSNI Raster Street Map Products (format: tiff, ecw)
• OSNI Historical Archive Product (format: ecw)
• OSNI DTM 50m, standard, enhanced Products (format: txt, dbf, dgn)
• OSNI Orthophotography Product (format: ecw)

More information about the data can be found on the OSNI website: http://www.osni.gov.uk/

The suggested prices for an institutional subscription to this agreement vary according to JISC's institutional banding, and are as follows:

Higher Education

• Bands A-B - £750 per annum
• Bands C-D - £600 per annum
• Bands E-F - £400 per annum
• Bands G-J - £100 per annum

Further Education

• All bands - £75 per institution

If you would find it useful to have access to Northern Ireland data, please contact your Digimap site representative to express an interest in a subscription. If you don't know who your site representative is, please check the list on our website: http://edina.ac.uk/digimap/list.shtml

If you are a Digimap Site Representative, please gather feedback you receive from Digimap users at your institution and contact Liam Earney (L.Earney@jisc.ac.uk) if you would like to express an interest in a subscription for your institution.

Training: booking now open

EDINA would like to announce that booking is now open and there are spaces available on the following Digimap training courses, open to staff members (and postgraduates for the MasterMap courses) in UK higher and further education institutions:

• Digimap Collections: 31 March-2 April 2009 - Leeds University


• OS MasterMap for Users: 22 April 2009 - York University

The following courses will be offered this year, but booking is not yet open:

• Digimap Essentials: 4 June 2009 - Bilborough College, Nottingham


• Digimap Collections: 9-11 June 2009 - Exeter University

Further details of course content and learning objectives can be found on our website. You will also find listings and booking forms (where open) for these and all other EDINA training events here: http://edina.ac.uk/events/

This page contains details of all forthcoming EDINA courses and workshops which may interest staff within subscribing institutions, including multimedia services courses to be announced soon.
We strongly encourage site representatives to attend an OS MasterMap course if they have not done so already. Other members of staff and postgraduate students from institutions which subscribe to Digimap are also welcome. Note that all attendees MUST be registered users of Digimap's Ordnance Survey Collection in order to participate in the OS MasterMap training.

Running the courses is subject to a sufficient level of interest. If you are uncertain about the relevance of a course for your needs, please get in touch with EDINA for advice at edina-training@ed.ac.uk

All EDINA training courses are free of charge. Regretfully, however, we will charge £25.00 per person for each day of absence of which EDINA is not given prior notice. This is due to the increasing number of no-shows at courses.

Lunch will be provided for all full-day attendees and refreshments will be available throughout the day. If you have any questions about Digimap or these courses, please do not hesitate to contact us.