FREE the PostZon (UK Postcode Data)

From the Free Our Data Blog:

A new No.10 petition: FREE the PostZon and help innovate the UK Geo-spatial industry

(We are in 21st Century now aren't we?)

Mark Goodge added this as a comment to the data.gov.uk post, but it seems worth making more visible. So here it is:

This is not asking for Full Postcode (PAF) data but This is about Ordnance Survey's data, not Royal Mail's -- so it won't affect PAF, but it will affect postcode coordinate data.

"Postzon™ data allows you to link geographic and administrative data from government bodies, such as local authorities and the NHS, for all known Postcodes in the UK. Use it to help plan routes, calculate distances between Postcodes, allocate sales force areas, distribute resources or locate facilities."

http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/jump2?mediaId=400088&catId=400084

Without this, UK mapping innovation will be quashed.

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/geopostcode/ requires your input 28 March 2010 deadline (note: OS Consultation period deadline is 17th March 2010).

“While the launch of data.gov.uk is a big step in the right direction, the government’s response to the petition inspired by the forced closure of ernestmarples.com has been pathetic. As a consequence, I’ve created a new petition which seeks to focus more tightly on the Postzon data (the data use by ernestmarples in their API)." This can be found at http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/geopostcode/

http://ernestmarples.com/blog/

http://www.freeourdata.org.uk/blog/2010/01/a-new-no-10-petition-free-postzon/

Help free the data that was paid for by the public (UK tax payer)...

Open Street Map & FireFox 3.5 (RC1) Geolocation

Open Street Map & FireFox 3.5 (RC1) Geolocation

update 30th June 2009
FireFox 3.5 is officially released
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all.html

FireFox 3.5 Download Visualization Map (& Stats)
http://downloadstats.mozilla.com/

Question where is Geolocation support in Firefox 3.5?

TOOLS>PAGE INFO> PERMISSIONS> Share Location

@Mapperz original post:

FireFox 3.5 (RC1) now has Geolocation built-in this has very distinct advantages.
"Websites that use location-aware browsing will ask where you are in order to bring you more relevant information, or to save you time while searching. Let’s say you’re looking for a pizza restaurant in your area. A website will be able to ask you to share your location so that simply searching for “pizza” will bring you the answers you need... no further information or extra typing required."

An important note privacy:

"When you visit a location-aware website, Firefox will ask you if you want to share your location.

If you consent, Firefox gathers information about nearby wireless access points and your computer’s IP address. Then Firefox sends this information to the default geolocation service provider, Google Location Services, to get an estimate of your location. That location estimate is then shared with the requesting website.

If you say that you do not consent, Firefox will not do anything."

Okay this a mapping blog and here the best FireFox 3.5 (RC1) Geolocation Example: On a map.


In Firefox 3.5 (RC1) you will be prompt to 'share location' allowing
will enable the geolocation tool.
Here map quickly finds the IP address and geocodes this returning the map for your ISP.
This then starts bringing up an OpenStreetMap with wiki poi & placenames (from geonames.org)

Here is the link to that Geolocating map (Geolocation will only work if your using FireFox 3.5)
http://3liz.org/geolocation/ (well done 3liz.com)

Mapperz