GeoVation Challenge

GeoVation Challenge

This year, GeoVation has been split into three separately themed challenges, the first of which was ‘How Can Britain Feed Itself?’ now closed to new entries, although you can still visit the site to read and rate the 52 ideas that have been contributed.

But fear not, the chance to be involved has not passed you by; for the next Challenge is due to open on Tuesday 28th September 2010 and is entirely focused on how geographic data can help us get from A to B.

Bumper to bumper. Photo by Lynac via Flikr

There are huge and exciting opportunities for geography to be harnessed to solve transport related problems, especially with the influx of open data releases that we’ve seen over the past months. Those include Data.gov.uk; Ordnance Survey’s own OS OpenData portal; a number of local authorities; and most recently transport data from Transport for London.

And, for the second of this year’s Challenges, delighted to have the additional support of the the TSB funded Ideas in Transit project and the National Business Travel Network.

Ideas in Transit is a five-year project that applies “bottom-up” innovation to the transport challenges faced by individuals and society. NBTN promotes workplace travel planning as a cost effective way for businesses to reduce CO2 emissions and benefit staff.

Both are committed to supporting a sustainable future for transport in Britain and with their help we’re really hoping that we’ll uncover something extra special.

We are all users of transport, so if you’ve got a geography based transport idea why not submit it next week? The best entries will be invited to a further develop their ideas at a GeoVation Camp before going on to pitch for funding at a ‘Dragons’ Den’ style showcase next year.

There is a prize fund of £25,000 available to award to winning ideas and whilst entrants aren’t limited to using Ordnance Survey data, there is also an additional prize available for the best use of any of the datasets freely available through OS OpenData.

Keep an eye on GeoVation.org.uk next week for more details on the second challenge and you can also follow the project on Twitter for all the latest news at @GeoVation.

Reposted by request (twitter) from:

http://blog.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/2010/09/geovation-seeks-ideas-to-get-you-moving/

New BBC Travel Maps (Beta)

New BBC Travel Maps (Beta)


Improved Navigation and live feeds (jamcams included), much better Travel News from the BBC.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/travelbeta/birmingham/

What's new:

• Updated design, with wider pages and larger text.

• Improved navigation, allowing movement between adjacent geographic areas

• Interactive mapping, which can be minimised if you prefer the text incident list

• Clearer timestamping of incidents.

• Traffic jam cams showing frequently updated still images of traffic conditions on motorways and trunk roads

Addional Improvements

• The text incident list has been updated to improve readability, and is synchronised with the map.

• Local weather forecast from the BBC Weather Centre for the next 6 hours from now

• Backend improvements to our data-handling system to categorise data, and speed up the reception and delivery of data to the site.

What's not changed:

• BBC's comprehensive traffic and travel information remains at the core of the service, updated around the clock

• The text list remains, and you can hide/minimise the map, to put the functionality of the site back to the way it used to be.

• BBC have made the redesign as subtle as possible, in order to retain the things you've told us you like about the existing site.

• In the final version of the site, you'll be able to click to see a country-wide motorways or major roads overview from every page.

• BBC's door-to-door journey planner, powered by Transport Direct, remains but has been made more prominent.

Why a new version of BBC Travel News:

"Firstly, to update the design to take advantage of the BBC's wider page layout, introduce maps across the site for the first time, and make some basic improvements to the presentation of our information
Secondly, to improve the data-handling processes behind the scenes, to allow us to separate the data into more useful groups, and reduce the time it takes for the data to reach you
Thirdly, to integrate traffic jam cameras (where available) into the main BBC Travel News website alongside our incident data"

Current BBC Travel Maps (Beta) Areas:

Birmingham beta
Black Country beta
Coventry beta
Herefordshire beta
Shropshire beta
Staffordshire beta
Warwickshire beta
West Midlands beta
Worcestershire beta
Wolverhampton beta

Society of Cartographers Annual Conference - September 2010

46th Annual SoC Summer School

8-10th Sept 2010

The 2010 Society of Cartographers Summer School will be held at the University of Manchester from Wednesday 8th September 2010 to Friday 10th September 2010.


The venue in Manchester is the University’s Chancellors Conference Centre, with lectures, accommodation, meals, and social events all on a single site. The Annual Summer School is open to members and non-members and is usually held over four days in September at a different location each year. It creates an ideal opportunity to attend lectures, exhibitions, seminars and workshops, as well as to visit a broad spectrum of cartographic establishments. The friendly and relaxed atmosphere is also ideal for informal discussions with fellow cartographers and is a pleasant and stimulating way to keep up to date with new technology. It is especially beneficial for those cartographers working within small cartographic units who can perhaps remain isolated from new developments and trends within cartographic circles.

The 2010 conference themes this year will include:

• Art and everyday mapping
• OS OpenData
• Maps and geopolitics
• Transport mapping
• Mapping Manchester
• Crowd-sourcing and open data
  

The Wednesday afternoon starts off with three lectures to set the cartographic scene, focusing on the mapping history of Manchester and showcasing examples of current Manchester-based map design. This is followed by papers on the geopolitics of mapping, focusing on the changing political life of a single map, the geopolitical significance of media mapping and a new school-based mapping initiative.
On Wednesday evening the popular quiz will be held in the bar in the Conference Centre.

On Thursday morning the focus shifts towards design and practical aspects of production, with sessions on transport mapping, followed by an opportunity for delegates to share their own practical experiences in a members session. In the afternoon the programme moves on to some of the challenging ways maps are being deployed in wider social contexts. Three papers around everyday encounters with urban life chart psycho-geographical use of maps and explore the potential of community mapping initiatives. These are followed by a session on modern art and the map, including embodied and performative cartographies. The day concludes with the conference dinner in the evening.

On Friday papers focus on the twin challenges of Opensource data and crowdsourcing. Three papers explore OS Opendata, its politics, qualities and applications, before a concluding session where the wider implications of crowdsourcing are explored. A final session offers opportunities to reflect on the Summer School with panel discussions relating to issues brought up during the three days.
If you would like to become a member of the Society of Cartographers or explore the benefits of membership, please visit our website at http://www.soc.org.uk

Full Details on this event at:
http://www.soc.org.uk/manchester10/