GeoData Solutions

So if you can’t afford the vast expense or take the time to understand the complex licensing schemes how do you use high quality map data that we have already paid for?

Well if you live in England, Scotland or Wales the Ordnance Survey is starting to gradually open up its data silos with the OS OpenSpace API. However here in Northern Ireland we are still stuck behind the iron curtain. OSNI doesn’t supply its geodata to OpenSpace but a feint at openness was suggested with the map viewer that is GeoHubNI.

It’s actually a fairly decent viewer compared to their previous attempt and allows the user to view both large and small scale map data.

Now this is all very well if all you want to do is view or print but that’s it, that’s all you can do here…no mashups or spatial analysis possible.

Right now there’s no way of combining external data with OSNI’s maps to build tools such as fixmystreet.

After reading this and agreeing with Matt’s statement that “…Belfast needs a free-to-access Municipal Wi-Fi network” and noting that the “…response we got back was that the area already had BTOpenZone, which, if you investigate is notable for it’s absence in the area”.

A quick search on BT Openzone’s coverage map of the area shows that even they don’t claim to have great coverage in the area. The red spots are BT’s coverage and the black line is the approximate boundary of the Cathedral Quarter.

A spot of wardriving was required to prove or disprove this. There are a number of hotspots around the area but the survey proves that they don’t provide anywhere near like 100% coverage.

View full map

The wifi sniffing software used was Vistumbler and the usb GPS device was a Globalsat BU353.

The map data can be downloaded in kml format here or kmz format here.

Cloudmade use the freely available  OpenStreetMap geodata but package it in an easy to use manner.  One major improvement is the development and the use of ‘styles’ to personalise each map.  The embedded map has a ‘Red Alert’ style.