1 3 4 5 2 AGI NEWS REGIONS GIGATEWAY® COMMITTEES FEATURES and SIGs AGI Chair Spencer Chainey AGI Cymru; GPS/GIS technology GIgateway® the first year; Crime and Disorder SIG, BigBarn; Plotting the Renaissance; describes new developments; A use in public transport in FAQs about GIgateway®; Neighbourhood watch;Standards a response to A question of day in the lives of the Information Northern Ireland; Addressing GIgateway® is flourishing Committee; Health SIG; Utilitiesand counties; AGI Council policy Services Coordinator and the Northern Ireland Telecommunications SIG; Property SIG statement Information and Web Officer 6 7 8 9 10 JUNE 2003 volume 13 PEOPLE EVENTS EDUCATION BENEFITS & INDUSTRY number 2 Richard Green strengthens Events Slot; Information MEMBERSHIP NEWS AGI Student Website prize 2003; Infotechs Board; leading GI Management Awards; Talking to A full listing of the benefits of Five pages of news and Universitys satellite data archive figures receive fellowships; new the Top VIP Session at AGI AGI membership; Why Bristol announcements from round the GI given new status; Intergraphs staff at SIA; Conference Water are AGI members industry Team Geomedia Registered Research Laboratory Program AGI Conference ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ S-CAT award contracts for Geographical Update AGI Conference Information Services and Systems 16th – 18th September We are pleased to announce that OGCbuying.solutions, an Executive Agency of the Earls Court 1 Office of Government Commerce, has appointed a number of AGI Sponsor and The full AGI Conference Corporate members as qualified suppliers under Category 15 of the S-CAT Programme has now been framework, the provision of Geographical Information Services and Systems. confirmed. AGI members receive a Geographic Information is being increasingly recognised within senior government significant discount on the circles as being a key enabler for e-Government, and recent announcements cost of a delegate pass and a concerning the signing of the three year Pan-Government Agreement for Ordnance further 10% Early Bird Survey data combined with the simplification of the procurement process under S- discount is available up until CAT will make it easier for more Government organisations to realise its benefit. the 25th of July so book early! S-CAT is a catalogue-based procurement facility originally established by CCTA to Corporate and Sponsor provide public sector organisations with a simplified means of procuring, and members also benefit from contracting for, a wide range of IT and business related services. The S-CAT receiving a number of free scheme provides the following benefits to Government: and discounted conference passes so be sure to check ● Compliance with EC procurement regulations your allocation! ○○○○○○○○○○○○ ● Ability to call-off urgent requirements quickly The full conference ● Very competitive fees available to all users programme and details of ● Choice of approved suppliers and consultants how to book your place at the conference can be viewed ● Easy ordering based on standardised procedures on the AGI Conference and ● Sound contractual protection GeoSolutions website www.geosolutions-expo.com ● Internet catalogue CONTINUED NEXT PAGE ○○○○○ GEOgraphicinformation JUNE 2003 The successful Corporate and Sponsor members are listed below in alphabetical order and the Individual Service offering are indicated AGI NEWS as follows: ● Strategic and Technical Consultancy 15a ● Evaluation, Analysis and Management of Geospatial Data 15b ● GIS Application and Software Development 15c New developments ● Provision of Software Value Added Services 15d Spencer Chainey, AGI Chair ● Data Capture Services 15e ● Training (Geographical Services) 15f ● Recruitment (Geographical Services) 15g ● Webmap Authoring 15h ● Aerial Map Services 15i ● Map-making and Reproduction (to support policy and service delivery) 15j Company Service Offerings 15a 15b 15c 15d 15e 15f 15g 15h 15i 15j Anite ■ ■ APIC ■■■ ■ Babtie Group ■■■ ■■■ BKS Services Limited ■ ■■ Cadcorp ■■■■ Deloitte Consulting Ltd ■■■■ ■ ■ Dotted Eyes ■■■■ ■ ■ ■ ESRI (UK) Ltd ■ ■■ ■■■■ Ewan Group PLC ■ ■ ■ Getmapping Plc Recent months have seen some excellent IBM ■■■■■ Informed Solutions ■■■■ ■ ■ activity in several areas that will help Infotech ■■■ ■■maximise the use of the geographic Infoterra Ltd ■■■■■■■■■■information across the whole of the Intergraph ■■■■■■■■■ industry and into new markets. These have Landmark Information ■■■■■■ ■ Group Limited included: Laser-scan Limited ■■■■ ■ ■ ● the development of the Government ■ ■ Lovell Johns Ltd ■■■■■ Services Catalogue (S-CAT) category Mason Land Surveys Ltd ■■■■ for GI Services and Systems Mott Macdonald Vega ■■■■■■ ■ Consortium ● the AGI’s newly formed Special Interest Oasis Recuitment Group ■ ■ Groups for Property, Utilities and ■■ ■ Oracle ■ Energy, and Scisys ■■■■■ ● Tenet ITMapping Ltd ■■■ the signing of the Pan-Government Terraquest Group Plc ■■■ ■■■■ Agreement for Ordnance Survey base The GeoInformation Group ■■■■■■ mapping products. WA Atkins Planning and ■■■■■■ ■ However, it has also been a period of Management Consultants Ltd frustration and concern for others due to Information from S-CAT website 4 June 2003 inactivity, or with issues in the way For a full list of successful supplier and further information about S- geographic information is being exploited. Examples include: Cat please visit their website: http://www.s-cat.gov.uk/whatsnew.asp#61 ● the delay in the publishing of the Sallie Payne Ordnance Survey Framework Deputy Director AGI document that was originally promised [email protected] for submission in December 2002, and 2 ○○○○○ GEOgraphicinformation JUNE 2003 after receiving several complaints the Figure 1: Wandsworth population profile. Office of Fair Trading has launched an Source: ONS 2001 Census investigation into alleged anti- competitive behaviour by the Environment Agency because of the way the agency sells environmental information for property searches (for more details see the national press articles published between the 11th – 15th of May). The AGI continues to act in its members’ interests, focusing on the generic benefits and issues that concern the industry. This has recently included a Sponsor Members Forum on the Government’s ‘Wider Markets Initiative’ that acted as an informal meeting with key people from government to explain and discuss with the AGI’s sponsor members the government’s policy for selling services to wider markets and its implications (more details about the government’s Wider Markets Initiative can be sourced from: www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/media/ED8AB/ New_WM_Guidance.pdf. The AGI has also recently written to Andrew Bennett MP (Chair Urban Affairs Sub-Committee), expressing that, until the Ordnance Survey Framework Document has been published, uncertainty over the operating framework of Ordnance Survey, and hence some uncertainty in the Geographic Information Industry, remains. Watch this space for developments! Census and Neighbourhood Figure 2: Local authorities thematically mapped in relation to the number of hours worked Statistics July 2003 sees the planned release of the full A new feature recently added to the Census This feature is in addition to the catalogue of 2001 Census statistics from website is an interactive map that generates Neighbourhood Statistics Service and the Output Areas (representing approximately thematic maps for statistics of interest. interactive mapping facility it provides for 100 households) to wards and above. Local This allows users to zoom into a particular sourcing data (see authority profiles from the 2001 Census area and view statistics for selected local www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk). It can already be sourced from authorities. Figure 2 shows local is heartening to think that much of what www.statistics.gov.uk/census2001/ with authorities thematically mapped in relation we are now able to do with this type of population profiles like the one shown for to the number of hours worked. I think data refers back to the excellent work of the London Borough of Wandsworth I’ll be moving to the Isle of Wight! the Cabinet Office’s Social Exclusion Unit (Figure 1 above) also available. Policy Action Team 18 on Better 3 ○○○○○ GEOgraphicinformation JUNE 2003 Information. I know that many AGI This Directive is of significant importance procurement of base mapping data it would members gave input to this. to the development and exploitation of be in the interest of those negotiating on geographic information in the UK, so the behalf of local government to consider the In anticipation of the release of full 2001 AGI Council has formed a policy impact of the PAI costs that are being Census data the AGI is currently planning statement describing its position: placed on these users. The Local a programme of seminars for the Autumn Government Ordnance Survey Liaison to be held in a number of locations in “In accordance with its mission statement, Officers (OSLOs) have been consulted on England and Wales. These seminars will AGI recognises that Public Sector Geographic the procurement by the IDeA in the form aim to raise awareness of the data that is Information is the largest segment of Public of a questionnaire asking what datasets they available from the Census, how it can be Sector Information available in the UK. As would like to include, and I’m sure they sourced, how the geography of the Census such AGI supports the objective of ensuring will be discussing the