The availability of out-of-copyright Ordnance Survey maps has given some people a smart idea: collect postcodes from visitors to the site and link them to the map points. It’s cheaper than licensing it from the OS and Post Office, after all.

Try it yourself at npemap.org.uk. There’s also, for those equipped with a GPS, the Freethepostcode site.

And a scheme to be launched next week will try to create an independent map of Britain’s roads, incrementally, from GPS systems in vehicles. But it would go beyond simple location data to include traffic flow data too.

Read about it at From postcodes to roads, we can collect it ourselves in today’s Guardian.

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