Comments on: Wikileaks produces OS confidential briefing to ministers http://www.freeourdata.org.uk/blog/2009/08/wikileaks-produces-os-confidential-briefing-to-ministers/ A Guardian Technology campaign for free public access to non-personal data about the UK and its citizens Wed, 14 Jul 2010 17:15:46 +0100 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 hourly 1 By: Malachi Rangecroft http://www.freeourdata.org.uk/blog/2009/08/wikileaks-produces-os-confidential-briefing-to-ministers/comment-page-1/#comment-124171 Malachi Rangecroft Mon, 07 Sep 2009 14:19:51 +0000 http://www.freeourdata.org.uk/blog/?p=487#comment-124171 The PDF is a very interesting read and in some ways makes a lot of sense, only because it highlights the inadequacies of the existing models. A 'One England & Wales' Public Sector Agreement would cross the barriers placed on government bodies who are currently under either the Mapping Service Agreement (MSA) or the Pan Government Agreement (PGA). For instance, Police authorities come under the MSA, whilst the National Improvement Agency (NPIA) is part of the PGA. Theoretically - and confirmed by OS - if a national police system provided by the NPIA (firearms for instance) utilised some parts of AddressLayer2 for its gazetteer - which is part of the PGA - and then wanted to share that information with a police authority, they may not be licensed to do so as AL2 is not part of the MSA. It is a great example of how the current dual contract arrangement is simply to inflexible for today's data sharing environment and potentially lethal when it comes to something as serious as firearm's ownership. I don't really understand the hybrid model or why it is so different to a simplified single government agreement but I do wonder what impact this may have on the (R)MSA due to be implemented in April 2010. Is the 2 years+ hard work undertaken by the Local Government Information House (LGIH) & partners potentially now defunct? Do we really want another separate MSA whilst still trying to share spatial data & work with partners under the PGA? Finally, to reiterate something the ACPO chair for GI (Andrew Watson) has stated on several occasions, as the Emergency Services we should be getting all this data for free anyway! Now there's a nice, simple business model.... [My opinions and not my employer's] The PDF is a very interesting read and in some ways makes a lot of sense, only because it highlights the inadequacies of the existing models. A ‘One England & Wales’ Public Sector Agreement would cross the barriers placed on government bodies who are currently under either the Mapping Service Agreement (MSA) or the Pan Government Agreement (PGA). For instance, Police authorities come under the MSA, whilst the National Improvement Agency (NPIA) is part of the PGA. Theoretically – and confirmed by OS – if a national police system provided by the NPIA (firearms for instance) utilised some parts of AddressLayer2 for its gazetteer – which is part of the PGA – and then wanted to share that information with a police authority, they may not be licensed to do so as AL2 is not part of the MSA. It is a great example of how the current dual contract arrangement is simply to inflexible for today’s data sharing environment and potentially lethal when it comes to something as serious as firearm’s ownership.

I don’t really understand the hybrid model or why it is so different to a simplified single government agreement but I do wonder what impact this may have on the (R)MSA due to be implemented in April 2010. Is the 2 years+ hard work undertaken by the Local Government Information House (LGIH) & partners potentially now defunct? Do we really want another separate MSA whilst still trying to share spatial data & work with partners under the PGA?

Finally, to reiterate something the ACPO chair for GI (Andrew Watson) has stated on several occasions, as the Emergency Services we should be getting all this data for free anyway! Now there’s a nice, simple business model….

[My opinions and not my employer's]

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