| Galileo
will be able to break the existing US monopoly. Comment. |
Ordnance
Survey strongly supports the evolving Galileo satellite
navigation system. Galileo is still some years away
but it has the potential to deliver major advances to
the location industry and beyond. The ideal scenario
will be if the European and US systems can be made as
interoperable as possible. Combining the two will benefit
mobile internet services, positioning and navigation
systems, road charging schemes and many other applications,
physically providing greater signal availability, redundancy,
acquisition speed and accuracy over and above GPS on
its own.
While assurances have been made regarding GPS availability,
there are no guarantees. Galileo has been developed
by the European Union to specifically benefit the European
citizen. It will have guaranteed levels of service and
the legally binding operational assurances that are
needed for public safety as well as commercial services.
Galileo will therefore provide a stable satellite navigation
system, delivering the consumer confidence necessary
to stimulate investment in the development of end user
applications. Increased redundancy and integrity will
create the potential to derive a wider breadth of services.
Galileo will facilitate efficiencies in our field data
capture process, while all professional users of satellite
navigation will enjoy greater signal availability, acquisition
speed and accuracy to enable or support initiatives
including improving personal safety, reducing traffic
congestion and the location and relocation of utility
assets. |
How
do you see the emerging market of LBS? |
The wireless
market can transform the way people do business, with
mobile and fixed broadband connections enabling customers
tozz transfer and receive a mass of information. GI
can greatly boost this market, adding valuable context
to information disseminated via high-bandwidth wireless
connections helping companies to make services relevant
and personal to a customer’s physical location.
Beyond information delivery, geographic data can greatly
assist in the planning and implementation of wireless
infrastructure, aiding the rollout of masts by assessing
their physical locations. Projects can be managed remotely,
saving time and costs by identifying potential issues
at the planning stage.
The LBS market is estimated to reach 200 million EUR
by 2007 and wireless carriers around the world are locationenabling
their networks to facilitate worldwide demand for LBS
services such as social networking, gaming, personal
navigation and directions.
GIS provides the tools to deliver and administer base
map data such as manmade structures (streets, buildings)
and terrain (mountains, rivers). It is also used to
manage points-of-interest data such as the location
of petrol stations, restaurants and nightclubs.
The rollout of 3G mobile phone systems has been somewhat
slower than anticipated due to the cost and complexity
of the new access network the technology requires. This
has reciprocally affected the growth of location-based
technologies. However, Galileo will offer a good platform
for them, especially if more handheld devices are fitted
with GPS. |
What
are your future plans in Ordnance Survey? |
A central part
of our future vision is a new corporate headquarters
suitable for a forward-looking information and technology
organisation. In December 2005 we announced plans to
move from our current building in Southampton to a development
site on the edge of the city. This is a sound investment
which means we can continue to offer efficient, attractive
working conditions in the area for staff. Such is the
scale and complexity of the project that we are not
likely to move until 2008.
Our products and services will continue to be driven
and shaped by customer demand and it is a priority to
continue to respond to their evolving needs. As a government
trading fund, our activities are financed through data
licensing rather than direct funding from the taxpayer.
This gives us the scope to deliver products and services
that reflect market demand while completing essential
activities vital to the national interest but which
cannot be justified on purely commercial grounds.
The Digital National Framework (DNF) is becoming the
de facto enabling standard facilitating the sharing
and integration of GI from multiple sources. The collection
and use of mapping data to DNF standards will facilitate
the linking up of disparate datasets belonging to a
range of organisations. Promoting the potential of cooperation
across the GI community will facilitate, I believe,
greater use of geographic data for decision-making within
both the public and private sectors.
Medium-term research into future applications to evolve
data capture techniques, boost data interoperability
and add spatial intelligence to navigation, gaming,
asset management and tourist information products has
a considerable focus at Ordnance Survey.
A number of pioneering ideas are under development within
our Research and Innovation department and with external
commercial and academic partners. |
 |
Vanessa
Lawrence is Director General and Chief
Executive of Ordnance Survey, Britain’s
national mapping agency. |
A
world renowned geographer, she is responsible
for creating and maintaining the master map of
the entire country, from which Ordnance Survey
produces its intelligent geographic information,
digital map data and paper maps. As the head of
Ordnance Survey, Vanessa is adviser to the UK
Government on mapping, surveying and geographic
information. On her appointment to head Ordnance
Survey in 2000, she was described by the Government
Minister responsible for the mapping agency as
“a world-class professional known in both
the private and public sectors for her vision,
dynamism and wealth of knowledge.”
Since then, she has helped reshape and restructure
Ordnance Survey to make it much more customer
focused and led a comprehensive strategy to transform
it into an e-business technologically, commercially
and culturally. The strategy has won distinguished
praise from Ministers, and as a result Vanessa
has been personally appointed one of the government’s
official e-champions. In addition, she was made
a non-executive director of the Board of the Office
of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM). Another key
highlight of the past five years has been
the complete restructuring of the topographic
database that underpins mapping in Great Britain;
this involved a large IT project delivered on
time and to budget. The launch of OS MasterMap,
the new definitive map database backed by an online
service, means information from both the public
and private sector can be successfully ‘joined-up’
offering potential benefits to the whole nation.
Following a degree in Geography at the University
of Sheffield, Vanessa gained an MSc in remote
sensing, image processing and the application
of geographic information systems at the University
of Dundee. In 1996 she joined Autodesk; firstly
as Regional Business Development Manager and then
Global Manager - Strategic Marketing and Communications
for the GIS Solutions Division. She has been awarded
an Honorary Doctorate at Oxford Brookes University
and an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Laws at the
University of Dundee. In addition, she has been
awarded Honorary Degrees of Doctor of Science
from the University of Sheffield, Kingston University,
the University of Glasgow and The Nottingham Trent
University. She is a Visiting Professor at Kingston
University and the University of Southampton.
She was appointed a member of the Council of the
University of Southampton in 2002. She is
a companion of the Chartered Management Institute,
a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors,
and a member of the Council of the Royal Geographical
Society.
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| April 2006 |
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