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| November 2009 Edition |

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General:

1. NLPG/NSG Awarded a Best Practice European Award!

2. Ordnance Survey to Open Up
3. NLPG & NSG Conference and Exemplar Awards
4. NLPG Now Licensed for Smaller Areas
5. Sedgefield Borough Homes Buy Into NLPG
6. Government Connects
7. Intelligent Addressing Christmas Break

-----[articles]-----

[General]
**1. NLPG/NSG Awarded a Best Practice European Award!**
We are delighted to announce that the NLPG and NSG have received a prestigious
Best
Practice Award at the SDI Best Practice Awards Conference 2009 held in Turin.
As
we reported last month, the NLPG/NSG were one of only two entries successfully
put
forward from the UK out of a range of excellent projects from across the
country.
All finalists received a Best Practice Award at the conference.

These awards are the result of the analysis and discussion of nearly 160 SDIs
in
12 National Workshops held during 2008-2009.

Steve Brandwood, Programme Manager Geographic Information LGIH, accepted the

award.
Judges noted and rewarded in particular the collaborative effort involved with
the
ten year long programme. They also noted the importance of the rigorous
standards
and legislative drivers behind the gazetteers.

We would like to extend congratulations to every one of you for your hard work
and
dedication to the project. Further information on the Awards can be seen
[1]here.

[1] http://www.esdinetplus.eu/

**2. Ordnance Survey to Open Up**

he Prime Minister and Communities Secretary John Denham announced, at the
Smarter
Government Seminar, that the public will have more access to Ordnance Survey
maps
from next year, as part of a Government drive to open up data to improve
transparency.
See full [1]COI press release

Mr Brown said, "I think we're on the verge of a revolution that can transform
public
services and the public sector. I'm speaking very specifically about how
government
can change to meet the needs of the times. I think we are determined to be the
first
government in the world to open up public information in a way that is far
more
accessible to the general public."

The prime minister said that by April he hoped a consultation would be

completed
on the free provision of Ordnance Survey maps down to a scale of 1:10,000.

Brown's announcement comes after Ordnance Survey said, earlier this year, that
moving
to a free model would cost between £500m and £1bn over the next five years.
But
a separate study, by a team at Cambridge University, commissioned by the
Treasury,
found that making all OS data free would cost the government £12m and bring a
net
gain of £156m.

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the world wide web, who was recruited by
the
prime minister to help open up government data, is reported to have said that
the
revised terms for use of OS maps would also remove the "derived data problem",
while the Guardian's [2]Free Our Data Blog has gone further saying "Derived
data
will have a stake through its heart"ESDI.

The Government will be running the public consultation on the proposals from
December
and any change would be implemented from April 2010.

[1] http://nds.coi.gov.uk/content/Detail.aspx?ReleaseID=408663&NewsAreaID=2
[2] http://www.freeourdata.org.uk/blog/2009/11/gordon-brown-announces-os-maps-
to-be-free-online/

**3. NLPG & NSG Conference and Exemplar Awards**

Yesterday (26th November) saw the annual NLPG NSG annual conference and
presentation
of the Exemplar Awards.

With nearly 300 delegates, 23 speakers and chairs, 22 exhibitors, 50 Awards

and
certificates, and 150 attendees at the drinks the night before, the conference
achieved
its aim of being the event of the year for anyone interested in local
government
GIS and addressing. A list of the award winners can be found [1]here.

All presentations - PowerPoint and audio will be made on the NLPG and NSG
websites
next week, and a full report of the conference will be made available in the
December
eZine.

[1] http://www.iahub.net/docs/1259335875731.pdf

**4. NLPG Now Licensed for Smaller Areas**

The NLPG is more accessible than ever thanks to a new license that makes it
attractive
for smaller customers such as Housing Associations and Primary Care Trusts.
The
NLPG can now be licensed for smaller geographical areas which brings down the
cost
 considerably for organisations with small areas of interest.

Further details are available by contacting Nick Turner, Business Development

Manager
for Intelligent Addressing, on 020 7747 3500 or [1]nturner@intelligent-
addressing.co.uk.

[1] mailto:nturner@intelligent-addressing.co.uk

**5. Sedgefield Borough Homes Buy Into NLPG**

Sedgefield Borough Homes is the third housing trust to have taken a licence to
the
NLPG. The corporate licence for the County Durham area allows Sedgefield
Borough
Homes to use the NLPG within its IT systems and for facilitating its return to
the
National Register of Social Housing (NROSH).

The new licence agreement allows Intelligent Addressing and its designated
NLPG
resellers to sell 'smaller slices' of NLPG data, down to individual records if
necessary.
A price list for each 'borough area' has been published and is available for
download
from the [1]NLPG website.

[1] http://www.nlpg.org.uk

**6. Government Connects**

Earlier this year, the IDeA nominated 19 projects to receive money from the
Government
Connect benefits realisation fund. A range of projects have successfully
secured
funding for a variety of projects which aim to improve data sharing in areas
such
as trading standards, tackling antisocial behaviour, disabled parking and
safeguarding
children. Of particular note is Halton Borough Council's project which has
shared
geospatial data between partners in the Liverpool City Region Sustainable
Community
Strategy. Further information about all the successful candidates can be found
[1]here.

[1] http://www.idea.gov.uk/idk/core/page.do?pageId=11510500

**7. Intelligent Addressing Christmas Break**

Intelligent Addressing will be closed on the 25th and 28th December 2009, and
1st
January 2010. For the remainder of the time there will be staff available to
answer
queries on the Help Desk, process your update files and maintain the websites.