GIS is a key enabler for added-value e-Government, so it's good to see Hope take a stand. This is the full text of his speech.
"Today I want to talk about how geographical information either directly or indirectly makes a difference to people's lives.
Geography matters - it is all around us. It can affect our lifestyle, our aspirations, our communications and so on. Government relies on geographic information with the use of slides and visual presentations.
People are increasingly aware of new and more sophisticated uses of geographical information, well beyond helping them to get from A to B. These can have a positive social impact, such as allowing offender tagging systems
Or can have a somewhat negative effect, such as the disappearance of Wales in the latest EU plans
I have the privilege of being the Minister responsible for Ordnance Survey. I had an extremely interesting and enjoyable visit there only last week and I would like to thank Vanessa Lawrence and her team for their hospitality. I was really impressed by the many uses there are for their data.
Much of our focus at the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister is on the detail, the local geography. It is about restoring a sense of place and pride in local communities. We know that issues on the doorstep or along their street and in their town centres are what matter to people. The local parks and urban spaces they can go to, the state of their street, how safe they feel. These are important factors in determining their quality of life.
Getting it right means basing decisions on sound evidence and high quality information - and seeing the whole picture. Geographic information can contribute a huge amount to this.
There are many sources of funding going into building up sustainable communities, addressing different priorities such as the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund for the most deprived areas. Again it is enormously helpful to get a geographic feel for where the funding is going. It gives us a strategic and regional focus and lets us measure results, allowing us to see where money is going and the impact that money is having.
Modern technologies support much of the progress we are making. Not only by wide and instant access to up-to-date information on websites so people can see plans for their area and make well-informed contributions about what's going on and what people want to see. But also by improving local services, for example, through setting up one-stop contact centres supported by modern, more efficient administration systems. And enabling local government and other partners to keep in touch with people in communities - exchanging information, consulting, staying up-to-date, working together. Modern technology allows information to be used flexibly and applied in many ways to make a difference to people's lives.
I know many of you are better qualified than me to discuss the technology so I want to focus on the citizen perspective and their needs, what do ordinary people want to get from all of this. It is the needs and expectations of our citizens that is the most important aspect and fulfilling them is the key driver for delivering successful communities.
Thames Gateway
A good example of ODPM's use of geographic information is the Sustainable Communities Plan.
The Sustainable Communities Plan defines what ODPM is about. It sets out a long-term programme for delivering sustainable communities in both urban and rural areas. It aims to tackle housing supply issues in the South East, low demand in other parts of the country, and to improve the overall quality of our public spaces.
It's about more than housing. This £22 billion programme aims to focus the attention and co-ordinate the efforts of all levels of Government and stakeholders in bringing about development that meets the economic, social and environmental needs of future generations as well as succeeding now.
Let's look at a specific area, the Thames Gateway region. Although it is in a strategic location on major links to the continent, it suffers from deprivation and has one of the largest concentrations of brownfield sites in the country. It is the subject of a major regeneration programme in an area 40 miles long and up to 20 miles wide.
Ebbsfleet gives you a feel for the scale of the challenge. This is just one of the regeneration sites in the Thames Gateway. The area will provide thousands of new homes, millions of square feet of commercial, retail, leisure and community space. Tens of thousands of jobs will be created.
It is only by using geographic information that ODPM is able to provide other stakeholders with evidence to gain their support for the communities' plan and in turn, to assess the impact of the complex inter-relations of government initiatives. Without geographic information and the tools to present such information, a joined up approach to policy development simply would not be possible.
Transport Direct
Geography is also at the forefront of improving citizen services.
The Department for Transport are 'Connecting People to Places' through the Transport Direct portal. The portal, which exemplifies the latest in GI technology, is due for launch later this autumn. The soft launch took place earlier this year.
It removes barriers (by acting as a one stop shop); it offers choice (providing information on all modes of transport); and ideally it will challenge peoples' travel habits. People think "I've got other options open to me too e.g. switching from cars to other modes of transport.
Transport Direct has gone a long way to integrate transport information and connect it with geographical information, through the first on-line multi modal journey planning service in the country and possibly the world.
It has a premise that is simple enough - to create an accessible and user-friendly journey planner that draws upon existing travel and transport information. Conversely, the execution is hugely complex; involving the collating and processing of vast amounts of information that often wasn't created with journey planning in mind.
The portal employs data from many different sources, including local authorities, transport operators, the Highways Agency and points of interest. The data challenges are considerable: for instance, 330,000 bus stops and the National Public Transport Gazetteer of more than 40,000 localities are included in this portal.
That is a major achievement, and one that would not have been possible without mapping. The onscreen maps that help users locate their origin and destination are not the only application of maps in Transport Direct. Digital mapping also works behind the scenes to provide the foundation upon which its geographic data is built and organised.
Transport Direct's use of geography gives people options. This enables them to make more informed decisions.
E-government; EMPReSS
Another initiative is EMPReSS. E-government has a major role to play in meeting citizens' expectations for better information, and easier access to services. All too often, administrative boundaries form barriers to the flow of information between different organisations. Individual organisations' systems generally meet local needs but have not necessarily been designed to share information with others.
As a citizen, I want to find the nearest swimming pool or library to where I live, irrespective of the local authority which runs those services. How do I do that? A key challenge is to provide users with the knowledge they need.
The EMPReSS project is removing some of those barriers. The project has been developed by the East Midlands e-Government partnership, and aims to deliver a framework to support interoperable e-government services from several service providers.
A pilot site provides the travelling public with seamless information about road works for the East Midlands, using a mapping user interface. The service collates information from each road works register used by the local highways authorities and the Highways Agency (who manage the motorway and trunk roads in England).
Subsequent phases are planned to add other e-government services, again trying to provide seamless access to several authorities.
The award-winning EMPReSS concept has much to recommend it. It is the first of its kind and is easily expandable - both geographically and in service provision. Standards make it system independent and help it overcome the problems of joining up legacy systems.
Maps on Tap
E-government is not just about delivering citizen services. It is about improving the efficiency of government and enhancing the knowledge base on which policy is based. This demands behind the scenes changes which are not always visible to end users. We need to streamline processes and share data better. This will help us to be more efficient, make better decisions and meet increasing expectations.
Maps on Tap is an ODPM project that will make a further enhance the department's understanding of location and its impact on the creation of sustainable communities.
The original objective of Maps on Tap was to deliver on-line access to digital mapping, which could be combined with other data already available within ODPM. During development, it became quite apparent that much of ODPM's requirements are common to Government as a whole.
The vision for Maps on Tap was expanded to, and I quote: "a fully-managed open environment for hosting spatially-referenced knowledge."
What that means it that users will be able to browse and access a wide range of mapping and related information. Owners of data will be able to publish and share data quickly and easily.
For the first time, it will be possible to locate and access a wide range of mapping and related information supplied by a range of government departments.
In the context of sustainable communities, increased data sharing will enhance the evidence base and that will help us to better understanding of the complex nature of the real world on the ground and its relationship with government policies. It will help identify those areas that most deserve funding. It will help us to allocate that funding in a more joined up way by co-ordinating it with other government expenditure. Ultimately, it will also enable the monitor the impact of that investment.
I think this kind of geographic information will be a significant step forward in making government decisions more joined up on issues when Government departments don't talk to one another well enough.
These examples demonstrate that geographic information is already helping public policy development and service delivery. But I believe that it can underpin even more decision-making than it does today.
I would like to mention two issues, which I think are particularly important in this context.
Issue 1: Addresses
Firstly, I know that many of you have a keen interest in addressing issues. This is reflected in government, which also recognises the importance of a national address database.
We have now received the final Acacia report and I'm pleased to say that officials are meeting with interested parties to identify how we can move forward as quickly as possible.
Issue 2: GI Panel
Secondly, in July, my colleague Yvette Cooper announced the publication of Ordnance Survey's Framework Document; at that time, she also announced that a GI Panel would be set up. I would like to keep you up to date with developments.
Invitations to the organisations to be represented on the panel will be sent soon. The first chair of the panel will be Vanessa Lawrence, Director General of Ordnance Survey.
The panel will have three key aims:
- To advise on the key medium to long-term geographic information issues
- To encourage more effective and systematic use of geographic information
- To facilitate a co-ordinated position on national and international legislation
To be successful, the panel must reflect the views of the wider community (both public and private sectors). If you are not directly represented, I encourage you to make your views known.
Closing thoughts
Geography - and Geographic Information - matters.
It matters to individuals, who are affected by their personal geographies
It matters to government. It increases our understanding; we can use that understanding to enhance personal geographies.
It matters to us all. Citizens, local government, central government - and the private sector can all be connected by Geographic Information.
There are challenges but also many exciting opportunities. I'm sure that you are eager to make the most of them.
Exploiting Geographic Information's potential needs users and suppliers to work together. That's why your conference is so important.
Thank you for inviting me to speak today, and enjoy the conference.
Quelle: Publictechnology.net , 02.11.2004
