Data Links

The directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 March 2007 establishing an Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community (INSPIRE) was published in the official Journal on the 25th April 2007. The INSPIRE Directive will enter into force on the 15th May 2007.

Should I get excited by this?

Well others are at least welcoming the progress made, even if some are I think questioning the direction and speed of that progress.

If we look at the INSPIRE website, I do not think we can quibble with the need for harmonisation and data comparability throughout Europe. As the site states,
'The general situation on spatial information in Europe is one of fragmentation of datasets and sources, gaps in availability, lack of harmonisation between datasets at different geographical scales and duplication of information collection. These problems make it difficult to identify, access and use data that is available.'

And if we further look at the ultimate aim, we cannot really quibble with that either -
'The initiative intends to trigger the creation of a European spatial information infrastructure that delivers to the users integrated spatial information services. These services should allow the users to identify and access spatial or geographical information from a wide range of sources, from the local level to the global level, in an inter-operable way for a variety of uses. The target users of INSPIRE include policy-makers, planners and managers at European, national and local level and the citizens and their organisations. Possible services are the visualisation of information layers, overlay of information from different sources, spatial and temporal analysis, etc.'

But as always, the path from A to B is not always straightforward and to get all European countries to enact the legislation and then put in the time and resources required to ensure harmonisation of data will be where the main challenge lies.

In the meantime I shall watch with interest the initial reactions and debates.

The Countries of the World

I have in some posts given the link to a You Tube video. But I didn't know how to embed the video within my blog. Until now. Many thanks to Simon Brand for his advice.

So here I am experimenting with this facility. And of course the first one must have a geographic connection. Which this does. But since it is a weekend, the geographic connection is allowed to be tenuous.

Here is a listing of most of the countries of the world. I hope you like it.

AGI's old office

This morning I returned to AGI's old office on Old Street. It was strange to see it without furniture, without cupboards, without clutter. It looked much larger, but soul-less. But then it was always rather soul-less. And speaking personally, I am glad to be out of it.

Here are some pictures of the old office as it looked this morning. It will be interesting to see who moves in and what they do with it.

Yes, actually, we have signed out. For the last time.

Royal Patron for Map Action

I was pleased to hear that Prince Harry has agreed to become the Royal Patron of Map Action.

Map Action do a fantastic job in difficult circumstances around the world - see my earlier blog. This Royal patronage will increase their profile which will undoubtedly be beneficial for them and for those countries in which they operate both now and in the future.

AGI on the move

Some of you may have visited us in the AGI office in Old Street. It was not the most inspiring of offices, but was expensive particularly because it had an area devoted purely to meetings. We were paying for this space all day and every day, but only using it perhaps once a week.

About a year ago, I was asked to investigate moving to alternative premises in April 2007 when our current lease was due to expire. The brief covered 4 major requirements -

1. A reduced fixed cost so that AGI could utilise a higher percentage on membership income back to the service of members needs and requirements.


2. More flexibility so that we are not locked into a long-term commitment which might not be appropriate in the future if for example we move to more part-time working, working from home etc.


3. Somewhere which has the ability to host meetings of AGI sub-groups.


4. An environment in which staff will thrive and give their best for AGI.

Meeting those requirements was not easy. But I am hugely grateful to the AGI team for their support and their embracing of change - indeed their enthusiasm for the change.

We found a suitable office off Bishopsgate near Liverpool Street Station. This is a serviced office run by a company called YourSpace which seemed to encapsulate within their philosophy the same philosophy which drives the AGI team namely an inspiration and a passion for their customers.

And so today we moved out of our offices in Old Street and into the new offices. The move went more smoothly than I had dared to hope. Our new address is
5 St Helen's Place
Bishopsgate
London
EC3A 6AU



I am looking forward to working in the new environment and using this as a base to continue to give our members real value for their membership. If any of our members read this, then please feel free to drop by and visit us. We will give you a warm welcome.

Weekend digression

I feel that at weekends I am allowed the occasional digression completely away from geography. On Saturday I was driving up to Hitchin and listening to Dermot O'Leary on Radio 2. In his 'maudlin music' slot he played Rufus Wainwright's version of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah. It is just such an amazing song.

I don't know how to embed You Tube videos into a blog, so I just give you the URL for the original version by Leonard Cohen. Stop what you are doing, click below, and just listen -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rf36v0epfmI

AGI Conference 2007

The AGI conference will be in September in Stratford Upon Avon. The format is an exciting evolution from the format of previous years and the conference promises to be the major event in the UK Geographical calendar this year.

Chris Holcroft the CEO at the AGI (and my boss) has just started a conference blog. I urge anyone who strays onto my site to go over and read the conference blog. And even better, sign up to attend the conference itself. You'll have a great time, learn loads and come away with added enthusiasm for the potential of geographic information.

International waters

At work last week I got a call from a reporter on Sky News asking if the AGI could advise on how international waters are set and checked. I was alone in the office and could not answer the question so I suggested he contact the UK Hydrographic Office.

The question was asked, of course, because of the abduction by Iran of 15 UK marines who, they alleged, had strayed from Iraqi waters into Iranian territorial waters and were therefore trespassing.

The dispute has now been settled and the marine have been released unharmed. But were they trespassing? Britain categorically says 'no', Iran maintains that they were. And I guess we will never know. On land, counties borders can usually be measured in relation to a river or at least some permanent geographical feature - sometimes a man made on such as a wall. But on the ocean there is no immediate feature. Of course a border can be categorized by its latitude and/or longitude, but presumably borders do not lie directly north-south or east-west, bit can be diagonal, zig-zag or whatever.

In this case we are dealing with the waters of the Shatt al Arab waterway. Apparently the dividing line between Iraqi and Iranian waters was first agreed in the 1970s and marked by buoys. But two factors have complicated matters. Firstly Saddam Hussain renounced the agreement. Secondly the boundary is defined by its distance from the coastline. But in that area the coastline is constantly shifting with mud flats appearing and disappearing over time.

So effectively neither side can claim with certainty that they were correct. It does seem to me that it was at best rather cavalier of the marines to move out of reach of their mother ship so close to a disputed boundary in a politically sensitive part of the world.

This is of some interest to me as I lived and worked in Iran in the late 1970s during and after the period of the Iranian revolution. It was an interesting time and I had a number of inadvertent adventures including the time being Scottish saved my life and the time the music of Boney M almost cost me my life. But those are long stories which probably do not properly reside in a geog Blog. So I will just sign off with copies of the maps that were used by each side to try to prove their point.

British map

Iranian map