November 01, 2006

IPPR Public Innovation Report

We contributed a case study on the Ordnance Survey (in relation to the questions of intellectual property and the public domain) to the IPPR's Public Innovation: intellectual property in a digital age which was published on Monday.

In addition to the case study (pp 55-57) is a section in the conclusions (p 85):

Opening up public sector information would present dramatic opportunities for entrepreneurship in the UK, without unduly benefiting overseas competitors. We support a recommendation related to us by Giles Lane from creative studio Proboscis that the functions of OS be split into two different components: one part being responsible for maintaining the National Geographic Database (NGD) and providing access to it on a ‘cost of reproduction’ basis to all who wish to use it, and another part that continues the OS’s legacy of innovation and product development, but that derives no commercial or competitive advantage from controlling the NGD.

The full proposal is below:

Accessing Public Geodata
Giles Lane, May 2006

Despite the Ordnance Survey's (OS) successes in widening provision for small groups such as academics and schoolchildren, the OS has not been able to create mechanisms that widen access to its core geodata for other non- governmental public uses. With its strong focus on cost recovery and development of new revenue models this does seem to be a conflict of interest. The Office of Public Sector Information (OPSI) is reported to agree that there is 'substance to to complaints from commercial mapping firms that OS has been "obstructive and slow" in licensing its data.' (The Guardian, 23/3/06). Whilst the OS disputes the findings of the OPSI, it also disputes the conclusion of Comptroller and Auditor General, National Audit Office regarding how it values the National Geographic Database (NGD) which it 'owns':

"In my opinion: in view of the effect of the decision not to capitalise the data held in Ordnance Survey's geospatial databases as a tangible fixed asset in accordance with Financial Reporting Standard 15, the financial statements do not give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of Ordnance Survey at 31 March 2005 or of its surplus, total recognised gains and losses and cash flows for the year then ended"

(source: OS Annual Report 2004-05, 13 June 2005)

This is not the first time the Auditor General has qualified the OS's accounts, in fact he has done so every year since it acquired Trading Fund status. The issue of valuing the NGD as an asset is complicated and open to different interpretations as to whether the OS's or the Auditor General's opinions offer the best value for taxpayers. However, it does highlight an increasing sense of frustration where a government department operates as an effective self-regulating monopoly controlling access to a public asset funded for over two hundred years by the taxpayer.

A Modest Proposal
One potential solution for the licensing impasse would be to separate the functions of the OS into two different components: one part being responsible for maintaining the National Geographic Database and providing access to it on a 'cost of reproduction' basis to all who wish to use it, and another part which continues the OS's legacy of innovation and product development but which derives no commercial or competitive advantage from controlling the NGD.

A possible model for this kind of separation of inheritance and service provision is the recent regulation of BT which separated the core national telephone network (which BT inherited on privatisation and has maintained and upgraded constantly since) from its own retail and business services provision. This separation was enforced to create a more fair and level playing field in the local loop unbundling of telecom services (through the new entity, Openreach) which had failed to gain momentum whilst BT retained control of the network and the exchanges and was competing with other companies wishing to install their own equipment and offer competitive services.

If the National Geographic Database were be accessible to anyone – including the OS itself – at no more than the cost of reproduction of the data, then the monopoly which the OS has inherited as a trading fund would be dissolved and new entrants would be just as able to deliver innovative new uses of GIS as the OS and other incumbents are today.

Posted by Giles Lane at November 1, 2006 11:23 AM