Review of geo-spatial services for the ESRC

ecls/ / Of Interest

EDINA has received the following message regarding a survey being conducted by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), which we believe will be of great interest to you.

EDINA believes that this survey will influence the development and availability of services offering geospatial resources to the academic community. If you or your colleagues make use of, or have in the past made use of, geospatial data or resources (maps, satellite data, statistical data, census information etc), we would strongly urge you to complete the survey.

We would also be grateful if you would pass on a link to this page to colleagues who may not see it. Note the closing date of the survey is 31 January 2009.

The following text is from the researchers conducting the survey, and gives some useful background:

In support of the National Strategy for Data Resources for Research in the Social Sciences, the Economic and Social Research Council has commissioned a review of the current availability of, access to, and future needs for geo-spatial data services by the research community. These are broadly defined and include not only the data necessary to map and analyse data with a spatial dimension, but also resources which broaden the range of spatial research undertaken and enhance the ability of researchers to undertake spatial analysis.

To assist us with this review, would you please spare a few minutes to complete a short web-based survey concerned with the awareness and use of geo-spatial resources by researchers and their opinions about new areas for development via ESRC investment. Please note that we are interested in your opinions even if you are not currently undertaking research with a spatial or geographical dimension.

Any information you provide will be used purely for statistical purposes in order to plan future services. This survey will remain confidential and any published results will not identify individuals.

The survey should take 5 to 10 minutes to complete and will remain openuntil 31 January 2009.

Link to: Geo-Spatial Resources and Services Survey

Many thanks for taking the time to complete this survey.

Peter Elias, Anne Green and David Owen,
Institute for Employment Research,
University of Warwick,
Coventry CV4 7AL.

NB: If you want further information about this review or wish tocontribute your views/opinions in a more detailed fashion, please emailthe researchers directly:
Peter.Elias@warwick.ac.uk
Anne.Green@warwick.ac.uk
D.W.Owen@warwick.ac.uk

Essential Maintenance: 8 January

ecls/ / Service Availability

On Thursday 8 January 2009, EDINA will be undertaking some essential maintenance on the servers which run Digimap.

This means that all Digimap Collections should be regarded as unavailable between 08.00 hours and 17.30 hours on this day. We will endeavour to restore full access to all services as soon as possible, but given that it is not possible to predict exactly how long the task in hand will take, you should anticipate that the service will be unavailable for the full period.

Notices to this effect will be posted on the Digimap login page and a reminder will be sent to site representatives nearer the time.

Carto Bookmarks

ecls/ / Service Availability

On Wednesday 17 December, EDINA will be removing all bookmarks from Carto which contain references to Land-Line maps.

The data which underpins these bookmarks has been withdrawn and consequently, any bookmarks which reference Land-Line data will not draw maps. Therefore, to avoid any confusion created by maps which do not draw as expected, EDINA is removing the appropriate bookmarks from all users accounts.

As a result, you may notice that some of the bookmarks in Carto no longer appear in the Bookmarks tab.

Changes to Digimap Registration

ecls/ / Access

On Friday 12 December, EDINA will make a small change to the Digimap registration pages. Currently, users logging in to Digimap with new (un-registered) login credentials are given the option to link their new details with an existing registration that they may have with Digimap. This option was implemented to aid the transition between Athens and the UK Federation in August 2008.

EDINA has discovered that many users are not logging out of the UK Federation properly, and are inadvertently allowing other individuals to access services using their login details. This is because the only way to log out of the UK Federation is to close *all* browser windows.

As a result of this, some Digimap users are linking their Digimap registration with the UK Federation login details of other users who are not registered with Digimap. This allows both users access to the service, when only one individual has agreed to the terms of the licence.

In order to avoid this problem, EDINA is removing the option to link a new registration with an existing registration. This change will take effect from the evening of Friday 12 December 2008. Users registering for Digimap with a new set of login details will be automatically requested to submit these details as a new registration. This simplifies the registration process and ensures that users cannot link accounts inappropriately.

If you have questions about this change, or would like to discuss it further, please do not hesitate to contact us.

9 December: Hardware failure

ecls/ / Service Availability

Users are currently unable to access any Digimap Collection. At 17.40 on Monday 8 December, one of Digimap’s service machines suffered a disk failure. In order to fix the problem it has been necessary to order replacement parts for the machine. Our current estimate for restoring full access to Digimap is late this afternoon at the earliest.

When we have a more definite timescale for resolving the problem, we will post the information here, and on the Digimap login page.

Win a prize worth £1750!!

ecls/ / Of Interest

Are you using Ordnance Survey data in an innovative way? If so, enter the competition and you could win a prize!

EDINA and Ordnance Survey are pleased to announce a competition to find the most innovative use of Ordnance Survey data. To enter the competition you need to submit a summary of your work which describes what you were trying to achieve, what Ordnance Survey data you used (and how), what makes the work and the use of the data innovative, and how the data could be improved to make the work easier, or to have made more possible.

Full competition details
Full details of the competition can be found here. Please ensure you read this document carefully before submitting your application.

Grand Prize
The winner will receive £250 of Amazon vouchers to distribute amongst project colleagues plus travel, accommodation and conference fees for one or more researchers, up to a total value of £1,500, to a conference of your choice. There are second and third prizes of £250 and £100 in Amazon vouchers.

Closing date
The closing date for entries is midnight on Saturday 31st January 2009. Entries may be submitted by email or on paper.

Questions
All questions regarding the competition should be addressed to Ordnance Survey directly, on universityenquiries@ordnancesurvey.co.uk

Good luck!

Usage Figures for Site Representatives

ecls/ / Digimap News

Site Representatives for Digimap’s Ordnance Survey Collection may have noticed that the usage statistics for October 2008 are not yet available via the Site Representative’s Support Area.

We are in the process of re-engineering the way we calculate and present usage statistics. Since this process is not yet complete, figures for October 2008 onwards are not yet available. The facility for extracting usage statistics remains available so that site representatives can continue to download figures for previous months.

We hope to have complete usage statistics available in time for the new year. We intend this to include data for all the Digimap Collections. Currently, data is available only for the Ordnance Survey Collection. Please note that information available for some Collections will be more limited than for others, particularly Historic Digimap.

Progress updates will be posted here when available.

Confused?
If you are registered with EDINA as a Digimap Site Representative, you will have access to a specific section of Digimap’s Ordnance Survey Collection called the Site Representative’s Support Area. This will provide you with your institution’s usage data for Digimap. It is only available to site representatives.