[UK] Post code data to be free in 2010

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8402327.stm

by davecardwell • 17 years ago

16 8 17 years ago

news.bbc.co.uk

This is great news! You could ask ”What’s taken so long?” but that would be sour grapes. Guess we no longer need http://freethepostcode.org/ now though.

pierrefar• 17 years ago

Multiple data sources are better as any given one is likely to contain errors.

ZeroGravitas2• 17 years ago

Let's not count our chickens before they hatch:

"Harry Metcalfe, who helped sites get at postcode data, said he was "cautiously optimistic" about the decision to open up the OS data sets. "The 'how' is terribly important, quite easily the difference between a fantastic data release and a waste of time," he said. He said it would "possibly" be enough to help websites that want to use postcode data. "Maybe probably." he said. "It will be if it's done right."

ZeroGravitas2• 17 years ago

And it looks like the Post Office has already clarified that the PAF data (the stuff that lets you go quickly from a postcode to a customer's address) will remain closed:

http://www.freeourdata.org.uk/blog/2009/12/postcodes-to-be-f...

bdfh42• 17 years ago

news.ycombinator.com/item?id=981000

news.ycombinator.com/item?id=985599

EnderMB• 17 years ago

I've always wondered how forms have managed to get my address through my post code. It will be great to play with this data once it is available.

nailer• 17 years ago

At FOWA a few months ago, the Ordanance Survey (a taxpayer funded organization that handles postcode and general surveying in the UK) had a stand asking people to pay the typical exhorbitant amount of money (a few hundred pounds a year) to access the data their taxes already paid for.

Pretty much everyone at the conference doing anything in the geo space was using the 100MB file that gets uploaded to wikileaks every few weeks instead.

rlpb• 17 years ago

Taxpayers don't pay directly for the Ordnance Survey.

"It is a separate government department that is now financed through data licensing rather than direct funding from the tax payer"

http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/media/features/tra...

Having said that, public sector organisations licence data like everyone else, and that money does come from the taxpayer. However, if the Ordnance Survey were a private company then this situation would be the same.

[UK] Post code data to be free in 2010

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