The evolution of web mapping has enabled a far more integrated and collaborative ecosystem, we explore new data standards and what’s next. — Web mapping is indisputably one of the most popular GIS applications. Back in the 90’s, most digital maps were static. So, in order to have some interactivity, users would often have to install desktop applications or browser plugins. In the 2000’s, with the rise of Google Maps, map “mashups” that…

A Python tutorial for those who want to stay caffeinated throughout London — Pret A Manger is a coffee shop chain and has hundreds of locations around the UK, almost all of which are situated in London. …

A Python tutorial for those who want to know where their favourite historical British figures once lived, worked, or were born. — When Dan Hirst, Data Scientist, and part of our Rapid Prototyping Team, began working for the company in August 2021, he took advantage of this flexibility by moving to London. Since living there, is unashamedly in love with discovering Blue Plaques. Blue Plaques commemorate a famous person, event, or building…

We look at how the convergence of technologies, and those who can navigate such changes, affect the transition to sustainable alternatives. — Throughout history, when challenged, we have thrived through collaboration, imagination, and a whole plethora of tools. From the first permanent settlers of the agricultural revolution that would eventually become the foundations to building civilisations, all the way up to using Mathematics, Science, and data to land on the moon.

The basic plotting of vectors using geopandas and contextily as well as the creation of interactive maps. — When working with real-world data, both raster (images) and vector (shapes), sooner or later you will want to visualize what you’re doing. Python makes this relatively simple, by creating static images and interactive maps that can display your output in an intuitive and appealing way. This blog covers basic plotting…

A tutorial to show the creative side of geospatial data for you to explore and integrate it into your own development or graphic design. — Today, all over Britain, Ordnance Survey’s (OS) geographical data is being used to support a multitude of private and public sector ecosystems, and a lot of this data (which is updated over 20,000 times a day!) is openly available and easy to access via the OS Data Hub APIs. …

How do we get people to actually use the package we’ve written? — Over the past month, our Rapid Prototyping Team has been adding new APIs to the osdatahub Python package; a tool for making geospatial data accessible to Python developers. …

Human Centred Design (HCD) is an approach to problem solving, which places an emphasis on the user. It stresses the importance of understating a problem from the perspective of the user and lays out a framework for making design decisions with this focus in mind. Our Rapid Prototyping Team follows an agile methodology. Typically, this means they’ll produce a Minimal Viable Product (MVP) and then improve it by iterating on stakeholder feedback. …

What exactly is the metaverse? Whilst the term may be somewhat nebulous to many, this article explores how geospatial data is used to bring this concept to the everyday. The metaverse combines both physical and virtual worlds, creating a new parallel reality that exists in real-time. It creates online environments, real-life interactive experiences and an extension of the real world, representing everything in space and time. Like the way we saw the convergence of social media and the internet…