Dear Lis-mappers,

Herewith, a report on last week's OSDG's conference.



ORDNANCE SURVEY DIRECTOR GENERAL'S CONFERENCE
British Library: 9 December 1999

Tony Campbell and Nick Millea were the BRICMICS representatives at this 
meeting

The following is a brief resumé of the issues discussed at the OS Director 
General's conference on 9 December at the British Library. Given the 
resignation of Geoffrey Robinson in October, Acting Director General, David 
Willey (who many of you will recall from this year's BCS gathering in 
Glasgow), chaired the meeting.


***Director General's report
+ Geoff Robinson resigned on 22 October, which was "as sudden to OS as it 
was to anyone else". David Willey stressed there was nothing more to the 
story than had already appeared in the press releases. Geoff Robinson did 
feel that his own personal involvement was damaging OS' relationship with 
the local authorities, therefore he chose to step aside from negotiations 
and allow others to take over. Many in OS did not consider this to be a 
resignation issue. In the meantime, negotiations with the local authorities 
are continuing. OS were "disappointed, surprised and shocked" by the 
Robinson departure, but were keen to stress that OS as an organisation was 
bigger than the resignation.

+ OS now has a new Minister, Beverley Hughes, MP for Stretford and Urmston, 
who will decide how to fill the post of Director General. Possibilities 
include appointing the Acting DG, a direct appointment, or recruitment 
(which would mean an appointment no sooner than Easter). In the meantime, 
OS strategy remains unaltered - they will take forward the Robinson reforms.

+ OS became a Trading Fund, and the National Interest in Mapping Service 
agreement (NIMSA) was operational from 1 April. Thus OS has a greater 
degree of ownership of its own future destiny. OS is confident of a 
reasonably successful year, though they may not achieve their £83.4m 
revenue target.

+ OS's business strategy is concentrating on maximising the benefits of use 
of OS data. They are aware of perceived high prices of their data, and that 
they have not been seen as the easiest of organisations to deal with, 
therefore the September announcement and November implementation of 
significant price cuts to small scale datasets were made. OS are also 
considering what they may be able to do on the pricing side with their 
large scale datasets (75% of their market) - they anticipate a lengthy 
consultation period. OS' implementation of its "joined-up geography" vision 
will be ready for discussion in February. OS are keen to seek the views of 
others, and value consultation very highly. OS is looking to simplify its 
selling/copyright/licencing procedures: the new policy aims to be based on 
"the answer is Yes, now what was the question" outlook.

+ "N" Projects - OS' attempts at "joined-up government". Problems have 
occurred with different intellectual property copyright regimes, for 
example, between central and local government, a difficulty OS wishes to 
overcome. It was stated that OS is no longer working in "vertical silos", 
but now in partnership within Government, customers requiring the 
"one-stop-shop" level of service. A new post to be filled by Nick Land has 
been established to enable OS to draw up implementation plans for 
"joined-up geography" [very much a Robinsonian project].  

+ On devolution, OS has recognised the need for a stronger presence in 
Scotland and Wales, with operations specifically beefed-up in Scotland, and 
Wales "on stream". However, as OS is a "reserved power" for the whole of 
Great Britain, its remit is therefore that of a national institution.    

+ Regarding paper products, OS has conducted a review and paper products 
will continue as a key part of production, but there are no immediate plans 
for price revision. The RGS/Education consultative committee pointed out 
that the Education community perceives a major division between 1:10,000 
and the larger scales, while OS shifts this divide to the 1:10,000 / 
1:25,000 gap. There was a call for a Landplan price cut.


***Reports from the committees
+ NJUG asked for consistent indexing of datasets.

+ RGS/Education welcomed OS' shift in emphasis towards maximising usage.

+ BRICMICS: The issue of future deposit was addressed, explaining that the 
legal deposit libraries are almost at the point of making large scale 
digital mapping available for consultation. The request for the addition of 
the LandForm Profile dataset was confirmed. OS were invited to produce an 
Information Paper on date stamping in LandLine. It was agreed that BRICMICS 
should seek to identify a suitable LAOSC representative ourselves. [Should 
anyone have any suggestions, please forward them to Anne Taylor 
([log in to unmask])]. 

+ CCPR asked whether disclaimers printed on maps were still necessary,

+ SCPMU were keen to see the legal deposit libraries arrangement nearing 
conclusion.

+ LAOSC reported that the local authorities and OS were still working 
closely together despite recent difficulties, their service level agreement 
still running smoothly. David Willey endorsed the strength of this 
relationship from OS' side. RGS/Education noted that the local authorities 
service level agreement does not include historic map data - i.e. 
Landmark's scanned images - which would be useful to schools. 

+ Terry Coppock (representing himself) asked why OS consultation papers 
seem to have policy set in stone, and therefore any consultation is 
seemingly too late.


***Date of next meeting
Friday 19 May 2000 at Millbank.   


Nick Millea
16 December 1999 

________________________________________________________

Nick Millea
Map Librarian, Bodleian Library, Broad Street, Oxford, OX1 3BG
tel       : 01865 277013
fax      : 01865 277139
email : [log in to unmask]

homepage: http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/guides/maps/
________________________________________________________



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