This month saw Ordnance Survey reach a milestone as the 100th member joined the One Scotland Mapping Agreement (OSMA). NHS Shetland joined the agreement and also became the seventeenth Scottish health organisation to become a member.
“We are very pleased to have reached the 100th member milestone for the OSMA and warmly welcome NHS Shetland to the agreement. Effectively we now have all the major users of geographic intelligence within the agreement and this will allow us to strengthen our relationships across Scotland and facilitate the widespread use of our data.” said Dominic Cuthbert, Ordnance Survey’s OSMA Agreement Manager.
The OSMA launched in 2009 and represents an excellent example of cooperation between Scottish Government and Ordnance Survey, offering a wide range of mapping data to its members. It has led to many of the improved licensing terms we are now offering the rest of the public sector through the Public Sector Mapping Agreement (PSMA).
“The One Scotland Mapping Agreement will allow us to use geographic information to visualise data using maps, which will reveal relationships, patterns, and trends to help us monitor and evaluate the health of the people of Shetland in a more precise way” – Dr Sarah Taylor, Director of Public Health, NHS Shetland.
OSMA offers a common framework for joining up government policy and services for the citizen, reduces duplications and gives public–sector organisations the ability to make informed decisions, resulting in time and cost savings and efficiency improvements. Having all members under the same terms means there are no limits to sharing data between organisations, which includes sharing data with contractors and other parties who are working on a particular project.
And from 1 July 2011, all OSMA and PSMA members have been able to access the Ordnance Survey online service. This provides our public–sector customers with a single area that offers advice and guidance on their respective agreements as well as providing access to the new data ordering and download facilities. These service improvements have been extremely well received by members of the agreements.