[Bradford] Ordnance survey get-a-map and silverlight

[Bernard Czenkusz]

Hi all,

I was recently dismayed when connecting to Ordnance survey get-a-map to
find it required the Silverlight plug in.  I sent an email to them, and
have just received the following reply:  You  may find it interesting.

  Cheers,

     Bernie

-----------------

>From CustomerServices at ordnancesurvey.co.uk

Dear Mr Czenkusz,

Thank you for your email.

As you may know many websites use plug-ins from various companies to
provide a richer web experience. There are many such plug-ins available,
for instance Flash (from Adobe) or indeed Silverlight (from Microsoft).
However as with any program it is always unlikely that the plug-ins will
be compatible with every variation of computer, operating system or
browser. 

Silverlight works on various Windows operating systems including Windows
XP, Vista and 7 as well as Mac's (OS X 10.4.11+) and most popular
browsers. Microsoft's requirements for Silverlight can be seen on the
link below on the system requirements tab - 

http://www.microsoft.com/getsilverlight/Get-Started/Install/Default.aspx 

Ordnance Survey chose to use Silverlight as it provides a unique user
experience on the web and, importantly, has a deep zoom feature which
allows customers to keep zooming in on the map without distorting it.
Our research shows that around 80% of visitors to the site already have
Silverlight installed and, of those who do not, nearly all can
successfully install it. 

I am sorry if you are unable to access the new getamap service;
unfortunately in providing a rich web experience such choices do
sometimes have to be made. However we are continuing to develop getamap
and it may become possible to make it available for more operating
systems or browsers in the future. 

Lastly, you may be interested to learn that the old Get-a-map service is
still available from the link below: 

http://getamap.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/getamap/frames.htm 

I trust you will find this helpful.

Regards

Mrs Janet Keep

Customer Service Advisor

Customer Services, Ordnance Survey 

Adanac Drive, SOUTHAMPTON, United Kingdom, SO16 0AS 

Phone: +44 (0)8456 050505  | Fax: +44 (0)8450 990494 

http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/ | customerservices at ordnancesurvey.co.uk 

Please consider your environmental responsibility before printing this
email.


-----Original Message-----
From: Bernard Czenkusz [mailto:bernie at skipole.co.uk] 
Sent: 23 April 2011 22:03
To: Open Data; Customer Services
Subject: Changes to get a map service

Very disappointed in the new get a map service.  I use Linux/firefox,
and was saddened to see the requirement for a Microsoft plug in
(proprietary and from a non-uk company) .

I tried the silverlight download, which directed me to the Linux mono
version, and which seemed to install ok on my Firefox browser, but I now
get a blank screen when going to get-a-map.

For your info: I'm using Firefox 3.6.15 on Ubuntu 10.04

What is wrong with a standards based system? The word 'opendata' surely
implies 'open' as in as standard as possible. To require a plug-in,
which was previously not necessary is a backward step.

Do you have any links to the previous system which worked perfectly?

Please consider this email as a complaint and a request for a fully
open, and truly standards-based method for accessing the map data.

Regards

Bernard czenkusz

bernie at skipole.co.uk