The views in this document reflect the author's synthesis of material available in the public domain or that which has been presented as evidence to the author during the consultation process and as a result of the NGDF AC review of the draft Consultative document version C1.0. The views expressed reflect a wide range of opinion within the NGDF Advisory Council, the AGI and the geospatial information processing community but should not necessarily be taken as an expression of formal NGDF policy.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the NGDF Advisory Council and the Association for Geographic Information.
1.1 Introduction
The National Geospatial Data Framework (NGDF) initiative was established in the winter of 1996/97 when the NGDF Board and the NGDF Advisory Council were established.
"NGDF is a national forum of data providers and data users seeking to facilitate and encourage widespread use of geospatial data which is 'fit for purpose'. Its objectives are to encourage :-
The NGDF Board comprises of representatives of organisations that make a direct investment either in money or kind in the implementation of the NGDF. The NGDF Advisory Council is an elected body from the data user community. The Chair of the Advisory Council is appointed by the Association for Geographic Information (AGI). The post of the NGDF Advisory Council Secretary General is currently funded by the AGI. In summary the Board represents the Data Providers and the Advisory Council represents the Data Users.
From the outset the NGDF Advisory Council have been concerned that the NGDF Board was not addressing the political, economic and social issues related to the "unlocking of data", especially those related to government policy, price, copyright, liability and data protection.
The NGDF Board at its meeting on the 13th May 1997 considered the suggestion from the NGDF Advisory Council that a Data Pricing working group should be established. The NGDF Board concluded that data pricing was not an issue that should be undertaken by the NGDF Board or the NGDF Working Groups. The basis for this conclusion was that many of the Data Providers participating in the NGDF initiative were from the government sector, which if they were to become involved in the data pricing issue, would either compromise the organisation they represented, or their position as servants of the Crown.
The NGDF Advisory Council at its meeting on the 19th June 1997 considered the NGDF Boards decision. The NGDF Advisory Council concluded that data pricing was a key issue within the NGDF initiative and agreed that, as the NGDF Board did not wish to address the pricing issue at the current time, then the Advisory Council should. The NGDF Advisory Council meeting on the 16th October 1997 considered the terms of reference for a Data Pricing study and agreed to commission such a study under the auspices of the NGDF Advisory Council Secretary General.
The NGDF Advisory Council is not the only body that considers the data pricing issue is of paramount importance with regard to 'unlocking data'. The European Community DG XIII/E report "Study on Policy Issues Relating to Geographic Information in Europe"46 which was published in June 1997 concluded that the issues of Copyright, Data Quality and Access to Geographic Data were of the highest priority and to be fundamental to a European Information Policy.
1.2 The pricing study
The study which is being undertaken in three phases considers the pricing issue in the widest context. Price issues are inextricably entwined with all aspects of the data "quality" including availability, accessibility, currency, accuracy, packaging, etc. and in many cases are the only symptom that customers of the geospatial data industry recognise.
This document represents the output from phase 1 of the pricing study. This document has undergone a review process during the period December 1997 through to February 1998 by the NGDF Advisory Council and reflects the outcome of this review process.
The aim of this document is to stimulate debate and discussion on the key factors that influence the end users perception of value for money with regard to geospatial data in the UK. Understanding the impediments where they exist to business growth and good government as a result of current pricing and quality mechanisms can only be achieved through a wider understanding of the issues and theory involved, in order to enable an informed debate to take place. If this publication stimulates this process then it will have served its purpose.
1.3 The Issues
The price of geospatial data continues to be the priority concern of the geospatial data user community both within the UK and throughout most of the world.
The data pricing issues raised by a broad spectrum of GI users can be summarised as :
1.4 Conclusion
Phase 1 of this pricing study has been under taken at a time of unprecedented review within Government at all levels. Within the UK the new administration is actively consulting the UK citizen and interested parties via green papers and proposing new legislation and/or guidelines. Within the European Community reviews are under way with regard to the implementation of current Directives and considering the possibility of a Right to Know Act. At a global level the United Nations is actively promoting improved access to information especially that related to the environment.
The rapid development and take up of technologies such as the world wide web are acting as a catalyst to change with regards to access to data and information. The world wide web has demonstrated the ease by which data and information can be accessed and delivered. As a result the implication that browsing on a screen is no different to browsing of a conventional document has raised the question as to why these two delivery mediums should be treated differently when making the data and information available. The world wide web also makes it much easier for Customers to communicate with each other and share information.64
The growing world wide concern about the planets environment which is fundamental to mankind's existence on the planet is also fueling the debate on the collection, availability, and quality of data and the dissemination of information. The implementation of the Freedom of Access to Information on the Environment Directive within the European Community has exposed the difficulties and differences that government departments, and agencies have when complying with such legislation.
UK initiatives such as the Land Information Systems, the Small Area Health Statistics Unit, to name but two have highlighted the benefits to be gained from one stop access to a wide plethora of data. However the widespread implementation of such systems is dependent on resolving issues related to data pricing and how the income that is derived is shared out amongst the data providers participating.
Phase 1 of the study has collated - in this document; a broad set of information which when combined indicates that price of data is a real issue and not an imaginary one. Specific examples of where price of data is impeding the exploitation of data in particular application domains have come to light. It is expected that this portfolio of case studies would grow considerably if an depth survey of all the parties involved in GI data was to be undertaken, which is Phase 2 of this study. If infrastructure initiatives such as the NGDF, GSDI etc. are to bring the benefits expected then data pricing must be addressed.
1.5 Recommendations
It is recommended that the NGDF Advisory Council :
(a) accepts this working document as an NGDF AC document and that the document be further enhanced as part of Phase 2 of the study.
(b) that a detailed survey of the GI Data sector is under taken to seek out case studies where price of data is an impediment, and the results collated and submitted to the NGDF AC. The time frame for completing Phase 2 is six to eight months.
(c) approves the distribution of this Phase 1 document as determined by the NGDF Advisory Council Secretary General for the specific purpose of raising the awareness of the data pricing issue and especially as an aid to those parties that will be involved in the detailed survey to gain an understanding of what the NGDF Advisory Council means by the term data pricing.
The Terms of Reference for the complete study are detailed at Appendix A of this document. The study has been divided into three phases as shown in the diagram below. The advantages of approaching the study in phases are :
Pricing Study
Inputs: Research of information in the public Phase 1 Review and document
domain. the current position
Outputs: Base line report TOR's 1 to 4
Inputs: Baseline report & Questionnaire Phase 2 Conduct a survey of both the Outputs: Interim Report which tabulates the data users and data providers
questionnaires & updates the base TOR's 4 to 5 line report
Inputs: Interim report Phase 3 Review the survey, examine Outputs: Final report alternative pricing policies and
TOR's 6 to 9 make recommendations
2.1 Phase 1 - document structure
The structure of this phase 1 document is shown in diagrammatic form below. The content and objective of each section is as follows :
Section 3 : sets the back ground from which the study has been undertaken.
Section 4 : briefly considers the theory of Customer Perception of price and its relationship to fitness-for-purpose.
Section 5 : briefly considers the various pricing structures used both here in the UK and across the world.
Sections 6 and 7 : puts the study into context of recent history (past 25 years) within the UK, Europe and the wider International scene. The main purpose of this is to highlight that a large number of people - both from the public and private sector, have worked together towards improving the availability, quality, and price of data. The historical review has been included as it provides an indication of the time scales involved and the rate that cultural changes occur, (Note: Cultural changes move slower than the technology) and to ensure that the way forward is built upon what has gone before.
Section 8 : reviews the data Users perspective and their contribution over recent times to specify and encourage data providers to computerise their data sets.
Sections 9 to 12 : documents key data and information providers within the UK. This section provides factual information and indirectly shows the constraints that different data providers may be operating within.
Section 13 : provides case study material - which has either been submitted or located to date, and factual evidence to demonstrate the impact that price has on the data user and the related issue of fitness-for-purpose.
Section 14 : briefly summarises the previous sections and makes recommendations for the subsequent stages of the study.
The appendices contain supporting material and references.
The Document - Phase 1
Section Setting the scene Introduction 3 Pricing, Marketing The Theory 4 & fitness-for-purpose Possible pricing systems Pricing Structures 5 UK 6 Putting it into perspective International 7 The Data User Groupings Users 8 Government 9 Private 10 The Data & Information providers Added Value 11 Information 12 The impact Case Studies 13 Summing up Summary & recommendations 14 Supporting Information Appendices
The following case studies have been recorded either directly from submissions to the NGDF AC Secretary General or via literature research. The purpose of these case studies is not to highlight any one data supplier but to demonstrate that the price and 'fitness-for-purpose' are a wide spread issue which results in an enormous waste of effort across the country.
13.1 West Midlands Cancer Intelligence Unit
Letter received from Ralph Smith, GIS Project Officer, dated 20th October 1997
Extract
"Cancer registries have a deal with ONS where they get the NHS Postcode directory (NHSPD) at no cost. However this postcode resource has grid references accurate to 100m. This has been adequate in the past where the major use of the NHSPD has been to locate people in District Health Authorities, usually for financial purposes. With GIS technology being increasingly used in the healthcare industry in areas such as epidemiology, resource allocation and environmental health, we are in increasing need for more spatially accurate postcode to grid reference lookup tables.
I have made enquiries with Ordnance Survey concerning two of their products that pertain to postcodes. AddressPoint is heralded as the most accurate and the cost to cover the West Midlands Health Region would be 17,000+. (the quote is about 2 years old). I was interested in the Ordnance Surveys recent DataPoint, however this is £3500 for national cover with no subsets available. As part of the NHS we are willing to pay for products but we could never afford AddressPoint and find the way DataPoint is sold very restrictive.
We will carry on using the NHSPD but the restrictions to more spatially accurate data do have serious connotations for the work we are pursuing in epidemiology and environmental health."
Summary
Organisation Ordnance Survey
(GB)
Data Set AddressPoint
DataPoint
Issue Price
Restrictions
13.2 Friends of the Earth
Article 'Behind the green door' Mapping Awareness December 1997 Vol 11 No. 10, pages 28 & 29
Authors : Susan Pipes and Frances Maguire
Extract
"There are examples of pricing issues being successfully addressed. English Nature reduced its exorbitant fee of £22,103 for producing Sites of Special Scientific Interest boundaries to £227"
This example although resolved delayed the implementation of the FOE SSSI www 'wildplaces' information service to the general public.
Summary Organisation English Nature Data Set SSSI Boundaries Issue Price
13.3 Property Information Mall
The Shop Agents Society Committee report on the usrn http://propertymall.com/sas/cimitie/osov.html
Author S.L. Donald, Chairman
Extract
"You will recall some time ago I undertook a small survey and many of you revealed the exact number of Goad plan extracts that you do or might copy, if they were cheap or free and I guaranteed confidentiality. The digest of the responses was given to Ordnance Survey and they have said that whilst a general picture for our business has emerged, it is enough for them to substantiate a distinct licensing position - whatever that means.
They say that "so far you and your members have been highly critical of our Royalty rates, but the detailed information we need to seriously consider the matter has not been forthcoming. All we have been given is rough estimates from a straw poll of 50 members, which we are not allowed to see firsthand". They will not propose changes on the basis of hearsay, or estimates, which is exactly what I though they did anyway.
Unless Goad change their mapping base to something other than OS sourced materials, we will have to continue paying their charges of 36p per A4 copy, which is reduced to 9p per copy if you have paid Charles Goad's annual licence fee.
Many of us have already given Ordnance Survey estimates of usage and one way of reducing your costs may well be to utilize A5 extracts, or alternatively draw ones own plans.
We are investigating an alternative to Goads that can be produced on computer with the names of retailers typewritten, so that any changes will be the same rather than hand written over tipp-ex, with the idea that these would be available over the Internet. Unfortunately, despite architects apparently having little work and many being unemployed we still have yet to find a willing candidate on which to experiment."
Summary
Organisation Ordnance Survey
(GB)
Charles Goad
Issue Copyright Charges
13.4 Fife Council
Article Addressing problems, Mapping Awareness December 1997 Vol 11 No. 10, pages 31 & 32
Authors : Steve Harrison & Linda Robertson
Extract
"..during the project, we found some serious anomalies in OSAP:
By manually comparing ADDRESS-POINT with our existing databases, we were able to highlight data which was incorrect, replace it with our own data and report it to OS. OS responded by resupplying the dataset but with the highlighted addresses no longer marked as quality assured."
Organisation Ordnance Survey (GB)
Royal Mail
Issue Accuracy
Content
Quality
Cost of Editing
prior to use
ongoing maintenance
costs.
13.5 AGI Presentation to Parliamentarians - Laser-Scan provided example
The AGI during the period September to November 1997 assembled a presentation for parliamentarians. The presentation used input from a variety of sources. A number of different examples were used. One of which was a simple demographic application to bring out points related to single parents, unemployment and school performance and other related issues within a post code sector context.
Laser-Scan using data provided by Geoplan created the analysis required. The data used and the equivalent price if it was to be purchased was as follows :
AGI PITCOM Presentation - Laser-Scan demo (Geoplans
contribution to the event)
Description Geoplan Geoplan Update
Product List Price
Ref. Price p.a.
1:5000 County and Unitary OSCOD11207 £2,500 £625.00
Boundaries
Geoplan Postcode Sector GESEBD2022 £3,250 £812.50
Boundaries
Detailed Census Postcode ONDETC2522 £1,600 -
Sector data
Lone Parents Postcode ONLONE2522 £650 -
Sector Data
OS Meridian single user £9,950 -
licence
Total £17,950 £1,437.50
Before the data was usable a days effort had to be expended in order to make the data usable which is both expensive and unnecessary.
An example of the editing required was the Royal Mail PAF data and the Geoplan postcode sector boundary name data had to be aligned :
Royal Mail Geoplan Notes
Postcode Postcode
sector
boundary name
SL1 Sl 1 Boundary name contains
a space between the L
and the 1
SL2 SL 2
SL3 SL 3
SL9 Sl 9
SL10 SL10
W1 W 1 Boundary name contains
two spaces between the
W and the 1
W2 W 2
The overall cost of the exercise in real terms was high which in essence should have been a very simple exercise. It is doubtful whether many end users could either afford the data or the time and effort to massage the data to make it ready for use, assuming they had the technical skills available to understand the problem.
Summary
Organisation: GeoPlan
Royal Mail
Issue Incompatible
Price of data
Cost of Editing
prior to use ongoing
maintenance costs.
13.6 RICS 1997 Survey of Surveyors - Case Studies
Source : An RICS analysis of the survey that the RICS undertook in 1997 with regard to Surveyors use of OS mapping. Dated 12th December 1997.
"The RICS survey indicates the impact a possible Service Level Agreement (SLA) with the Ordnance Survey would have on Chartered Surveyors. The SLA uses the definition that "mapping would be available more easily, with simplified copyright and at a reduced price."
Firm One - General Practice Chartered surveyors (over 20 employed)
30 chartered surveyors providing management services in the construction, industrial development and commercial property markets. Spends £4,500 each year on hundreds of Superplan plots and some Superplan data. Only a third of current use is classed as internal business use - many maps are published in reports, location plans, etc. Under the SLA would want to buy the whole country, but only access mapping as and when needed for projects.
Firm Two - General Practice Chartered surveyors (over 20 employed)
Employing 1,200 chartered surveyors, working mainly in industrial property, providing, in equal proportions, management services, professional services and agency and auctioning. Spends £50,000 a year on mapping - 95% with Promap - the rest is Superplan plots. Only 5% of current use is classed as internal business use - 60% publishing in reports and 35% publishing as part of property particulars etc. Would move to a full digital mapping system under an SLA.
Firm Three - General Practice Chartered surveyors (between 5 to 20 employed)
Spends £3,000 a year with Promap, mainly of urban areas, for fifty-fifty internal business use and publishing in reports. Would spend an extra £1,500 a year under the SLA acquiring mapping of its region, on a project-by-project basis.
Firm Four - General Practice Chartered surveyors (upto 5 employed)
A firm employing 4 chartered surveyors, working on residential and rural property - agency and auctioning accounts for half the business, the rest split equally between management and professional services. Currently spends around £1,000 a year on Superplan plots, but is still using a significant number of maps from the 1960s and 1970s. Maps are used for internal business purposes 45% of the time, and published in reports (45%) or particulars (10%). Under the SLA they would buy digital data of their whole county, as and when the need arose.
Firm Five - General Practice Chartered surveyors (upto 5 employed)
Working on residential and commercial property agency and auctioning (over 95% of the business) - using Superplan plots, but paying the bare minimum licence fee. Over 80% of the maps are copied for property particulars for agency or auctioning purposes. Under the SLA the firm would start buying digital data, spending twice as much as it currently does.
Firm Six - Rural Practice Chartered surveyors (over 20 employed)
A firm employing 100 chartered surveyors, working in all aspects of rural property - 50% managing estates, 30% providing professional services and 10% agency and auctioning. Spends £5,000 a year on Promap, and another £5,000 on Superplan plots. Only 10% for internal business use, the rest for publishing in reports (65%) or in particulars etc. (25%). Under the SLA would move to digital data, and buy the whole of the country on a one-off basis, at least doubling its current map holding.
Firm Seven - Rural Practice Chartered surveyors (over 20 employed)
A firm employing over 30 chartered surveyors working in the rural market: 60% from estate management, and 20% each between professional services and agency and auctioning. Between 1996 and the end of 1998 will have spent £35,000 on mapping, including 150 rural Land-Line tiles on NTF and 1:10,000 raster. Also purchases around 25 Superplan plots each year. Only 25% of the mapping is currently used for internal business use, and 60% published in reports and 15% as part of particulars. Under the SLA would extend this map holding to the whole of the region.
Firm eight - Rural Practice Chartered surveyors (upto 5 employed)
2 chartered surveyors working in rural, residential and commercial property. Over three quarters of the turnover is generated by management services, with the rest coming from professional services. Holds 260 tiles of Land-Line data, spending £1,000 on mapping each year. Over 80% of this mapping is used for internal business purposes, with 20% being published in reports. Under the SLA the annual spending on mapping would increase five times over, with the firm purchasing mapping of its whole county on a one-off basis.
Firm Nine - Rural Practice Chartered surveyors (upto 5 employed)
A firm of 4 chartered surveyors, working on rural property - 80% of turnover is derived from management services, the remainder equally split between professional services and agency work. Spends £1,500 each year on Superplan plots, which are used in the main for internal management purposes (20% used to publish, half in reports, half in particulars). Under the SLA would move towards digital data in DXF format, buying its county at once - increasing its current map holdings by 75%.
Firm Ten - Rural Practice Chartered surveyors (upto 5 employed)
A sole rural practitioner, deriving all income from managing rural land and spending between £2,000 and £3,000 each year on renting approximately 75 rural DXF Land-Line tiles and purchasing some paper products. 80% of map use is internal, but some 20% is publishing maps as part of reports, legal documents etc. Would expect spending under the SLA to stay the same or drop, but would try to obtain more maps as the price would be lower - some 25% more than it currently holds."
Summary Organisation Ordnance Survey (GB) Issue Price of data
13.7 Letter to NGDF SG Nick Fickling
Source : The following facsimile letter dated 1st February 1998 received from NGDF SG. Company wishes its name to be with held at the current time.
"Company X has a long standing difference of opinion with Ordnance Survey which rests on the commercial difficulties created by the licencing policy and its knock on effect on system costs.
The Company has always focussed on the value of information at the point of decision and this frequently means only one or two users who need electronic mapping.
Ordnance Survey link data supply to operator licences and the minimum number of users is 50 within an organisation. It follows that for small organisations, a crippling premium has to be paid. The Company has raised the issue many times with possible alternatives but has always been rebuffed.
A related issue is the reward the Company would reasonably expect for promoting the sale of Ordnance Survey data. The central commercial practice of commission for intermediaries is rejected by Ordnance Survey thus dramatically pruning the cashflow and profitability of selling GIS solutions.
For many of the Company markets there is no alternative to Ordnance Survey data and in the commercial sector without any special deals, business is continually lost on price. This monopoly condition is very damaging and impossible to challenge by a small Company, however innovative it might be.
Even for organisations as large as British Transport Police the costs quoted have stalled progress. the irony is that having contributed all the groundwork, a large competitor with a special relationship and advantageous terms may come along and steal the fruits from under our nose.
These comments have been expressed to the Director General with no success."
Organisation Ordnance Survey (GB)
Issue VAR licencing
Crown copyright
13.8 BT - Phone Disc
Source: The following item has been copied from the New Scientist Magazine 7 March 1998 No 2124 ISSN 0262 4079, page 100 in the Feedback column.
BT has been onto a nice little earner with Phone Disc, a CD-ROM that stores all listed telephone numbers in Britain, but costs at least £200, only runs on one PC and only works for a year.
CD-ROMs now cost less that 30p to press and last year Oftel, Britain's telecoms watchdog, pledged to crack BT's monopoly and allow competition, BT responded by leaving Phone Disc at the same price for 1998 and putting up the price of phoning Directory Enquiries.
So feedback was thrilled when a magazine called PC Format (£4.99) gave away a free CD-ROM called UK-Info that stores "a staggering 42 million surnames, initials and street names, plus phone numbers for virtually every UK citizen".
We gladly paid the fiver and installed the disc on a Windows PC. It seemed to work smoothly, but when we searched for some names we knew were not ex-directory, UK-Info denied their existence, or gave no phone number.
The disc gave two helpline numbers. One was constantly engaged. The other rang and rang, before answering with voicemail. We left a message but did not hear back. An e-mail produced no useful reply either.
But the disc comes with a helpful piece of paper. This offers users the chance to upgrade to the "Pro" version of UK-Info for a special price of around £180.
It looks as if BT can go on raking in the profits on Phone Discs for a little longer.
Organisation BT
UK-Info
Issue Price of Data
Customer Service
Appendix A
Terms of Reference
1 To research and report to the NGDF Advisory Council the impact or otherwise of the effect that the price of geospatial data has had on the exploitation of geospatially related data within the UK, but set into a European and world wide context. The research/review to take an holistic (systems) approach to the issue of data pricing including the linked issues of data quality, availability and access.
Phase 1 Complete TOR's 1 to 3 and part 4 by issueing an Initial Consultative document by December 1997
Phase 2 Complete TOR complete 4 and 5 subject to AC approval of Phase 1;
Phase 3 Complete TOR's 6 to 9 upon completion of Phase 2.
2 To review the price equation for data products in relation to data quality, availability and accessibility for :
in both the pre electronic age and the electronic age.
3 To review the pricing regimes available to organisations when marketing/selling data products.
4 To locate and report on case studies where the price of data has been an impediment to the citizen, business and good government through its limiting :
5 To analyse the perception that different data users have of data pricing. The categories to be considered shall include :
6 To audit and test the findings found with a wide range of :
7 To examine alternative pricing policies which could be adopted where current data pricing policy has been found to impede business development by affecting the ease of exploitation of :
8 To review the impact that the price of geospatial data within the UK may have on the ability of UK business to compete in the world markets without changes occurring in the current system.
9 To comment on what those changes are.