Ordnance Survey has offered an replace on its OS Knowledge Hub one 12 months after its preliminary launch on 1 July 2020.

OS Knowledge Hub supplies builders with the organisation’s famend open and premium mapping information by means of a set of APIs.

Charley Glynn, OS API Product Supervisor, mentioned:

“For these builders that will probably be trying to find a map API or an tackle API, they’re extra prone to land on our pages now and uncover the OS Knowledge Hub. It’s a a lot nicer store window as a result of when you land on the hub you possibly can shortly and simply see what is on the market and in addition learn the way to make use of it. 

Guests can signal as much as the OS Knowledge Hub inside minutes. They’ll create an API key, add an API, comply with the documentation and discover a code instance, then copy and paste that. From begin to end we’re speaking 5 to 10 minutes earlier than you’re up and working. That may be a large change for our customers and that matches the expectation of builders.” 

8,326 builders at the moment are signed up for the OS Knowledge Hub, a rise of greater than 600 % over the identical interval final 12 months. Between July 2020 and June 2021, the full variety of API transactions have exceeded 1.24 billion.

Over the previous 12 months, there’s been a 50 % enhance in like-for-like OS Open Knowledge downloads for the reason that hub went reside.

Each the private and non-private sectors have adopted the OS Knowledge Hub for his or her work.

Within the public sector, the NHS and London Ambulance Service used the info offered by means of Ordnance Survey’s platform to help their essential work in the course of the pandemic.

The London Ambulance Service used the OS Locations API to assist name handlers filter out the unprecedented volumes of 999 calls that it obtained from exterior its space. Using the API prevented the necessity to obtain enormous information and labored instantly.

NHS Digital, in the meantime, used the identical API to extra effectively seize the addresses of individuals requesting COVID-19 house testing kits.

“We now have had some very nice suggestions, particularly from the general public sector,” Charley added. “The OS Knowledge Hub has prolonged our sturdy and trusted relationship with customers throughout the general public sector and helped to develop using OS information and the worth it delivers.”

Within the non-public sector, information integration platform Iventis used the OS Vector Tile API to make use of 3D mapping and extruded constructing heights to seamlessly combine its personal 3D mannequin into the map.

SearchLand, a startup enabling the moment evaluation of historic and present market values for all property sorts in England, used the OS Maps API to create a map-based property and planning information device for builders, planners, architects, and traders.

Ordnance Survey plans to evolve the OS Knowledge Hub to satisfy future buyer calls for. In October, the organisation will launch its Downloads API for premium information.

“That will probably be for PSGA members and companion customers on the premium plan,” Charley commented. “They’ll automate their downloads of our premium information, and we consider that may be a huge timesaver and will help effectivity financial savings.”

“Folks I’ve spoken to lots are fairly enthusiastic about this improvement. Prospects have been requesting it for years.” 

Extra details about the OS Knowledge Hub platform and its suite of APIs is on the market right here. 

(Photograph by Adam Wilson on Unsplash)

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