WIREDGOV

From this week, Ordnance Survey staff across the country will be using the social networking site Twitter to provide live updates as they map the ever changing Great British landscape.

Anyone interested in maps, geography and the vital role they play underpinning daily life is invited to follow their updates to learn more about the extraordinary range of work they do every day.

Working in a range of roles, from surveyors mapping the outer reaches of Scotland and inner city London, to a member of Ordnance Survey’s Flying Unit, each will be tweeting as they go about their work and providing an insight into modern map making.

As the national mapping agency for Great Britain, Ordnance Survey data is relied on by government, businesses and individuals everyday. Everything from planning local bus routes, emergency service response, fraud detection and the digital switchover is underpinned by geographic data.

As such, Ordnance Survey makes some 5,000 changes each day to the national master map and thanks to the work of its 300 surveyors and an extensive aerial photography programme, significant changes are ‘on the map’ within six weeks of them appearing.

Surveyors on the ground make use the latest GPS satellite technology, accurate to just a few centimetres, to captures changes – from the latest developments at the Olympic Park to a new visitor centre on the peak of Snowdon.

All Ordnance Survey’s new tweeters can be followed as usual by Twitter members, but their location enabled tweets can also be viewed on a special interactive map built using the mapping agency’s web mapping API, OS OpenSpace. The map allows users to easily see where each person is working and gives their location to within a few tens of metres.

The Ordnance Survey Twitter map can be viewed here: www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/twittermap

List of individual accounts:

@OS_Kimberley – administrator in the Cambridge area

@OS_Ashleigh – surveyor in south west Wales

@OS_learning – learning and development consultant at head office

@OS_Dom – surveyor in the Cotswolds area

@OS_matt – surveyor in the Norfolk area

@OS_Doug – surveyor in Moray and north Aberdeenshire

@OS_Biggles – member of our Flying Unit

@OS_mickgwyn – surveyor in north Wales

@OS_Jez – surveyor in the Norfolk area

@OS_markmyworlds – surveyor in the West Midlands

@OS_Matthew – quality assurance on imagery and height data at head office

@OSRemoteSensing – technician at head office

@OS_phil – surveyor in the London area

@OS_mickup – surveyor in north Oxfordshire

@OS_georgeqa – quality assurance on imagery data at head office

@OS__David – surveyor in Perth and Kinross

Head of Corporate Communications – Rob Andrews

Press Office fax: (+44) 023 8005 6156