Corporate report

Geospatial Commission: Board of Commissioners meeting, 23 November 2021

Published 10 February 2022

Geospatial Commission: Board of Commissioners meeting, 23 November 2021

Google Meet/Queen Elizabeth House, 1 Sibbald Walk, Edinburgh EH8

09:00 to 11:00

Attendees

Commissioners: Bernard Silverman (Chair), Nigel Clifford, Thalia Baldwin, Kru Desai, Edwina Dunn,  Alex Notay,  Steve Unger, Stephen Lake (as Nominated Commissioner)

Commission Unit: Jamie Clark, Ros Goodfellow, Catherine Young (Minutes by: Liz Conn)

Observers: Albert King and Alan Corbett (Scotland), Dave Roberts (Wales) and Jim Lennon (Northern Ireland), Sarah Henry (ONS).

External Speaker: Dr Nadine Alameh

Apologies: Karen Hanghøj, Rosalind Goodfellow

1. Minutes and Matters Arising

1.1. The board welcomed Stephen Lake, Interim CEO and Chair at Ordnance Survey, and RAdm Peter Sparkes, CEO of UK Hydrographic Office, both of whom were representing the Nominated Commissioners in Karen Hanghøj’s and Steve Blair’s absence. The board also welcomed Alan Corbett, invited to attend as an observer as the meeting was hosted by the Scottish Government.

1.2. Bernard confirmed that the Partner Bodies have reviewed their Nominated Commissioner membership for the next calendar year, and that Karen Hanghøj and Peter Sparkes will be the Nominated Commissioners representing the Partner Bodies for the next twelve months.

1.3. The minutes of the September meeting were agreed and approved for publication.

1.4. No other matters were noted.

2. Report from the Nominated Commissioners

2.1. Stephen Lake gave a summary of the points raised at the Nominated Commissioners’ meeting on 18th November. The essence of the meeting was about better collaboration between the Partner Bodies to ensure they realise their full potential to help deliver government priorities, such as Levelling Up and Net Zero. To this end, there will be a Partner Body workshop at UKHO in 2022 on the theme of collaboration.

2.2. The Partner Bodies recognised the trends identified in the Commission’s report on the Data Ethics public dialogue and agreed that mobility data was the right focus for the project.

2.3. The Partner Bodies had valued the opportunity to summarise how they are delivering against each of the four Missions in the UK’s Geospatial Strategy. This was discussed further at Item 6 below.

2.4. The board noted that recent work between the Commission and the Partner Bodies, particularly at COP26 and at the Geospatial World Forum, had been productive and collaborative.

2.5. The Partner Bodies reiterated that each of them plays an international role so all, including the Geospatial Commission, would benefit from joining up on international engagement, considering joint opportunities and learning from each other when working internationally.

3. Report from the Director of the Commission

3.1. Thalia summarised activities and highlights across the Geospatial Commission during October and November, which included:

• the publication of a variety of blogs for Black History Month, including Supporting the next generation of black geographers and the Geospatial Scholarship Fund - a call to action from the geospatial industry; as well as a joint blog with BGS on data licensing;
• the Commission hosting a user conference for Public Sector Geospatial Agreement (PSGA) members, which was joined by over 300 people from a broad spread of sectors;
• progress on work to understand electric vehicle charge point data challenges, developing the Commission’s evidence gathering on wider transport location data opportunities;
• substantial collaborative activity for COP26, including the running of various sessions at the event. The team are looking forward to collaborating further around those topics in future;

4. Ethics Update

4.1. Callum Adams joined the meeting and gave an overview of the Commission’s location data ethics project, public engagement to date and emerging thinking from the results.

4.2. The board considered plans for the Commission’s publication of a report into the findings of the location data ethics Public Dialogue, along with the Commission’s plans to develop and publish guidance.

4.3. The board discussed the need for the Commission to help the public understand the uniqueness, and the benefits, of the use of location data in this context, as well as how the focus on location data adds value to existing government guidance about the ethical use of data.

4.4. It will be critical to raise awareness on this topic, to enable the public to make informed decisions about the use of their location data.

5. External speaker - Dr Nadine Alameh, CEO Open Geospatial Consortium

5.1. Dr Alameh joined the meeting and presented on the work of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), a collective problem-solving body convening the global community of geospatial experts and users to make location information Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR) via open consensus-based standards, collaborative innovation projects, and industry partnerships.

5.2. She spoke about the international geospatial scene, the OGC’s current focus and about future opportunities, as well as the positive perception of the Geospatial Commission in the international geospatial ecosystem and the relevance of the FAIR principles.

6. Partner Body Update on Meeting Geospatial Strategy Missions

6.1. Catherine Young introduced the update from the Partner Bodies which sets out the breadth of activity they do that contributes towards the four Geospatial Strategy missions. A significant amount of that work is around Mission 2: Improve access to better location data.

6.2. Peter Sparkes updated on behalf of the Partner Bodies, who had valued the exercise of mapping activity against the strategy. They hope that it will provide a useful baseline and help identify where and when they might best collaborate with one another and the Commission, coordinating activity to be greater than the sum of all parts.

6.3. Thalia confirmed that this work was a useful exercise refreshing what the Commission knows from its regular engagement with the Partner Bodies, and an important milestone in identifying collective future priorities.

7. Update on International Activity

7.1. Olivia Powell joined the meeting. Jamie Clark updated the board about work on the international geospatial service proposal.

7.2. The Commission’s international work is moving in the right direction and is currently at the stage of getting the best options as it forms its international strategy.

7.3. The board were happy with the proposed direction of travel and thanked the team for the comprehensive update.

8. Any Other Business

8.1. None noted.