On Monday 4 July our OS OpenSpace application delivered its 1 billionth tile download, which is quite a milestone for the team.  The tiles are embedded in websites and applications, to create products services using our mapping data. Each time an application is opened a set of tiles are downloaded from our servers.

A tile of data is a square of a digital map with a size between 200 and 256 square pixels. Each OS OpenSpace map is displayed on your screen by joining multiple adjacent tiles.

OS Openspace was launched on January 31 2008, to enable developers to produce exciting and innovative ways of displaying information using our maps. On average there are over 1 million tile downloads per day.

Here are some of the applications that were active on the day:

The British Horse Society – Access Cornwall
This application displays a map of riding schools in Cornwall. There are also riding routes, with directions overlaid on the map scale of your choice.
View The British Horse Society Access Cornwall application >>

Mapnik
Mapnik’s application website which helps you to integrate mapping into a project you are working on. The application can be used on both desktop and web development View the Mapnik website >>

Fire Station Information
This website plots all the fire stations in Great Britain on our mapping. The application lists the station name, the active years and also allows you to upload photos of the station. View the Fire Station infomation website >>

Backpacking in Britain
With information about backpacking in the mountains and remote regions of the England, this site has lists of routes which you can sort by date and area, in the the ‘Trips & Photos’ section. Visit the Backpacking in Britain website >>

Herefordshire Association of Local Councils
A Herefordshire Association has put together an interactive map to help you find your local parish council, by overlaying their parish council data onto our mapping.
View the Herefordshire Association of Local Councils application >>

To find out more about uses of mapping data in applications, websites and how you can get involved, visit our OS OpenSpace pages on our website.

If you’ve already built a website or application using OS Openspace, we’d like to hear from you. Post a link and short description of your map application in the comments below.

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If you’re into innovative ways of using GI, you may like to visit the Geovation blog for innovative and exciting projects.

2 Responses to “OS OpenSpace – 1 billion tile downloads and counting!”

1. Open Mobile Map » All about tiles. says:

   31, July, 2011 at 6:28 am

   [...] Ordnance Survey recently announced that they had served the one billionth tile from their OS OpenSpace program. They continue: OS [...]

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2. All about tiles. | J2ME GPS says:

   12, August, 2011 at 5:12 pm

   [...] Ordnance Survey recently announced that they had served the one billionth tile from their OS OpenSpace program. They continue: OS [...]

   Reply