Bob Barr OBE was in Edinburgh on Friday and delivered a lively run down of the issues concerning our address data in his talk “Address War 3 – a view from the battlefield”. Bob has had a lengthy career in the world of geographic information, and is a passionate voice in the debate (@DrBobBarr) over geographic information.

Address data at first seem unexciting; we all own an address and all manage (mostly) to have post delivered to the right location, but the industry of address locations is a multimillion pound industry with the Royal Mail, Ordnance Survey and the AA (to name but a few) fighting for the right to know where the location and address of all of the UK’s properties are.

Address data is crucial in understanding the social, economic and political “surface” of the UK and is crucial in research. Bob’s talk also looked at the wider influence and potential of open address data (not ignoring the need to keep some closed) as well as the success of OpenStreetMap and government initiatives to open up more geographic data.

The talk was part of a series hosted by EEO/AGI(S) which covers a wide range of topic concerning geographic information and science.  The series is held in the University of Edinburgh’s Institute of Geography on Drummond Street and will be back at the start of the 2013 academic year. The talks are always followed by AGI Geodrinks in the Library Bar and so the event is a great way to learn more and participate in geographic information.

For further information on the seminars, see http://www.geos.ed.ac.uk/research/eeo/seminars/