Introducing More than Maps

Welcome to More than Maps - our new online self-serve platform designed to empower users with geospatial insights. This tool from OS's Consultancy & Technical Services team provides access to a wide range of tutorials, tools and easy-to-use resources helping you get the most value from our data, while developing your knowledge and expertise.

The online resource is served through the popular documentation-sharing platform, GitBook. It provides you with an accessible and user-friendly toolkit including cartographic and visualisation techniques, spanning the simple to the very complex.

The new platform is split into six easily navigable sections:

1. Geographic data visualisation

This section is about the power of visualisation. It breaks down the science of cartography into easily digestible chunks and looks at different methods for visualising data, providing useful guidelines to follow when creating your own. It also has some great resources for getting started with OS data.

2. Data in action

Data in Action is all about showing the ‘art of the possible.' How can geographical data be used and what can you do with this data that perhaps you did not know? It also provides real examples of how geographical data is being used to support a range of different topics.

3. Tutorials

Here you can find a great set of tutorials that help take users through step-by-step instructions on how to use geographic data for different scenarios or in different applications and software.

4. Deep dive

Deep Dive contains in-depth articles and discussions on common topics, providing narrative, code snippets, images, and interactive examples. They are industry focused and aimed at a more technical audience.

5. Demonstrators

Our demonstrators section is where you can access lightning talks on a variety of different topics. There is a wealth of great information here, served through digestible and accessible slide shows. A recent addition is our product demonstrator which allows users to preview OS data without having to download it first.

6. Code

This final section provides interactive code examples for getting started with OS content and services. This section is primarily aimed at the developer and data science communities across the public sector and the OS Licensed Partner channel.

More than Maps is a tool that fosters inclusivity and democratises access to a range of geographic information. It allows you to independently explore and retrieve information about geographic data and empowers individuals from diverse backgrounds, regardless of technical expertise or experience level.

The new platform also invites community contributions, engaging with passionate users who can report issues, suggest improvements, or even contribute content.

Do take a look and let us know what you think, or what content you might want to see added in the future. We have not just built More than Maps as a self-serve platform. We are helping foster a community.

Please send any feedback or ideas to geodataviz@os.uk