We recently asked Deloitte to carry out a comprehensive study for us on the value of open data to our customers, users and to London overall.
Read our latest blog post to find out more about this.
Please also find the full report here.
I hope openness translates to more things, such as not relying so much in closed ecosystems.
Using TfL Planner is a nightmare because TfL uses Google to search for postcodes. Google doesn’t have ours. Postcodes are allocated by Royal Mail and our own (SW11 8DX) is correctly displayed in Royal Mail’s Postcode Finder. It is also correctly displayed in Ordnance Survey maps.
So we have a situation in a central location where a development with six buildings, hundreds of flats and thousands of residents is practically invisible. It’s impossible to get hold of someone at Google and mention the need to use reliable address data sources. Submitting feedback for months didn’t work.
It’s not only TfL, all other companies using Google maps should think twice.
Unrelated to TfL but I was in a similar situation in a new build in London and submitted my edits to Google through Google Maps, they were actioned impressively quickly.
Google have confirmed that Tim’s approach is the correct one to take to add new postcodes to Google Maps:
• Please check out the Help section to find out how to report an error on Maps
• Please follow these instructions if you want to make changes to a specific place or business