Three-quarters of what Ordnance Survey Ireland generates and sells these days is digital information, writes Karlin Lillington.

Think Ordnance Survey, and you will undoubtedly think maps - those creased, quaint old tan and green paper maps stuffed into glove compartments across the country.

Well, think again. Ordnance Survey Ireland has evolved - and not just into the abbreviated OSi (with a trendy small 'i'). A lot has been happening within its building in the Phoenix Park according to new chief executive Geraldine Ruane, and there's plenty more to come as an institution founded by the British to map, name and anglicise its neighbouring colony, turns increasingly digital and commercial.

These days, only about 25 per cent of the OSi's output is paper maps. Three-quarters of what it generates and sells is digital information.

The fact that the OSi is now, in the person of Ruane, run by someone from a business background rather than the military, or from within the semi-State's ranks, says much about how the OSi is moving towards a more commercial, self-supporting status.

"OSi was set up in 2002 as a State body with a remit to support the public interest and develop a commercial focus," she says. "It is responsible for up-to-date digital mapping databases for the entire State, regardless of the density of population or the rate of change of the landscape in any area."

She notes that mapping in some areas is uneconomic and, therefore, the State provides a subsidy based on a service agreement to maintain the database throughout the country.

"However, OSi, through the development of its services, currently recovers about 76 per cent of its costs," a figure that has gradually grown since 2002.

Speaking at a recent briefing for local authorities - key users of geographical information and, going by audience response, very eager to have more digital information available to them - Ruane noted that, while the OSi still made use of its legacy mapping (old-style map data), technology was now to the fore.

As a result, today's maps of Ireland are far more accurate. Instead of people going out with handheld tools to measure topography and the shapes of cities, towns and villages, maps are generated using digital satellite (GPS) data, aerial laser surveying with Lidar (Light Detection and Ranging - a system of gathering topographical data using a laser beam, which the OSi started using two years ago), and raster and vector techniques for displaying information instead of hand drafting.

Lidar, which involves sending very fast laser pulses down towards the earth from a survey plane, is extremely accurate, as both Ruane and keynote speaker Vanessa Lawrence, director of Britain's Ordnance Survey, noted - down to six inches, which is better than satellite accuracy.

But that basic topographical information is only the start of what modern mapping is all about. Once you map other data sets to topographical maps, you get very rich representations of a geographical area that can be used for many different purposes.

For example, Lawrence noted how a map of an area of London can integrate GPS, architectural plans for individual buildings, traffic and roads data, electricity systems data, and water system data to provide a service to fire departments that allows them to map the fastest route to a burning building.

As the firetruck approaches its destination, the scale on a GPS system in the truck becomes enlarged and the mapping more detailed until emergency workers can see individual fire hydrants, light switches in a building, entrances and exits, stairs and windows - for fastest and safest access.

Ireland, by contrast, is just beginning to move towards providing such detailed and integrated data sets. These can come directly from OSi but are also made available to specific users through commercial or free services developed by other agencies or private companies.

For example, the Property Registration Authority is a major user and supplier of geographical information, with over 90 per cent of Ireland's land mass and 85 per cent of land titles registered in its database. The authority offers an electronic registry and map-searching service at landdirect.ie.

Currently only a few counties are fully mapped to supply such information, but more are coming online, says Paul Brent, of Property Registration Authority, a speaker at the briefing. "We have to change our way of thinking" towards providing such detailed, digital services, he says.

Ruane says the OSi can offer a range of different products. "For instance, maps based on themes can be plotted, maps showing houses or schools only. Different scale maps can be produced at the push of a button."

Maps and photographs can also be integrated to provide a composite product, and maps with 3D information that can be viewed from different angles is also available.

Though Ruane notes that OSi's major customers are Government departments such as the Land Registry and the Department of Agriculture, utility companies and telecommunication companies, "the general public is an important customer too, requiring maps for planning permissions, land and house purchase".

For example, that 3D technology goes into a DVD-based consumer product for hikers called Trail Master, which will generate interactive 3D maps.

A SIM-card product it offers, SmartMap, allows users to view OSi digital mapping on a mobile phone, as well as providing a search facility, web links and tourist information.

Digital mapping or geographic information is important to commercial businesses, too: she says banks, insurance companies and retailers make extensive use of OSi mapping in support of their businesses.

And, obviously, OSi has evolved into a business itself. The State subvention to OSi has declined over recent years and the organisation is expected to pay most of its own way. It is run by a board, which oversees its strategic direction, Ruane says, with annual and five-year business plans approved by the board.

Moves to privatise such crucial information - once fully funded by national governments - is not without controversy.

Data can be gathered by numerous different commercial or public bodies using varied standards which means maps from one region do not align accurately with adjacent countries, as has happened at the Border with Northern Ireland here, or data sets don't overlap correctly.

Many argue that many bodies acquired their original vast mapping databases, and continue to generate some data, using taxpayers' money. Should some of the information not then be in the public domain with some services provided for free? In the UK, a vocal campaign is under way to free up more data in this way.

Ruane says: "Maintaining and improving the mapping database is expensive. OSi updates urban areas on an annual basis and rural areas every five years. This is a service which is demanded by both public and private sectors alike. OSi can only guarantee such a service to its customers if it generates an adequate income.

"The model that the user pays is seen as equitable. It ensures that the customer has power to demand a service and influence the type of products and services that OSi supplies into the future. The 'user pays' model also ensures that OSi must be competitive in its services."