News
Our latest press releases
If you would like to keep up to date with iShare you can download the latest issue of iShare News or sign up to receive a copy here:
Training Course Feedback
We asked people what they thought about our PostGIS and QGIS training courses and we are pleased to report the feedback has been pretty good. Just go to our training pages to find out more.
Astun Technology Hosts MapAction ‘Hackathon’
On 27th April Astun Technology hosted a ‘hackathon’ at its Epsom offices on behalf of the AGI and MapAction, the charity that specialises in providing a mapping resource for humanitarian emergencies. A ‘hackathon’ is an event where computer programmers come together to work intensively on a number of software projects.
Astun Technology Joins the CloudStore
Astun Technology solutions are now available from the CloudStore, part of the Government’s G-Cloud supplier framework which was expanded at the beginning of May. This could not be more timely as the Cabinet Office announces its Cloud First mandate. This ensures that in future, public sector organisations must consider and fully evaluate potential Cloud solutions first when procuring new or existing services, before considering any other options.
New Training Course Dates
Details of the latest Astun Technology training courses have just been published. Courses include PostgreSQL/PostGIS for the Enterprise, PostgreSQL/PostGIS for GIS Professionals and PostgreSQL/PostGIS for Adminstrators. We are also running another 2 day Quantum GIS (QGIS) course.
Andrew Bailey
Andrew Bailey has joined Astun as a GIS Consultant. Andrew will be working as part of the Astun consultancy team, focusing on web development and project deployment.
Get INSPIREd
Today we launched our Get INSPIREd consultancy and infrastructure package aimed at Local Authorities needing to meet their INSPIRE obligations for Annex III data by the end of 2013.
MapAction Hackathon
Astun Technology is hosting the MapAction 'Hackathon'on 27th April 2013 from 09:00 to 18:00.
New QGIS Training Course
We have just published the details of our new Quantum GIS (QGIS) course. Astun's QGIS training is aimed at people who already have an understanding in the use of GIS, particularly those looking to migrate from ArcGIS, MapInfo or Cadcorp.
iShare News Winter Edition
The latest edition of our newsletter, iShare News is now available for download. In this issue - we introduce our Get INSPIREd campaign, announce QGIS training which will start in 2013, show how iShare usage can be tracked using Google Analytics, reveal AGI accreditation for our PostGIS courses and provide a link to a great iShare GIS resource. Download it here
AGI Cymru 2012
Astun Technology is attending AGI Cymru 2012 which is taking place in Cardiff on 4th December 2012. Mike Saunt will be delivering one of the keynote talks - 'Government to citizen.'
Web Mapping & Cloud GIS for GIS Professionals'
This week we are sponsoring the AGI's Web Mapping & Cloud GIS for GIS Professionals' Seminar. Matt Walker is also presenting. The seminar is taking place at the AGI's offices in London on Thursday November 22, 2012 between 10:00 - 16:00.
Love Open Source Geo?
Due to continued success Astun Technology is looking for another GeoSpatial Consultant to help deliver its Enterprise Open Source geo-solutions in the UK. With over 40 local authorities using our solutions your technical understanding of databases, web and desktop mapping will be pushed to the limits in an exciting, dynamic and friendly environment. Knowledge of OSGeo based products such as PostGIS, QGIS, MapServer or GeoServer will be a big plus.
Steven Feldman
Steven Feldman, has joined Astun Technology as Strategic Adviser to the Board. In this role Steven will seek to provide strategic support and mentoring to Astun as it moves to the next stage of its development as a provider of enterprise solutions to Local Government.
Everything Happens Somewhere
Astun Technology will be exhibiting at the Everything Happens Somewhere conference which is taking place in London on 25th October. The conference is aimed at supporting local government address and street information specialists, together with street naming and numbering officials.
W3G Conference
Astun Technology is sponsoring W3G, a free, one day (un)conference themed around ‘Is Open The New Black? … Or “How To Dress Appropriately In The Age Of Open Data." It covers all aspects of the geographical experience, from online mapping to cartography, from the web to location based mobile services. W3G 2012 is on 24th. October 2012 at the Google Campus London.
PostgreSQL/PostGIS Course Sold Out
Our PostgreSQL/PostGIS Course scheduled for 16th-18th October is sold out. We'll be arranging a new course and publishing details soon. Contact Mike Smith for further details.
National Web Map Tile Server
Matt Walker explains how Astun Technology built a national (GB) web map tile server at the recent OSGIS 2012 event.
Astun features in OS Blog
Astun Technology has featured in the latest Ordnance Survey Blog. The blog homes in on Exactrak who provide web based routing, tracking and monitoring solutions for local authorities. Exactrak are now using a new web interface developed by Astun and Ordnance Survey maps hosted by Astun in the Cloud.
Paul Porthouse
Paul Porthouse has joined Astun Technology as a Web Developer. Paul will be lending his considerable skills and experience to projects across the Astun portfolio.
PostgreSQL/PostGIS Training
Astun is now offering training courses based on its deep knowledge of the Open Source GeoStack. The next course we are running, 'PostGIS for the Enterprise' will be taking place in January 2013 with the likely location being Keynsham or Bath.
Find out more.
Astun Powers Exactrak Web based Mapping
Astun Technology’s Open Source and web mapping expertise is at the heart of Exactrak’s newly released tracking and monitoring solution for local authorities. Astun not only provides the web interface and core mapping technology but also hosts the Ordnance Survey maps used by the application.
iShare News Summer 2012
The latest edition of our iShare Newsletter is out. In this issue we look at the new version of iShare GIS, understand how Bolton Council has made use of its Open Enterprise Agreement and report on the inaugural meeting of the iShare User Group.
If you don't receive iShare in the mail you can download a PDF version from here.
Jo Cook to Speak at AGI Northern Conference
Astun Technology's Jo Cook is to speak at the AGI's Northern Conference taking place in Manchester on the 4th of July. Jo will be taking a look at how to use Open Source tools to consume linked or open data or as she puts it,"...actually doing something useful with all of this free stuff!"
iShare User Group - Inaugural Meeting
The inaugural meeting of the recently formed iShare User Group was held on 30th May in the Civic Suite at Huntingdonshire District Council. There were 22 attendees coming from as far afield as Norfolk, Bolton, Surrey and South Wales.
Simon Chapman
Simon Chapman has joined Astun Technology as a Product Support Specialist. Simon will be working as part of the Astun consultancy team, mainly in a product support role.
Our Customers are Better Connected!
A number of Astun Technology customers have reported that they have been very pleased with what the SOCITM Better Connected survey had to say about their websites.
Using Interactive Maps for Public Consultation
Surrey Heath Borough Council is using interactive maps for the public consultation stage of a major development, the Camberley Town Centre Area Action Plan.
AGI Open Source Training
We are sponsoring and taking part in this AGI training event which introduces users to Free and Open Source (FOSS) G.I.S. Software and how it can be implemented within existing architectures and integrated with other systems.
NHS Choices
NHS Choices data is coming to iShare. As part of Astun Data Services, we will be taking a direct feed of NHS Choices data, spatialising it using PostGIS and then serving it to iShare clients as GML via WFS.
New Shared Service
West Oxfordshire District Council (WODC) and Cotswold District Council (CDC) have entered into a ‘Shared Service’ agreement with Astun Technology.
iShare User Group
Last year customers were asked if they were interested in participating in an iShare User Group. Needless to say the response was unequivocally in favour. We now have our first Chairman, Richard Lewis from Newport City Council.
iShare News Christmas Edition
The Christmas Edition of iShare News is now available. For those who don't receive it by post it is available from the download section of this website
The Rise of the Geotache!
Two intrepid Geo Professionals from Astun Technology, Managing Director, Mike Saunt and Matt Walker have spent the last month developing the latest Open Source technology the ‘Geotache’.
AGI Cymru
We are sponsoring and attending Location Wales 2011, the 13th AGI Cymru Annual Conference which takes place on 29th November at Cardiff City Hall. It would be great to see you there. Full conference programme.
Movember
Mike Saunt and Matt Walker are taking part in the Movember 'upper lip area' challenge in aid of Prostrate Cancer. If you wish to sponsor the Astun team please click here and search on Astun. We'll post pictures on the site in due course!
2011 Exemplar Awards
We are sponsoring the 'Everything Happens Somewhere' conference, exhibition and Exemplar Awards. The event takes place at Albert Hall, Nottingham – Thursday, 3 November 2011. Find out more here
iShare Backup
We have just introduced ‘iShare Backup’ an effective backup solution for iShare deployments. iShare Backup uses a specially written Python script to back up all data held in the Postgres database that is the foundation of all iShare installs.
Surrey Heath Signs OEA
Surrey Heath Borough Council has signed an iShare Open Enterprise Agreement (OEA). The move to a virtual server environment gave the Council an opportunity to review their ageing data arrangements which have now been replaced by a modern Open Source spatial data warehouse solution.
AGI GeoCommunity Conference
Mike Saunt, Mike Smith, Jo Cook and Matt Walker will be attending the AGI GeoCommunity Conference taking place at the East Midlands Conference Centre between 20th-22nd September - Find out more here
36 PostGIS Installations
We have recently integrated our iShare platform with the Origin Local Information System (LIS) from Fluent Technology. DORIC (Data Observatory Research Intelligence Collaborative) the LIS for Cheshire, Warrington and Halton and Surreyi for the whole of Surrey are just coming on stream and mark our latest PostGIS deployments.
UK MasterMap loading in 40 hours
Working with the Ordnance Survey our recently developed Open Source GML data loader has successfully loaded National Coverage of Mastermap (that is over 440 million features) into PostGIS in under 40 hours! We’ve also tested against Vector Map Local loading all of Cambridgeshire.
iShare News
The Summer edition of iShare News is now available. For those who don't receive it by post you can download it from the download section of this website.
User Group & Training Survey
We have set up a survey for existing iShare users regarding the possibility of setting up an iShare user group and assessing specific training needs.
Huntingdonshire District Council
‘myHuntingdonshire’ uses the latest iteration of the iShare platform and is constantly refreshed with data from both the Council’s service delivery systems and Cambridgeshire County Council's own iShare solution.
OSGIS 2011
The annual OSGIS Conference is being hosted by the Centre for Geospatial Science at Nottingham University on June 21-22nd. Find out more here Registrations close on 31st May.
Astun is a 'Silver' sponsor.Wycombe District Council
Wycombe District Council has gone live with iShare enabling local residents to use their Postcode to find information about local services, locate facilities on maps and sign up for automated email alerts.
iShare News
The spring edition of iShare news is now available. For those who don't receive it by post you can download it from here
Jo Cook
Jo will be working as part of the the Astun consultancy team particularly on software deployment and data integration.
New Logger Case Study
We have just published a new case study focused on our Logger module. It features the use of Logger for Highways fault reporting via the Cambridgeshire County Council Website and CRM integration in the Contact Centre.
New Website
You may have noticed that the site has changed somewhat. Since the old site had been around for over two years we decided to freshen things up. Please let us know your thoughts.
Matt Walker Joins
He will be responsible for enterprise deployment of Astun’s range of web based GIS, data integration and publishing solutions to local authorities.
Mike Smith Joins
He will be responsible for widening the take-up of the company’s growing range of web based GIS, data integration and publishing solutions to local authorities
Channel Shift
A new report, ‘The Value of Geospatial Information to Local Public Service Delivery in England and Wales’ published by the report features a deployment of Astun Technology’s iShare software platform as a successful example of ‘Channel Shift’.
iShare powering Online Planning searches
We're really happy to let you all know that the iShare Publisher module has been powering the planning applications (Development Control , Building Control and Licensing ) at Rochford Council for the last few months (as well as their My Neighbourhood section!). We think it is pretty neat and shows how having a flexible tool where YOU can build web page templates and have a Search Engine type interface to make life easier for your customers. Why don't you test it out!