Ordnance Survey Ireland take home Eir Spider for GeoHive - Historic Mapping of Ireland

Established in 1996, the eir Spiders are now in their 21st year making them the longest standing and most prestigious internet awards in Ireland.  They reward Irish and Northern Irish businesses and community organisations for their creativity and innovation and provide an important opportunity to recognise and showcase online excellence.

The awards took place on Wednesday 30th November in The Clayton Hotel, Burlington Road and were hosted by ‘The Queen of Ireland’, Panti Bliss. 

Esri Ireland proudly sponsored the ‘Digital Geography & Location Based Services’ category for the fourth year.  This category recognise websites and mobile apps that make effective use of geography. Use of digital mapping and location-based services enhances the experience of any website or app and this category seeks to highlight organisations that are excelling in doing this. Esri Ireland is delighted to announce the winner of this category for 2016 was Ordnance Survey Ireland for their project GeoHive – Historic Mapping of Ireland.

Aoife Shinners and John Kennedy, OSi, pictured with their eir Spider Award

GeoHive is a free to-use web service where users can access current and historical OSi maps on their mobile phones and tablets whenever they need them.  It gives users the ability to create maps in a much simpler way, save them, and share them instantly with colleagues using any device. Ultimately GeoHive improves access to national geospatial information and exposes many more individuals and organisations to Ireland's vast reservoirs of geospatial data.

The panel of judges remarked that this was "a beautifully constructed domain, a fantastic piece of work both from an aesthetic and technology perspective."

Esri Ireland would also like to congratulate the Education Authority Northern Ireland who were shortlisted for their recent Online School Transport Applications project.  The team at EANI developed a simple easy to use web app which enables parents to check if their children are eligible for school bus travel and apply online.

The complete shortlist for the Digital Geography & Location Based Services category is below;

• Catchments.ie – Water from Source to Sea
  
• Logainm.ie — Placenames Database of Ireland
  
• Education Authority Online School Transport Applications
  
• GeoHive – Historic Mapping of Ireland
  
• Dublin Rising 1916-2016
  
• Púca for GeoDirectory – GeoFindIT