MySociety.org's MaPit upgraded with all open data

A new version of MySociety.org's MaPit, a database and web service which converts post codes and points in the UK into information about administration areas, has been announced, now entirely based on open data. It now also features coverage for Northern Ireland, can give coordinates for the actual boundaries and past information on administrative areas is kept so it can be queried for historical comparison.

The updated version has been rewritten "from the ground up" and is now based on GeoDjango and PostGIS. It offers improved performance, easier updating and what is described, by the developers, as "a lovely admin interface". The source for MapIt is available from a GitHub repository and is licensed under the Affero GPL3. The service is populated with open data from NSPD Open, data which MySociety.org had to purchase for £200 and release as open data for others to use; the data sets are also available.

The MaPit data is used with other MySociety services such as WriteToThem, FixMyStreet and TheyWorkForYou to help people locate and contact the appropriate MPs, councillors and other elected representatives. Use of the MaPit API is free for non-commercial, low-volume use, but for commercial or high volume use, the charity asks that potential users contact them. Such users can either purchase a licence, or MySociety.org will provide them with assistance in installing their own version of the software and data.

(djwm)