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OneMap
Singapore Land Authority
Singapore

The Problem

The initiative came about due to a desire by the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) to realise the Singapore Government’s vision of an integrated government. SLA achieves it through promoting and proliferating the sharing and use of geospatial data to support better decision making and creation of new business opportunities. SLA, the national mapping agency and lead agency in Geographic Information System (GIS), is also responsible for driving the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) which is named the Singapore Geospatial Collaborative Environment (SG-SPACE). One of the key tasks of SG-SPACE involves a whole-of-government approach to link up and harmonise the various types of geospatial data managed by government agencies.

The first key deliverable of the SG-SPACE is the OneMap (http://www.onemap.sg) through which non-sensitive geospatial information is made available to the public as a free online service.

The objective of OneMap was not only to create a common platform for public agencies to share information and publish map-based services, but also to allow the private sector to utilize OneMap and the wealth of government geospatial information to develop value-added map-based services for the public.

OneMap furthers the goal of SG-SPACE to create an environment in which the public, private and people sectors (3P), can collaborate and create a wide range of innovative applications and services using geospatial or map-based information. It is also an important development towards the SG-SPACE vision of a spatially-enabled nation.

Solution and Key Benefits

 What is the initiative about? (the solution)
OneMap is a web-based map service created by SLA that serves as a common platform for all government agencies to deliver information to the general public. It also provides extensive Application Programming Interface (API) for the Public Sector, Private Sector and the Community to quickly and easily publish their location based information onto their portals through interactive online maps without the need to procure any GIS infrastructure. They could also mash-up their own data to create and deliver value-added geospatial services to their customers. Hence, OneMap greatly improves the delivery and quality of services being offered to the public.

OneMap’s map portal serves as a one-stop geospatial data discoverability and accessibility portal for public sector geospatial content that can be shared with the general public. Government agencies publish their data on the OneMap map portal as “Themes”. Themes provide a snapshot view of their information on a map with links to the respective government agency’s existing website or service for more detailed information.

Government agencies can also leverage on the comprehensive location database to search for addresses through Web Services. Such a central infrastructure makes it convenient for data sharing among agencies.

Since the launch of OneMap on 31 March 2010, the number of participating government agencies has been steadily increasing with more than 15 public agencies contributing information and more than 50 agencies using OneMap to develop public services. 14 map-based applications have also been developed using OneMap API by the public and private sector.

Some examples are the LandQuery by the SLA, which was built on the OneMap cadastral land lot base map. It is a service that provides information on land ownership, i.e. whether a plot of land is state land, statutory board land or private land. This helps the public find out who the plot of land belongs to and the contact information for the agency managing it to report issues or enquire further about the land. The SchoolQuery by the Ministry of Education (MOE), is a free service which enables parents to search for primary schools near a property. It can also be used to determine if a particular address is within 1 or 2km from a school for the purpose of priority admission to choice primary schools. These are just some of the impactful services enabled by OneMap.

OneMap is an excellent example of mass collaboration by public agencies, businesses and the communities. It plays an enabling role in realising the vision of an integrated government and a spatially-enabled society. It is also an important development towards the implementation of SG-SPACE.

Actors and Stakeholders

 Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
SLA, being the mapping authority in Singapore with geospatial expertise, was chosen as the lead agency and project manager of a consortium of 16 public agencies responsible for developing OneMap. The other 15 public agencies included the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA), Land Transport Authority (LTA), Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS), Ministry of Education (MOE), Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts (MICA), Ministry of Law (MinLaw), National Arts Council (NAC), National Environment Agency (NEA), National Heritage Board (NHB), National Library Board (NLB), National Parks Board (NParks), People’s Association (PA), Singapore Sports Council (SSC), Singapore Tourism Board (STB) and the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) to ensure the successful roll out of OneMap.

SLA also worked with 5 private sector partners such as NIIT Technologies, EastGear, Simple Solution Systems, Cyberville eServices and ShowNearby to ensure the successful adoption of OneMap for business needs.

(a) Strategies

 Describe how and when the initiative was implemented by answering these questions
 a.      What were the strategies used to implement the initiative? In no more than 500 words, provide a summary of the main objectives and strategies of the initiative, how they were established and by whom.
Before the implementation of OneMap, SLA made efforts to promote and raise the awareness of the project. Road shows were rigorously conducted to convince agencies at the senior levels to sell the idea of the convenience and benefits that OneMap would bring to not only the public sector, but the private and people sector too. With the strong backing and support of the various agencies, the green light and funds were eventually allocated.

A soft launch was rolled out first in the government intranet in Dec 2009 to test the performance and solicit feedback and participation from other government agencies to contribute data.

Many useful feedback were received during this period and presentation of the finished product to various government agencies helped to drum up the support for the initiative and many “Themes” were added to the geospatial data repository.

Even after the launch of OneMap, SLA continues to encourage agencies to share their data layers and to create new map-based services through the strategy adopted by SLA saw a huge increase in the usage of OneMap. Just within 6 months of its launch, there have been close to 30 services developed by public sector, private sector and public & non-profit organisations using OneMap.

SLA also leverages on social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter and blogs to reach out to the larger population to increase the awareness of OneMap.

(b) Implementation

 b.      What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
OneMap was developed over a period of about 2.5 years, from conceptualization to implementation. Following are the main phases involved in developing the system:

Conceptualization and consultation: Given the growing demand for location based services, SLA collaborated with 16 other public agencies to conduct a government wide demand aggregation exercise for a central map service. SLA took the lead this project for its expertise in management of GIS systems.

Funding: Central government funding was sought justifying the need for the system and after 9 months of careful review by iGov Council, which is the apex committee within the public sector that drives integrated government initiatives, the funding was approved.

Tendering / RFQ: The requirements were crafted in consultation with the participating agencies and an open was tender called in Sep 2009. After careful evaluation of the tender bids the system development was awarded in Feb 2010.

Design and Development: The following methodology that covers the entire life cycle of the System was adopted, from the initial planning to the end of the system's useful life

Construction Phase: This is the development and data migration phase of the project where the proposed system is developed together with data migration, internal testing etc.

Transition Phase: At this phase, the solution is put in the hands of its end users for operational use. It involves testing, training, production system setup, etc.

Public roll out: This phase involved moving the whole infrastructure from government intranet to Internet and preparing OneMap for the public launch on 31 March 2010. It also involved showcasing the applications from the private sector that were developed using the OneMap APIs.

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

 c.      What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
The main obstacles encountered were that the agencies were concerned about making available their data to the public and creating new services that would enhance public service delivery.

Through many road shows and meetings with the agencies at both the senior levels and working levels, SLA managed to get buy in from the agencies to contribute data and to develop new services in OneMap. SLA also conducted workshops and trainings to equip the working level personnel from other agencies with the mindset, knowledge and skills to create and manage data for sharing that conforms to recognised data standards to make data sharing seamless.

When new services were developed, these were used as successful showcases to encourage to other agencies to also develop service that would benefit the public. Thus, the number of services and data layers shared increased many folds in the first 8 months of OneMap’s operations.

(d) Use of Resources

 d.      What resources were used for the initiative and what were its key benefits? In no more than 500 words, specify what were the financial, technical and human resources’ costs associated with this initiative. Describe how resources were mobilized
The OneMap infrastructure is funded by the Ministry of Finance (MOF) and cost a total of SGD$2.2million to build.

The system development required high level of expertise in many domains from the developers of the system. The key knowledge areas are GIS, Web and mobile development with a keen emphasis on usability and system performance. There was ample participation from the data maintenance team, cartographer and line managers in contributing to their respective areas. The number of staff involved in the development of the system for a period of 9 months included 1 project manager, 2 project coordinators, 6 GIS developers, 4 GIS technicians, 1 network engineer, 1 database administrator and 1 graphic designer.

The human resource costs were immeasurable as it was a collaborative effort of 16 agencies that conceptualised this common map platform.
When the funds were approved by the iGov Council, an open tender was called to engage the vendor and the system development work was commenced. The human resources were mobilised by the road shows conducted to generate demand information.

Sustainability and Transferability

  Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
After the rollout of OneMap in Mar 2010, SLA has continued to promote and create awareness, encourage data sharing and create new innovative services through road shows to the public agencies. SLA also make use of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, blogs etc to further communicate with the public on new services and data shared in OneMap. SLA also works with other government agencies and makes available special fund for innovative services to be developed by them that leverages on OneMap platform.
The private sector is also engaged to build services that will benefit businesses and the communities. To encourage adoption and to spur usage, the use of OneMap is made available free to them. Sustainability is further enhanced with the geospatial data creation tools available on OneMap. The ability to create data, contribute to the data repository, collaborate with agencies and consume other contributors’ data make OneMap reliable and up to date with the generation and addition of new spatial data.

OneMap has been successfully disseminated across the public sector. It has helped transformed mindsets in the way public services are delivered. Increasingly, many new innovative services developed or are in development incorporate map-based interface which are leveraged upon OneMap platform. OneMap has now played an important role in aiding public agencies in the delivery of their national initiatives. For example, the National Environment Agency (NEA) publishes environment-friendly facilities like the locations of all recycling bins using OneMap to promote Clean and Green initiative. The Ministry of Community, Youth and Sports (MCYS) publishes pro-family establishments and amenities like eldercare services, childcare services, disability services etc.

The approach of this initiative is an exemplary model that foreign governments can follow. By integrating map services, OneMap has opened up spatial data sharing boundaries and encouraged both the private and general public to make use of spatial data. This initiative is also well appreciated by international bodies, receiving accolades from renowned organisations such as Urban and Regional Information Systems Association (URISA) for Exemplary Systems in Government (ESIG) award, the Geospatial Excellence Award by GIS Development and the Special GIS Achievement Award by Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI).

Lessons Learned

 What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
OneMap has transformed the way spatial data in Singapore is managed and disseminated; it has also spurred the growth of innovation in the geospatial industry and fostered new partnerships and ways of collaboration.

Previously, there were no initiatives to publish non-sensitive government geospatial data to the public. OneMap is the first step by the Singapore government to make available such information for all. This has no doubt widened the reach of existing services and provided a rich and interactive channel to engage the public. It also signifies a change in mindset and a shift in paradigm from the traditional notion of service delivery from ‘Government to you’ to ‘Government with you’.

Information is also perceived and presented in a way completely different on OneMap. The traditional textual display of information is now replaced by a much more visually appealing manner that facilitates easier understanding and processing of information. For example, the SchoolQuery tool in OneMap allows users to view, in visual form, the eligible buildings in the vicinity of a primary school as compared to viewing the information in text.

With the OneMap API, the gap between government and private businesses has also been bridged. The provision of government data and services at no charge has greatly interested the private sector to collaborate and offer value-added services to the public and even to exchange their data for government use.

The important lessons learnt are as follows:

1. To get high-level buy-in from the participating agencies during the early stage of the project so that inter-agency coordination works will be smoother during the implementation. Government agencies have to overcome their inertia to share data with the public. Before, during and after the project implementation, all agencies should be engaged so that there is a sense of ownership by all agencies involved to ensure the continued success.

2. Close monitoring of IT vendors and suppliers to ensure that schedule, service level, quality of work etc are adhered to so that OneMap can be rolled out on time and which meet the specifications. A reliable and responsive system would help attract the users to the use the services.

3. After the rollout, it is important to step up on publicity and promotion activities to increase the participations and adoption by public agencies, businesses and the communities.

Contact Information

Institution Name:   Singapore Land Authority
Institution Type:   Government Agency  
Contact Person:   Ming Khai Lim
Title:   Head of Department, GeoSpatial Division  
Telephone/ Fax:   +65 64783612
Institution's / Project's Website:   +65 63239937
E-mail:   lim_ming_khai@sla.gov.sg  
Address:   55 Newton Road #12-01 Revenue House
Postal Code:   307987
City:   Singapore
State/Province:   Singapore
Country:   Singapore

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