Geoprocessing, Geospatial Data, Interoperability Programs, Geospatial Information, Geographic Information Systems
Geographic Information Systems Company
The Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc. (OGC) is a non-profit, international, voluntary consensus standards organization that is leading the development of standards for geospatial and location based services. Through our member-driven consensus programs, OGC works with government, private industry, and academia to create open and extensible software application programming interfaces for geographic information systems (GIS) and other mainstream technologies. The Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc (OGC) is an international industry consortium of 274 companies, government agencies and universities participating in a consensus process to develop publicly available interface specifications. OpenGIS® Specifications support interoperable solutions that ``geo-enable`` the Web, wireless and location-based services, and mainstream IT. The specifications empower technology developers to make complex spatial information and services accessible and useful with all kinds of applications. OpenGIS® is a Registered Trademark of the Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc (OGC) and is the brand name associated with the Specifications and documents produced by the Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc (OGC). OpenGIS specifications are developed in a unique consensus process supported by OGC industry, government and academic members to enable geoprocessing technologies to interoperate, or ``plug and play``. You will also find the OpenGIS® trademark associated with products that implement or comply to our specifications. Make sure that your geoprocessing and location services procurement and technology development programs demand OpenGIS specifications! PROGRAMS Through its Specification Program, Interoperability Program and Outreach and Community Adoption Program, OGC develops, releases and promotes open standards for spatial processing. SPECIFICATION PROGRAM In the OGC Specification Program the Technical Committee and Planning Committee work in a formal consensus process to arrive at approved (or ``adopted``) OpenGIS® Specifications. How to participate in the Specification Program-the OGC Specification Program sometimes issues public requests for comments, proposals, information or technologies, for the purpose of ensuring the best possible technical foundation for an OpenGIS® Specification. (The Specification Program is the formal consensus process of OGC`s Technical Committee and Planning Committee.) The OGC process includes several areas where public comment are welcome and encouraged, whether you are an OGC member or not, your comments or submissions are necessary for the OGC process to be the best that it can be. To obtain broad input and support from geoprocessing technology users and providers, OGC issues formal public requests related to its Specification Program. These documents provide detailed information about the specific interoperability requirements to be addressed in an initiative, and they outline the steps that will be followed in planning and executing the initiative. The OGC Technical Committee runs the specification development process with a published set of policies and procedures to carry out its work. INTEROPERABILITY PROGRAM The OGC Interoperability Program is a series of hands-on engineering initiatives to accelerate the development and acceptance of OpenGIS® Specifications. OUTREACH AND ADOPTION OGC and its members offer resources to help technology developers and users take advantage of OGC`s open standards. Technical documents, training materials, test suites, reference implementations and other interoperability resources developed in OGC`s Interoperability Initiatives are available on the OGCNetwork. In addition, OGC and its members support publications, workshops, seminars and conferences to help technology developers, integrators and procurement managers introduce OGC plug and play capabilities into their architectures. Hundreds of commercial products now implement OpenGIS® Specifications to provide users with ``plug and play`` interoperability. But the initial support of vendors and integrators in the geoprocessing industry does not guarantee ongoing interoperability. The permanent success of any standards effort ultimately depends on users consistently choosing products based on standards. Recognizing that OGC`s interoperability framework needs to be well understood and broadly supported by the whole user community, OGC launched the Outreach and Community Adoption Program in 2001 to: Lead outreach and education - OCAP works with OGC members and user communities around the world to encourage ``take up`` or implementation of OpenGIS specifications, as well as to encourage new membership and engagement in OGC programs and initiatives. OCAP`s comprehensive program of services to members and the global public includes Web, email and print publications, conferences and symposiums, and training modules. OGC also works to establish dialog with organizations in industry sectors that have not yet been represented in OGC. Nurture strategic partnerships and alliances - OCAP establishes mutually rewarding relationships with organizations whose missions and members will be served by the widespread adoption of OpenGIS specifications. OCAP has formal agreements with organizations such as the International City and County Management Association (ICMA), the Geospatial Information & Technology Association (GITA), and the Institute for Professional Education. Through these partnerships, OGC helps educate the associations` members and participants about geoprocessing interoperability through seminars, workshops, conferences, formal training, and general marketing. For more information about our partner organizations, visit our Partners page. Develop and support regional and sector programs - OCAP manages regional offices that address the special program needs of world regions. To date, two not-for-profit regional offices have been established - Open Geospatial Consortium Europe, Limited (OGC-E); and OGC Australia. Other regional offices are being considered.
The Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc. (OGC) is a non-profit, international, voluntary consensus standards organization that is leading the development of standards for geospatial and location based services. Through our member-driven consensus programs, OGC works with government, private industry, and academia to create open and extensible software application programming interfaces for geographic information systems (GIS) and other mainstream technologies.
The Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc (OGC) is an international industry consortium of 274 companies, government agencies and universities participating in a consensus process to develop publicly available interface specifications. OpenGIS® Specifications support interoperable solutions that ``geo-enable`` the Web, wireless and location-based services, and mainstream IT. The specifications empower technology developers to make complex spatial information and services accessible and useful with all kinds of applications.
OpenGIS® is a Registered Trademark of the Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc (OGC) and is the brand name associated with the Specifications and documents produced by the Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc (OGC). OpenGIS specifications are developed in a unique consensus process supported by OGC industry, government and academic members to enable geoprocessing technologies to interoperate, or ``plug and play``. You will also find the OpenGIS® trademark associated with products that implement or comply to our specifications. Make sure that your geoprocessing and location services procurement and technology development programs demand OpenGIS specifications!
PROGRAMS Through its Specification Program, Interoperability Program and Outreach and Community Adoption Program, OGC develops, releases and promotes open standards for spatial processing. SPECIFICATION PROGRAM
In the OGC Specification Program the Technical Committee and Planning Committee work in a formal consensus process to arrive at approved (or ``adopted``) OpenGIS® Specifications.
How to participate in the Specification Program-the OGC Specification Program sometimes issues public requests for comments, proposals, information or technologies, for the purpose of ensuring the best possible technical foundation for an OpenGIS® Specification. (The Specification Program is the formal consensus process of OGC`s Technical Committee and Planning Committee.)
The OGC process includes several areas where public comment are welcome and encouraged, whether you are an OGC member or not, your comments or submissions are necessary for the OGC process to be the best that it can be.
To obtain broad input and support from geoprocessing technology users and providers, OGC issues formal public requests related to its Specification Program. These documents provide detailed information about the specific interoperability requirements to be addressed in an initiative, and they outline the steps that will be followed in planning and executing the initiative.
The OGC Technical Committee runs the specification development process with a published set of policies and procedures to carry out its work.
INTEROPERABILITY PROGRAM
The OGC Interoperability Program is a series of hands-on engineering initiatives to accelerate the development and acceptance of OpenGIS® Specifications.
OUTREACH AND ADOPTION
OGC and its members offer resources to help technology developers and users take advantage of OGC`s open standards. Technical documents, training materials, test suites, reference implementations and other interoperability resources developed in OGC`s Interoperability Initiatives are available on the OGCNetwork. In addition, OGC and its members support publications, workshops, seminars and conferences to help technology developers, integrators and procurement managers introduce OGC plug and play capabilities into their architectures.
Hundreds of commercial products now implement OpenGIS® Specifications to provide users with ``plug and play`` interoperability. But the initial support of vendors and integrators in the geoprocessing industry does not guarantee ongoing interoperability. The permanent success of any standards effort ultimately depends on users consistently choosing products based on standards. Recognizing that OGC`s interoperability framework needs to be well understood and broadly supported by the whole user community, OGC launched the Outreach and Community Adoption Program in 2001 to:
Lead outreach and education - OCAP works with OGC members and user communities around the world to encourage ``take up`` or implementation of OpenGIS specifications, as well as to encourage new membership and engagement in OGC programs and initiatives. OCAP`s comprehensive program of services to members and the global public includes Web, email and print publications, conferences and symposiums, and training modules. OGC also works to establish dialog with organizations in industry sectors that have not yet been represented in OGC.
Nurture strategic partnerships and alliances - OCAP establishes mutually rewarding relationships with organizations whose missions and members will be served by the widespread adoption of OpenGIS specifications. OCAP has formal agreements with organizations such as the International City and County Management Association (ICMA), the Geospatial Information & Technology Association (GITA), and the Institute for Professional Education. Through these partnerships, OGC helps educate the associations` members and participants about geoprocessing interoperability through seminars, workshops, conferences, formal training, and general marketing. For more information about our partner organizations, visit our Partners page.
Develop and support regional and sector programs - OCAP manages regional offices that address the special program needs of world regions. To date, two not-for-profit regional offices have been established - Open Geospatial Consortium Europe, Limited (OGC-E); and OGC Australia. Other regional offices are being considered.
History of OGC
Early success of GIS led to a problem no vendor could solve alone By the mid-1980s, geographic information system (GIS) software was heavily used in the natural resources and defense domains, especially within government agencies. Other market sectors, such as state and local government, civil engineering, transportation and business marketing were seriously exploring the technology. The future looked bright, but there were frustrations brewing among users. Users liked the power and potential of the new mapping and spatial analysis tools. However, the expensive software`s limited extensibility and flexibility and inability to share geospatial data between systems caused severe frustration. Users were forced to use inefficient, time consuming and error-prone data transfer methods. While several commercial GIS products were available, for a variety of reasons related to funding, some agencies developed their own GIS software. Late in the 1970s, the US Fish and Wildlife Service contracted for the development of MOSS (Map Overlay and Statistical System), an open source vector GIS that was used in many U.S. Department of Interior agencies and in a number of state and local governments. In the early 1980s, a raster GIS, GRASS (Geographic Resources Analysis Support System), was developed at the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers` Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (CERL). The Corps of Engineers, U.S. Department of Agriculture Soil Conservation Service, and National Park Service standardized on GRASS and it was used in universities around the world. GRASS took advantage of the openness of the UNIX environment and the internet and became one of the first global open source software projects. Coordinated by CERL, developers from around the world contributed code. GRASS was successfully integrated with other public domain spatial, statistical and imaging analysis packages. A major setback leads to an ultimately successful path. The Corps, despite receiving a congressional award for its GRASS initiative, had to transition the project to the private sector because of other considerations. Leaders of the GRASS community, led by multiple public sector agencies, needed support from the private sector for the software to effectively support users in government, industry, and academia. In 1992, the GRASS user community formed a non-profit organization -- the Open GRASS Foundation (OGF) -- chartered to stimulate private sector support for GRASS and create a consensus-based membership process for management of GRASS community affairs. With the demand for more software choices, better and faster integration, and a speedier procurement process, the GRASS group focused on the issue of cooperative planning and facilitation of interoperable geoprocessing. Instead of focusing solely on open source software, the group aimed to create a process that might (1) make more commercial as well as non-commercial geoprocessing choices available in the marketplace, (2) act as a sounding board for the user community to articulate its requirements to the developer community, and (3) speed up procurement by aligning the needs of the users with the product plans of the vendors. GRASS, though free, modular, and maintained in a process driven by user input, did not provide a full interoperability solution. It had an open data format, but that was not sufficient to enable interoperability with other software packages. The OpenGIS Project, which preceded the formal launch of the current Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc. (OGC) in 1994, defined (with the participation of the principal MOSS developers) a vision of diverse geoprocessing systems communicating directly over networks by means of a set of open interfaces based on the ``Open Geodata Interoperability Specification`` (OGIS). OGC was founded with eight charter members at the time of its first Board of Directors meeting on September 25, 1994. These members were Camber Corporation, University of Arkansas - CAST, Center for Environmental Design Research at the University of California – Berkeley, Intergraph Corporation, PCI Remote Sensing, QUBA, USACERL (US Army Corps of Engineers Construction Engineering Research Laboratory), and USDA Soil Conservation Service. Intergraph was OGC`s first commercial Principal Member. From 1994 to 2004, the membership has grown from 20 to more than 250 government, academic, and private sector organizations. Traditional GIS vendors are involved, along with technology integrators, data providers, and companies at the cutting edge of location services. Liaisons with other standards, professional and educational organizations have been established and maintained http://www.opengeospatial.org/partners/. OGC has always been a worldwide organization, concerned with global outreach and education as much as with specification development. In 2000 OGC founded The Open Geospatial Consortium (Europe) Limited (OGCE). OGC Austral-Asia, also known as OGC-A, followed in 2003. A third related organization, the OGC-Interoperability Institute (OGCII), was organized in 2004 to create academic partnerships in support of the interoperability objectives of the research community, as well as to provide better definition and support for the evolving science of Spatial Analysis. In the early years, OGC engaged the major GIS companies and some major user agencies in a consensus process to define and agree to the details of the OpenGIS Abstract Specification. OGC has continued to make progress, from the Specification Program`s first approved implementation specification in 1997 and the first Interoperability Program testbed (Web Mapping Testbed) in 1999 to today`s broad array of specifications and initiatives. More than a dozen approved specifications are now freely available to address the challenges identified at OGC`s founding. The real measure of OGC`s success is that these specifications, which collectively form a reference architecture for interoperability, have been implemented in hundreds of commercial and open source geoprocessing products and are being implemented in communities and organizations around the world. http://www.opengeospatial.org/specs/.
Early success of GIS led to a problem no vendor could solve alone
By the mid-1980s, geographic information system (GIS) software was heavily used in the natural resources and defense domains, especially within government agencies. Other market sectors, such as state and local government, civil engineering, transportation and business marketing were seriously exploring the technology. The future looked bright, but there were frustrations brewing among users.
Users liked the power and potential of the new mapping and spatial analysis tools. However, the expensive software`s limited extensibility and flexibility and inability to share geospatial data between systems caused severe frustration. Users were forced to use inefficient, time consuming and error-prone data transfer methods.
While several commercial GIS products were available, for a variety of reasons related to funding, some agencies developed their own GIS software. Late in the 1970s, the US Fish and Wildlife Service contracted for the development of MOSS (Map Overlay and Statistical System), an open source vector GIS that was used in many U.S. Department of Interior agencies and in a number of state and local governments. In the early 1980s, a raster GIS, GRASS (Geographic Resources Analysis Support System), was developed at the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers` Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (CERL). The Corps of Engineers, U.S. Department of Agriculture Soil Conservation Service, and National Park Service standardized on GRASS and it was used in universities around the world. GRASS took advantage of the openness of the UNIX environment and the internet and became one of the first global open source software projects. Coordinated by CERL, developers from around the world contributed code. GRASS was successfully integrated with other public domain spatial, statistical and imaging analysis packages.
A major setback leads to an ultimately successful path.
The Corps, despite receiving a congressional award for its GRASS initiative, had to transition the project to the private sector because of other considerations. Leaders of the GRASS community, led by multiple public sector agencies, needed support from the private sector for the software to effectively support users in government, industry, and academia. In 1992, the GRASS user community formed a non-profit organization -- the Open GRASS Foundation (OGF) -- chartered to stimulate private sector support for GRASS and create a consensus-based membership process for management of GRASS community affairs.
With the demand for more software choices, better and faster integration, and a speedier procurement process, the GRASS group focused on the issue of cooperative planning and facilitation of interoperable geoprocessing. Instead of focusing solely on open source software, the group aimed to create a process that might (1) make more commercial as well as non-commercial geoprocessing choices available in the marketplace, (2) act as a sounding board for the user community to articulate its requirements to the developer community, and (3) speed up procurement by aligning the needs of the users with the product plans of the vendors. GRASS, though free, modular, and maintained in a process driven by user input, did not provide a full interoperability solution. It had an open data format, but that was not sufficient to enable interoperability with other software packages. The OpenGIS Project, which preceded the formal launch of the current Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc. (OGC) in 1994, defined (with the participation of the principal MOSS developers) a vision of diverse geoprocessing systems communicating directly over networks by means of a set of open interfaces based on the ``Open Geodata Interoperability Specification`` (OGIS).
OGC was founded with eight charter members at the time of its first Board of Directors meeting on September 25, 1994. These members were Camber Corporation, University of Arkansas - CAST, Center for Environmental Design Research at the University of California – Berkeley, Intergraph Corporation, PCI Remote Sensing, QUBA, USACERL (US Army Corps of Engineers Construction Engineering Research Laboratory), and USDA Soil Conservation Service. Intergraph was OGC`s first commercial Principal Member.
From 1994 to 2004, the membership has grown from 20 to more than 250 government, academic, and private sector organizations. Traditional GIS vendors are involved, along with technology integrators, data providers, and companies at the cutting edge of location services. Liaisons with other standards, professional and educational organizations have been established and maintained http://www.opengeospatial.org/partners/.
OGC has always been a worldwide organization, concerned with global outreach and education as much as with specification development. In 2000 OGC founded The Open Geospatial Consortium (Europe) Limited (OGCE). OGC Austral-Asia, also known as OGC-A, followed in 2003. A third related organization, the OGC-Interoperability Institute (OGCII), was organized in 2004 to create academic partnerships in support of the interoperability objectives of the research community, as well as to provide better definition and support for the evolving science of Spatial Analysis.
In the early years, OGC engaged the major GIS companies and some major user agencies in a consensus process to define and agree to the details of the OpenGIS Abstract Specification. OGC has continued to make progress, from the Specification Program`s first approved implementation specification in 1997 and the first Interoperability Program testbed (Web Mapping Testbed) in 1999 to today`s broad array of specifications and initiatives. More than a dozen approved specifications are now freely available to address the challenges identified at OGC`s founding. The real measure of OGC`s success is that these specifications, which collectively form a reference architecture for interoperability, have been implemented in hundreds of commercial and open source geoprocessing products and are being implemented in communities and organizations around the world. http://www.opengeospatial.org/specs/.
Documents & Initiatives
DOCUMENTS The OGC produces a wide variety of documents for a wide variety of purposes. These include discussion papers, which are produced from Interoperability Program Initiatives on topics the relevant Working Group feels require discussion in the TC and/or PC. At the TC/PC meetings, discussion papers may be voted upon for release to both encourage discussion regarding that technology area, and to share what information concerning that topic may be at the forefront of discussion within the working group. It is important to note that these papers do not represent an official position of the OGC or its Committees. OGC also generates and distributes recommendation papers via its TC subgroups. These documents may later become adopted specifications and represent the official OGC position, after having been approved by the working group and forwarded to the TC, and then by the TC to the PC. Once adopted, the Recommendation Paper must be carefully managed under a consensus process, with the responsibility for this management falling to the relevant WG. The main documents that the OGC develops are Specifications. These specifications mature from Requests for Proposals, Requests for Comment, Requests for Information and Recommendation papers. All have a series of checks and balances to navigate prior to approval by the TC/PC approval process. After these Specifications are adopted, they become the responsibility of the relevant Working Group who must then perform an initial clean up of the document and create a method to maintain and/or revise the specification as needed. This is typically done by creating a Revision Working Group for that Spec. This RWG is generally made up of individuals representing the organizations who worked on the specification submission. OGC maintains these documents in an archive arranged by year of approval. Documents: Adopted Document Baseline, OpenGIS® Specifications, Abstract Specifications, Recommendation Papers, Discussion Papers, Requests (RFP`s, RFQ`s), OGC Reference Model, Schemas INITIATIVES Interoperability Program The OGC Interoperability Program (IP) is an essential part of OGC`s fast, effective, inclusive user-driven process to develop, test, demonstrate, and promote the use of OpenGIS® Specifications. The functions of the Interoperability Program complement those of the Specification Program. The OGC Interoperability Program uses member approved processes for organizing and facilitating the following types of Interoperability Initiatives: Test beds are fast-paced, multi-vendor collaborative efforts to define, design, develop, and test candidate interface and encoding specifications. These draft specifications are then reviewed, revised, and, potentially, approved in the OGC Specification Program. Pilot Projects apply and test OpenGIS specifications in real world applications using standards based commercial off-the-shelf (SCOTS) products that implement OpenGIS Specifications. Pilot projects help users understand how to best implement interoperable geoprocessing that meets their requirements for application, spatial data, and geoprocessing service sharing. These projects also help identify gaps for further work. Interoperability Support Services are designed to help organizations with open, standards based architecture. Interoperability Experiments are brief, low-overhead, formally structured and approved initiatives led and executed by OGC members to achieve specific technical objectives that further the OGC Technical Baseline. All OGC Interoperability Initiatives are publicly announced through a Request for Proposals (RFP). Any organization - member or non-member - can respond to the RFP. New proposals from public sector and private sector sponsors are welcomed. Active Initiatives OWS Context Document Schema Interoperability Experiment (Context IE) GML in JPEG 2000 Interoperability Experiment (GMLJP2) Kentucky Landscape Census (KentuckyLC) OGC Web Services, Phase 3 (OWS-3) OGC Plugfest (Plugfest) Web Processing Service (WPS) IE (WPS IE) Past Initiatives Critical Infrastructure Protection Initiative, Phase 1.1 (CIPI 1.1) Critical Infrastructure Protection Initiative, Phase 1.2 (CIPI 1.2) Critical Infrastructure Protection Initiative, Phase 2 (CIPI2) Conformance & Interoperability Test & Evaluation, Phase 1 (CITE 1) Civil Works Technology Insertion, Phase 1 (CTI 1) Emergency Mapping Symbology, Phase 1 (EMS 1) Geospatial Fusion Pilot Project (GFSPP) Geospatial Fusion Testbed (GFST) Geographic Objects (GO-1) Geospatial One-Stop - Portal Initiative (GOS-PI) Geospatial One-Stop - Transportation Pilot (GOS-TP) LandGML Interoperability Experiment (LandGML IE) Multihazard Mapping Initiative, Phase 1 (MMI -1) Military Pilot Project Testbed, Phase 1 (MPP 1) North Rhein Westphalia Pilot (NRWPP) Object Domain Modeling Support (ODMS) Initiative (ODMS) Open Location Services Testbed (OpenLS 1) Open Location Services Testbed, Phase 1.1 (OpenLS-1.1) OGC Web Services Initiative, Phase 1.1 (OWS 1.1) OGC Web Services Initiative, Phase 1.2 (OWS 1.2) OGC Web Services, Phase 2 (OWS-2) Web Mapping Testbed, Phase 1 (WMT 1) Web Mapping Testbed, Phase 2 (WMT 2)
DOCUMENTS
The OGC produces a wide variety of documents for a wide variety of purposes. These include discussion papers, which are produced from Interoperability Program Initiatives on topics the relevant Working Group feels require discussion in the TC and/or PC. At the TC/PC meetings, discussion papers may be voted upon for release to both encourage discussion regarding that technology area, and to share what information concerning that topic may be at the forefront of discussion within the working group. It is important to note that these papers do not represent an official position of the OGC or its Committees.
OGC also generates and distributes recommendation papers via its TC subgroups. These documents may later become adopted specifications and represent the official OGC position, after having been approved by the working group and forwarded to the TC, and then by the TC to the PC. Once adopted, the Recommendation Paper must be carefully managed under a consensus process, with the responsibility for this management falling to the relevant WG.
The main documents that the OGC develops are Specifications. These specifications mature from Requests for Proposals, Requests for Comment, Requests for Information and Recommendation papers. All have a series of checks and balances to navigate prior to approval by the TC/PC approval process.
After these Specifications are adopted, they become the responsibility of the relevant Working Group who must then perform an initial clean up of the document and create a method to maintain and/or revise the specification as needed. This is typically done by creating a Revision Working Group for that Spec. This RWG is generally made up of individuals representing the organizations who worked on the specification submission. OGC maintains these documents in an archive arranged by year of approval.
Documents: Adopted Document Baseline, OpenGIS® Specifications, Abstract Specifications, Recommendation Papers, Discussion Papers, Requests (RFP`s, RFQ`s), OGC Reference Model, Schemas
INITIATIVES
Interoperability Program
The OGC Interoperability Program (IP) is an essential part of OGC`s fast, effective, inclusive user-driven process to develop, test, demonstrate, and promote the use of OpenGIS® Specifications. The functions of the Interoperability Program complement those of the Specification Program.
The OGC Interoperability Program uses member approved processes for organizing and facilitating the following types of Interoperability Initiatives:
All OGC Interoperability Initiatives are publicly announced through a Request for Proposals (RFP). Any organization - member or non-member - can respond to the RFP. New proposals from public sector and private sector sponsors are welcomed.
Active Initiatives
Past Initiatives
Groups
The OGC membership process is operationally organized into groups and subgroups, each group having a specified role and level of responsibility. There are three major groups, called Committees: The Technical, the Planning and the Strategic Management Advisory Committees. The Technical Committee is responsible for all aspects of the formal consensus OGC specification process. This includes: Coordinate development of and modifications to the OpenGIS Abstract Specification; C Coordinate development and adoption of OpenGIS Implementation Specifications Act on specification change proposals (acceptance, rejection, and conditional acceptance), many responsibilities concerning evaluation, approval and recommendations of various documents and proposals. Above all, the Technical Committee provides an open forum for professional discussion of issues and items related to the consensus development and/or evaluation and approval of specifications that provide the ability to build and deploy interoperable geospatial solutions in the larger IT domain. The TC also has methodology in place to govern its composition, its meetings and meeting agendas, and voting procedures. In order to carry out the business of the TC in a timely manner, four different types of subgroups of the TC may be formed. These groups address the four major needs for activity within the TC: To deal with procedural and definitional tasks (subcommittees, SC) To work on new OpenGIS Specification or Abstract Specifications that have been proposed through the OGC RFC or RFP process; (Working Group) To discuss specific technology or user domain requirements for interoperability (Working Group); Single-purpose groups to work on revision of Adopted Specifications (revision working groups, RWG); Committees The OGC Planning Committee is granted authority to operate by the OGC Bylaws. Principal Membership is provided for organizations that wish to participate in the planning and management of the Consortium`s technology development process. The Planning Committee has ultimate responsibility for approving Technical Committee recommendations for the adoption and release of specifications, and for Specification Program planning. The Planning Committee: Generates requirements related to markets it is analyzing. Helps maintain and provide direction for the OGC Roadmap. Makes final decisions on issuing RFIs, RFCs, and RFPs (see below). Accepts, rejects, or conditionally accepts Candidate Implementation Specifications as recommended by the Technical Committee. Decides on revisions to existing Adopted Implementation Specifications based on recommendations from the Technical Committee. The Strategic Management Advisory Committee is conceived to be a permanent committee within the OGC organization, designed specifically to provide Strategic Members the opportunity to participate in the strategic planning processes of the Consortium, and to support Consortium operations aimed at achieving the corporation`s mission as defined in the bylaws. The SMAC is a formal structure defined within the framework of OGC`s bylaws, designed to operate in parallel with the formal technical decision-making process (Planning Committee and Technical Committee) of the Consortium. Sub Committee (SCs) A Subcommittee is subgroup of the OpenGIS Planning Committee and may interface with other groups or committees. Working Groups (WGs) A WG is responsible for the development of Implementation Specifications. Revision Working Groups (RWGs) A RWG is responsible for managing the update and maintenance (revision) process for specific Implementation Specifications. Voting is restricted to designated persons. Special Interest Groups (SIGs) The structure of Special Interest Groups is like that of Working Groups, with the same voting structure. SIGs have one or more of the following general duties: Draft Abstract Specification Change Proposals for approval at the TC. Evaluate technologies proposed as RFCs. Draft Discussion Papers on Issues of interest to the OGC, and/or Draft Recommendation Papers on Issues of interest to the OGC. Review Draft Implementation Specifications and make recommendations to the TC regarding adoption
The OGC membership process is operationally organized into groups and subgroups, each group having a specified role and level of responsibility. There are three major groups, called Committees: The Technical, the Planning and the Strategic Management Advisory Committees.
The Technical Committee is responsible for all aspects of the formal consensus OGC specification process. This includes: Coordinate development of and modifications to the OpenGIS Abstract Specification; C Coordinate development and adoption of OpenGIS Implementation Specifications Act on specification change proposals (acceptance, rejection, and conditional acceptance), many responsibilities concerning evaluation, approval and recommendations of various documents and proposals. Above all, the Technical Committee provides an open forum for professional discussion of issues and items related to the consensus development and/or evaluation and approval of specifications that provide the ability to build and deploy interoperable geospatial solutions in the larger IT domain. The TC also has methodology in place to govern its composition, its meetings and meeting agendas, and voting procedures.
In order to carry out the business of the TC in a timely manner, four different types of subgroups of the TC may be formed. These groups address the four major needs for activity within the TC:
To deal with procedural and definitional tasks (subcommittees, SC)
Committees
The OGC Planning Committee is granted authority to operate by the OGC Bylaws. Principal Membership is provided for organizations that wish to participate in the planning and management of the Consortium`s technology development process.
The Planning Committee has ultimate responsibility for approving Technical Committee recommendations for the adoption and release of specifications, and for Specification Program planning. The Planning Committee: Generates requirements related to markets it is analyzing. Helps maintain and provide direction for the OGC Roadmap. Makes final decisions on issuing RFIs, RFCs, and RFPs (see below). Accepts, rejects, or conditionally accepts Candidate Implementation Specifications as recommended by the Technical Committee. Decides on revisions to existing Adopted Implementation Specifications based on recommendations from the Technical Committee.
The Strategic Management Advisory Committee is conceived to be a permanent committee within the OGC organization, designed specifically to provide Strategic Members the opportunity to participate in the strategic planning processes of the Consortium, and to support Consortium operations aimed at achieving the corporation`s mission as defined in the bylaws. The SMAC is a formal structure defined within the framework of OGC`s bylaws, designed to operate in parallel with the formal technical decision-making process (Planning Committee and Technical Committee) of the Consortium.
Sub Committee (SCs) A Subcommittee is subgroup of the OpenGIS Planning Committee and may interface with other groups or committees.
Working Groups (WGs) A WG is responsible for the development of Implementation Specifications.
Revision Working Groups (RWGs) A RWG is responsible for managing the update and maintenance (revision) process for specific Implementation Specifications. Voting is restricted to designated persons.
Special Interest Groups (SIGs) The structure of Special Interest Groups is like that of Working Groups, with the same voting structure. SIGs have one or more of the following general duties:
FAQs about OGC`s purpose and structure
What is the Open Geospatial Consortium? OGC is a consortium of over 250 companies, agencies and universities working toward a world in which everyone benefits from geographic information and services made available across any network, application, or platform. Click here to view more What does OGC do? OGC manages a global consensus process that results in approved interface and encoding specifications that enable interoperability among and between diverse geospatial data stores, services, and applications. In the OGC, geospatial technology users work with technology providers. Our membership is international and includes universities, Federal government agencies, local government agencies, earth imaging vendors, content providers, database software vendors, integrators, computing platform vendors and other technology providers. OGC facilitates their reaching agreement on OpenGIS® Specifications for interfaces, schemas and architectures. Systems implementing OpenGIS standards can interoperate, whether those systems are running on the same computer or the same network. OGC standards provide essential infrastructure for the Spatial Web, a network of geospatial resources that is thoroughly integrated into Web. What problem is OGC attempting to solve? Much geospatial data is available via the Web and in off-line repositories, but most of these data are stored in different data formats, using different data models, coordinate reference systems, geometry models etc. Thus, sharing spatial data has required considerable time, expertise and special software. OGC manages a consensus process in which specifications for common software interfaces and encodings are developed to enable users to maximize the value of past and future investments in geoprocessing systems and data. What are some difficult activities that OpenGIS Specifications will make easy? The following points answer this question. They are extracted from the INSPIRE architecture document. (INSPIRE is a program to develop a European Spatial Data Infrastructure.) Geospatial information should be easy to find, without regard to its physical location. Once found, geospatial information should be easy to access or acquire. Geospatial information from different sources should be easy to integrate, combine, or use in spatial analyses, even when sources contain dissimilar types of data (raster, vector, coverage, etc.) or data with disparate feature-name schemas. Geospatial information from different sources should be easy to register, superimpose, and render for display. Special displays and visualizations, for specific audiences and purposes, should be easy to generate, even when many sources and types of data are involved. It should be easy, without expensive integration efforts, to incorporate into enterprise information systems geoprocessing resources from many software and content providers. Why is the OGC necessary? The OGC is necessary because cooperation is necessary to solve the difficult interoperability issues in the geospatial marketplace. Some user needs, such as the need to share and reuse geodata in order to decrease costs, get more or better information, and increase the value of data holdings, can only be addressed by cooperation among technology users and providers. The OGC brings together geoprocessing technology users and vendors and provides a formal structure for achieving consensus on our specifications. No single vendor can ``set the standard`` that enables heterogeneous systems to interoperate in an open network environment like the Web. Does OGC promote free software and free data? No. OGC promotes the development and use of consensus-derived publicly available and open specifications that enable different geospatial systems (commercial or public domain or open source) to interoperate. For example, OpenGIS Specifications can be used to geospatially enable interoperable Web based applications and portals. These applications or portals can provide either free or available-for-fee services and data that are widely available to Web users. (See the OpenGIS® Project Document 02-039r1, Web Pricing & Ordering Service (WPOS) XML Configuration & Pricing Format (XCPF) Specification, which describes a standard for e-commerce in geospatial information and services.) Why does OGC often use the words ``geospatial`` instead of ``geographic,`` ``geoprocessing`` instead of ``GIS,`` and ``services`` instead of ``software?`` It is necessary in the standards setting process for OGC`s members to reach agreement on precise technical terms. ``Geographic`` is the right word for graphic presentation -- maps -- of features and phenomena on or near the Earth`s surface. ``Geospatial,`` (or ``spatial``) also refers to data about Earth features and phenomena, but the data are not necessarily graphically presented. Many geoprocessing applications do not involve a human-readable map on a display. ``GIS`` (Geographic Information System) is just one of many technologies used to create, manage, store, analyze and display geospatial data. ``Geoprocessing,`` is more inclusive, referring to GIS and also to systems for Earth imaging, navigation, facilities management, digital cartography, Location Based Services, spatial database operations, and surveying and mapping. OGC addresses all of these. ``Service`` refers to a processing task that is invoked by a client software component and executed by a server software component, usually across a network. Much of the current work in OGC involves geoprocessing via the IT industry`s Web Services standards framework. The OpenGIS Specifications that make this possible are referred to as ``OGC Web Services.``
What is the Open Geospatial Consortium? OGC is a consortium of over 250 companies, agencies and universities working toward a world in which everyone benefits from geographic information and services made available across any network, application, or platform. Click here to view more
What does OGC do? OGC manages a global consensus process that results in approved interface and encoding specifications that enable interoperability among and between diverse geospatial data stores, services, and applications. In the OGC, geospatial technology users work with technology providers. Our membership is international and includes universities, Federal government agencies, local government agencies, earth imaging vendors, content providers, database software vendors, integrators, computing platform vendors and other technology providers. OGC facilitates their reaching agreement on OpenGIS® Specifications for interfaces, schemas and architectures. Systems implementing OpenGIS standards can interoperate, whether those systems are running on the same computer or the same network. OGC standards provide essential infrastructure for the Spatial Web, a network of geospatial resources that is thoroughly integrated into Web.
What problem is OGC attempting to solve?
Much geospatial data is available via the Web and in off-line repositories, but most of these data are stored in different data formats, using different data models, coordinate reference systems, geometry models etc. Thus, sharing spatial data has required considerable time, expertise and special software. OGC manages a consensus process in which specifications for common software interfaces and encodings are developed to enable users to maximize the value of past and future investments in geoprocessing systems and data.
What are some difficult activities that OpenGIS Specifications will make easy?
The following points answer this question. They are extracted from the INSPIRE architecture document. (INSPIRE is a program to develop a European Spatial Data Infrastructure.)
Why is the OGC necessary?
The OGC is necessary because cooperation is necessary to solve the difficult interoperability issues in the geospatial marketplace. Some user needs, such as the need to share and reuse geodata in order to decrease costs, get more or better information, and increase the value of data holdings, can only be addressed by cooperation among technology users and providers. The OGC brings together geoprocessing technology users and vendors and provides a formal structure for achieving consensus on our specifications. No single vendor can ``set the standard`` that enables heterogeneous systems to interoperate in an open network environment like the Web.
Does OGC promote free software and free data?
No. OGC promotes the development and use of consensus-derived publicly available and open specifications that enable different geospatial systems (commercial or public domain or open source) to interoperate. For example, OpenGIS Specifications can be used to geospatially enable interoperable Web based applications and portals. These applications or portals can provide either free or available-for-fee services and data that are widely available to Web users. (See the OpenGIS® Project Document 02-039r1, Web Pricing & Ordering Service (WPOS) XML Configuration & Pricing Format (XCPF) Specification, which describes a standard for e-commerce in geospatial information and services.)
Why does OGC often use the words ``geospatial`` instead of ``geographic,`` ``geoprocessing`` instead of ``GIS,`` and ``services`` instead of ``software?``
It is necessary in the standards setting process for OGC`s members to reach agreement on precise technical terms.
``Geographic`` is the right word for graphic presentation -- maps -- of features and phenomena on or near the Earth`s surface. ``Geospatial,`` (or ``spatial``) also refers to data about Earth features and phenomena, but the data are not necessarily graphically presented. Many geoprocessing applications do not involve a human-readable map on a display.
``GIS`` (Geographic Information System) is just one of many technologies used to create, manage, store, analyze and display geospatial data. ``Geoprocessing,`` is more inclusive, referring to GIS and also to systems for Earth imaging, navigation, facilities management, digital cartography, Location Based Services, spatial database operations, and surveying and mapping. OGC addresses all of these.
``Service`` refers to a processing task that is invoked by a client software component and executed by a server software component, usually across a network. Much of the current work in OGC involves geoprocessing via the IT industry`s Web Services standards framework. The OpenGIS Specifications that make this possible are referred to as ``OGC Web Services.``
Resources
The Open Geospatial Consortium`s Staff and Membership are always developing new information, and ways to share how Geospatial Interoperability matters, and how, through the implementation of OGC`s mission; commerce and governance will be empowered. Here you will find several types of resources to help you along your journey. FAQs about OGC`s purpose and structure Internship Project The OGC has recently developed a resource to link those interested in working on interoperability issues with those who need personnel to do so. The OGC Internship Project provides an electronic bulletin board where students can post their areas of interest and organizations can post their needs. The ultimate goal is to match the needs and goals of these two groups to help move interoperability in the geospatial domain forward. This resource will enable students seeking careers in the geospatial industry and companies who want to grow interoperable geospatial applications to interact and compare interests in order to meet both the student`s and company`s goals. Prospective interns simply fill out an online form detailing interests, skills, availability, and include contact information. Institutions submit information describing open positions and the skills required. The student or company may then scan the Internship pages to see if a prospective match exists. The purpose of the Internship Project is To provide a service to OGC members and non-members that helps prospective interns and institutions or companies find good ``fits`` resulting in the advancement of OpenGIS goals To bring additional benefits of membership, especially university/research members, To provide a sustainable internship program To improve the quality of the fit between individual skills and institutional needs. OGC Network The OGCNetwork™ helps OGC members and the public engage in discussion, testing, and demonstration of OpenGIS(R) based capabilities. While still in an early stage of development, the OGC Network contains a wealth of education and collaboration resources for technology developers, integrators and users. The purpose of the OGC Compliance Testing Program is to permit vendors and users to take advantage of the standards that OGC has created. The program provides a process for testing compliance of products to OpenGIS® Implementation Specifications. OGC compliance tests are available for some but not all OpenGIS Implementation Specifications. OGC is implementing its Compliance Testing Program in phases in step with the maturing of its Implementation Specifications. The current two phases are: Compliance Testing: This determines that a product implementation of a particular Implementation Specification fulfills all mandatory elements as specified and that these elements are operable. Compliance testing may become more stringent over time, especially as a particular Implementation Specification matures. For example, a more stringent version may test that a product implementation of a particular Implementation Specification fulfills all mandatory and implemented optional elements as specified and that these elements are operable, accurate (to a reasonable level of measure), and that the elements handle all reasonable cases correctly including errors. NOTE: Compliance testing WILL NOT ensure, or even test, interoperability of software products. However, as the specifications mature the likelihood of interoperability will be higher. Interoperability Testing: OGC`s ultimate goal is to provide a process for testing interoperability between compliant products. Interoperability Testing determines that a product implementation of an Implementation Specification interoperates with other product implementations of the same Implementation Specification, different but related Implementation Specification(s), or within a particular computing environment. As envisioned, interoperability testing will be implemented as a service and will not result in the use of OGC marks. Email Lists Glossary of Terms The OGC works in the complex and specialized area of software engineering that concerns itself with the attributes and geometries of features and phenomena on or near the Earth`s surface, and with the many kinds of digital processing employed to make this data useful. To enable efficient and precise communication, every specialty, including this one, has its own special terms and special definitions of ordinary words. Facilitating agreement on definitions of geospatial technology terms - for the sake of ``semantic interoperability`` - is appropriately part of OGC`s mission. OpenGIS® CookbooksOGC Cookbooks are free, online, easy-to-use technical documents for developers, and typically include three chapters: Introduction, Implementations and Applications, and Implementer Experiences OpenGIS® Demos OGC Demos are online, live examples of systems that implement OpenGIS® Specifications, or in some cases animations that show how these systems work. Please look and see how interoperable geoprocessing is advancing! OpenGIS® Public Forum The Open Geospatial Consortium has stood up a Public forum as a resource for you to post your comments and pose your questions to OGC, about OGC, or involving OGC. Registered Products
The Open Geospatial Consortium`s Staff and Membership are always developing new information, and ways to share how Geospatial Interoperability matters, and how, through the implementation of OGC`s mission; commerce and governance will be empowered. Here you will find several types of resources to help you along your journey.
Internship Project
The OGC has recently developed a resource to link those interested in working on interoperability issues with those who need personnel to do so. The OGC Internship Project provides an electronic bulletin board where students can post their areas of interest and organizations can post their needs. The ultimate goal is to match the needs and goals of these two groups to help move interoperability in the geospatial domain forward.
This resource will enable students seeking careers in the geospatial industry and companies who want to grow interoperable geospatial applications to interact and compare interests in order to meet both the student`s and company`s goals.
Prospective interns simply fill out an online form detailing interests, skills, availability, and include contact information. Institutions submit information describing open positions and the skills required. The student or company may then scan the Internship pages to see if a prospective match exists. The purpose of the Internship Project is
OGC Network
The OGCNetwork™ helps OGC members and the public engage in discussion, testing, and demonstration of OpenGIS(R) based capabilities. While still in an early stage of development, the OGC Network contains a wealth of education and collaboration resources for technology developers, integrators and users.
The purpose of the OGC Compliance Testing Program is to permit vendors and users to take advantage of the standards that OGC has created. The program provides a process for testing compliance of products to OpenGIS® Implementation Specifications.
OGC compliance tests are available for some but not all OpenGIS Implementation Specifications. OGC is implementing its Compliance Testing Program in phases in step with the maturing of its Implementation Specifications. The current two phases are:
Compliance Testing: This determines that a product implementation of a particular Implementation Specification fulfills all mandatory elements as specified and that these elements are operable. Compliance testing may become more stringent over time, especially as a particular Implementation Specification matures.
For example, a more stringent version may test that a product implementation of a particular Implementation Specification fulfills all mandatory and implemented optional elements as specified and that these elements are operable, accurate (to a reasonable level of measure), and that the elements handle all reasonable cases correctly including errors.
NOTE: Compliance testing WILL NOT ensure, or even test, interoperability of software products. However, as the specifications mature the likelihood of interoperability will be higher.
Interoperability Testing: OGC`s ultimate goal is to provide a process for testing interoperability between compliant products. Interoperability Testing determines that a product implementation of an Implementation Specification interoperates with other product implementations of the same Implementation Specification, different but related Implementation Specification(s), or within a particular computing environment. As envisioned, interoperability testing will be implemented as a service and will not result in the use of OGC marks.
Email Lists
Glossary of Terms The OGC works in the complex and specialized area of software engineering that concerns itself with the attributes and geometries of features and phenomena on or near the Earth`s surface, and with the many kinds of digital processing employed to make this data useful. To enable efficient and precise communication, every specialty, including this one, has its own special terms and special definitions of ordinary words. Facilitating agreement on definitions of geospatial technology terms - for the sake of ``semantic interoperability`` - is appropriately part of OGC`s mission.
OpenGIS® CookbooksOGC Cookbooks are free, online, easy-to-use technical documents for developers, and typically include three chapters: Introduction, Implementations and Applications, and Implementer Experiences
OpenGIS® Demos OGC Demos are online, live examples of systems that implement OpenGIS® Specifications, or in some cases animations that show how these systems work. Please look and see how interoperable geoprocessing is advancing!
OpenGIS® Public Forum The Open Geospatial Consortium has stood up a Public forum as a resource for you to post your comments and pose your questions to OGC, about OGC, or involving OGC.
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