The sheer volume of complex 3D data now available has created challenges concerning access, processing, visualization, and dissemination. Challenges that Cesium believes can only be addressed by engaging with and supporting a community of collaboration and a diverse, interoperable software ecosystem powered by consensus-based open standards.
Another step towards the creation of the OGC Environmental Data Retrieval (EDR) API Standard has been completed: the successful testing of some of the API’s capabilities during the OGC Environmental Data Retrieval API Sprint. The virtual event was held from March 18-20, 2020. A final report detailing the EDR API Sprint is now available on GitHub.
But what is the upcoming EDR API? And how does it improve and simplify access to 'big data'?
Diversity, as a topic, has frequently appeared on the agendas of industry events for years now. OGC is conscious that there is still much work to be done to increase diversity and inclusion, but, with last Sunday being International Women’s Day, we’re taking the opportunity to reflect upon and highlight some of the activities that OGC staff have been involved in with regard to the issues that women still face in the spatial and related industries - while also remaining aware that diversity is much more than just gender equality.
Being open, diverse, inclusive, and accessible are parts of OGC’s core values. As such, OGC has long been a champion for diversity in the industry. Over the years, OGC Staff have participated in a variety of meetings, sessions, and panel discussions organised at industry events by organizations such as the Women in Geospatial+ and GeoChicas networks, among others.
To this end, two “Ideathons” were organized to link the national ambitions with the local interest in successfully adapting their urban settings to changing demographics. The first Ideathon was held 3–4 October, 2019, in Chino City, Nagano Prefecture, Japan with more than 20 participants discussing requirements for, and uses of, the Urban Planning ADE.
But things got really exciting from 12–14 February, 2020, when the second Ideathon was held. More than 310 people in total attended this Ideathon to share their experiences in use of the Urban Planning ADE, OGC KML, and citizen engagement. Participants discussed how to use Urban Planning ADE based on various cases and confirmed its effectiveness from the perspectives of land use, disaster prevention, and co-creation of urban plans with citizens.
A joint OGC / ESIP Coverage and Processing Analytics API development sprint was held on January 6-7, 2020. The Sprint was held in conjunction with the ESIP Winter Meeting. This sprint builds on the OGC API Hackathon in June 2019, and the OGC API Features and Catalogues Sprint in November 2019. The ESIP/OGC sprint focused on OGC API-Coverages, API-Processes, and API-Common as part of the overall development of OGC APIs.
On this #GeoPackageDay 2020 - the 6th anniversary of the format - Jeff Yutzler (GeoPackage SWG Chair) discusses some of the benefits of this portable, extensible, efficient, online/offline container format for geospatial information and maps.
As part of the GeoSmart India event in Hyderabad, India, last December, Dr. M.K. Munshi organised an OGC India Forum meeting. The forum theme centered around the integration of smart systems into national development and government goals through the use of open standards, innovation processes, and partnerships.
Communicating research outputs to scientists, public and private sector administrators, and citizens regarding various real-world phenomena using dynamic, interactive, and understandable visual interfaces is essential for effective decision-making.
The URBAN GEOmatics for Bulk Information Generation, Data Assessment and Technology Awareness (URBAN GEO BIG DATA) is a 3D visualization project built on OGC Standards and Free and Open Source Software (FOSS.).
It is said that timing is everything in life, love and technical innovation.
I am reminded of that truism as the GEOINT community evaluates the state of its analytic tradecraft readiness in the context of the Fourth Generation of Intelligence. An era marked by widely divergent threats, converging information systems, persistent GEOINT leveraging multi-INT sources and the adoption of new analytical methods such as Activity Based Intelligence (ABI) and Object Based Production (OBP). In parallel with these advances in tradecraft, the geospatial Modeling and Simulation (M&S) community is pressing forward with its own new requirements from the Special Operations Forces (SOF) to deliver real-world 3D geo-specific terrain databases compatible with gaming systems technology.
OGC Health Domain Working Group Chair, Ajay K Gupta, discusses the merits of a Health Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) ahead of the publication of OGC's White Paper on the topic.
For much time now, the OGC Health DWG has been working on a white paper to communicate to the health and geospatial communities the value that a Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) can bring to healthcare – and to encourage the development of such a resource for the global community - as SDI can be a platform to aid efforts to achieve healthcare’s twin goals of improving quality while reducing costs.
