Putting the “Open” in OGC
Although we’re a member-based organization, the impact of our work extends far beyond our network. OGC publications capture shared expertise in geospatial interoperability, and are the driving force between global geospatial innovation.
Standards
OGC Standards are internationally recognized specifications that let different systems exchange information seamlessly. They are organized by functional area (e.g., data discovery, organization). The functional capabilities of the Web Service Standards are now available as more modern web APIs. Implementers are encouraged to use these newer OGC API Standards.
OGC APIs
Standards that build upon the legacy of the OGC Web Service Standards but define resource-centric APIs that take advantage of modern web development practices.
Services
Standards that implement XML Remote Procedure Calls using the HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP).
Data Models and Encodings — General
Standards that provide general rules to organize geospatial information, typically sent by a service provider or produced by an application.
- 3D Tiles
- Common Query Language (CQL2)
- CoverageJSON
- EO Dataset Metadata GeoJSON(-LD)
- Filter Encoding
- Geodetic data Grid eXchange Format (GGXF)
- Geography Markup Language (GML)
- GeoPose
- Geospatial User Feedback (GUF)
- GeoXACML
- GML in JPEG 2000 for Geographic Imagery
- Indexed 3D Scene Layers (I3S)
- KML
- Observations, Measurements, and Samples
- OGC Cloud Optimized GeoTIFF
- OGC GeoTIFF
- OGC Moving Features
- OGC Open Modelling Interface (OpenMI)
- OGC Two Dimensional Tile Matrix Set
- Open GeoSMS – Core
- Simple Feature Access – Part 1: Common Architecture
- Simple Feature Access – Part 2: SQL Option
- Simple Features for CORBA
- Simple Features for OLE/COM
- Styled Layer Descriptor
- Symbology Conceptual Core Model
- Symbology Encoding
- Time Ontology in OWL
- Training Data Markup Language for Artificial Intelligence
- Well-known text representation of coordinate reference systems
Data Models and Encodings — Domain Specific
Standards that provide domain specific rules to organize geospatial information.
- CityGML
- CityJSON
- Indoor Mapping Data Format (IMDF)
- LAS Specification
- MUDDI
- OGC Augmented Reality Markup Language 2.0 (ARML 2.0)
- OGC Geoscience Markup Language (GeoSciML)
- OGC IndoorGML
- OGC LandInfra / InfraGML
- OGC WaterML
- OGC WaterML 2: Part 4 – GroundWaterML 2 (GWML2)
- PipelineML Conceptual and Encoding Model
- Points of Interest (POI)
- TimeseriesML (TSML)
Publish-Subscribe, Syndication & Context
Standards for subscription management and other syndication purposes.
Sensors
Standards to accessing sensors that are connected to the Web or the Internet of Things (IoT).
Discovery
Standards for searching and finding geospatial resources.
Containers
Standards that specify rules for storing and retrieving geospatial information efficiently.
Abstract Specification
A reference model used in the development of OGC Standards.
COSI Initiatives
COSI Initiatives explore and evaluate future geospatial technologies. Initiative outcomes are detailed in public engineering reports and other deliverables; these are not approved standards documents.
Other Publications
We produce several other types of reports that can be referred to in understanding issues of interoperability; these are not approved standards documents.
Knowledge & Learning
From introductory content to developer resources, we are committed to delivering the learning needed to work with, code and implement, OGC standards. Choose from these available learning resources:
- OGC API Workshop. Learn how to use modern OGC APIs for the discovery, access, visualization and processing of geospatial data.
- Location Innovation Academy. Learn how to make the most out of geospatial platforms and how to integrate geospatial data and services. Modules are available in Spanish.
Policies & Procedures
We institute and follow a set of policies and procedures to fulfil our remit, publishing OGC’s methodology for doing business in the interest of transparency and trust.
Common Definitions
We work to standardize the language of the geospatial industry. OGC’s Registry for Accessible Identifiers of Names and Basic Ontologies for the Web (OGC RAINBOW) is an online vocabulary developed to foster a common understanding of concepts defined either by OGC or by communities that ask us to host them on their behalf. And in the OGC Schema Repository, the order, types and labels of information that describe geospatial datasets are specified. We also maintain a Glossary of Terms to promote use of common terminology.