An audience with the President and Chief Executive of the international Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) - JOURNEYING TOWARD GEOSPATIAL INTEGRATION

LINZ, through the New Zealand Geospatial Office, is taking a lead role in helping  government realise productivity gains from geospatial (or location-based) information  and technology. Reviews have established that open standards for location-based  information, and related innovation, can contribute significant returns for the  investment. 

The New Zealand Geospatial Office invites you to a focus session with Mr Mark  Reichardt, President and CEO of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC). This focus session will look at the international issue of emergency/disaster response, drawing  on OGC’s involvement in the response to disasters, from Hurricane Katrina to the  earthquake in Haiti.

During the past decade, the OGC has earned an international reputation for innovating  access to, and the sharing of, geospatial information. The Consortium comprises more  than 400 companies, government agencies, research organisations, and universities  across the world participating in a consensus process to develop publicly available  geospatial specifications. OGC Standards support interoperable solutions that “geo-  enable” the Web, wireless and location-based services, and mainstream IT. These  specifications empower technology developers to make geospatial information and  services accessible and useable with any application that needs to be geospatially  enabled.

Standards for geospatial information are continually evolving and New Zealand is in  an ideal position to influence the next wave of changes as a result of our experience  in responding to the Darfield earthquake.

• Standards are leading the software revolution 
• Stories from Katrina and Haiti 
• Share experiences from Darfield (what worked, what didn’t) 
• Start conversations about next steps why/where New Zealand can be involved in  OGC standards.

This is a rare opportunity to discuss and compare New Zealand’s experiences following the September 2010 Darfield earthquake  and look at how standards for geospatial information can play a vital role in such situations. We would like to share our collective  experiences from Darfield (what worked, what didn’t) and take the opportunity to start conversations about where New Zealand can  be involved in OGC standards.

Following this seminar, Mark Reichardt will also be giving a more general presentation on geospatial standards evolution to a  wider audience and we would like to also invite you to stay for this presentation, together with a spatial community workshop on  geospatial standards later in the day. (See the programme for further information.)

Please also advise in your RSVP if you intend to also attend the rest of the day’s programme. Due to limited space, we are restricted  as to the number of attendees and if needed, will run a waiting list if all places are filled.

For updates on this event visit www.geospatial.govt.nz/events. 

For more information about the OGC, see www.opengeospatial.org. 

I hope you can join us. 

Kevin Sweeney  Geospatial Custodian | New Zealand Geospatial Office

> PROGRAMME 

8:30am Arrival 

9am Presentation: Standards evolution (interoperability) in the face of disaster 

Guest Speaker, Mr Mark Reichardt, President and CE of the OGC 

This is a presentation for emergency/disaster response (and related) organisations to hear Mark Reichardt speak about OGC involvement in responding to disasters, from Katrina to Haiti. 

10:30am Morning tea

11am to 2pm Presentation: Standards evolution – where the greatest innovation is happening  Guest Speaker, Mr Mark Reichardt  Mark will provide an overview of OGC’s current work and the breadth of standards 

12:30pm Light working lunch  

Open forum: Remaining questions for the guest speaker, Mr Mark Reichardt   

Discussion session with a wide audience

2 to 5pm (Two parallel workshops)

Workshop:  Standards conversations that matter 

Led by the New Zealand Geospatial Office 

An open, participative workshop to dicuss ambitions,  opportunities, priorities

To register for the NZGO workshop, email lleeming [at] linz.govt.nz

Workshop: End to end spatial infrastructures for  environmental science 

Hosted by Landcare Research

An opportunity to hear what others are doing and  discuss how New Zealand science could coordinate  its environmental research infrastructure from sensors  through environmental databases to computational  synthesis and evidence based policy.

To register for the Landcare Research workshop, email aldenk [at] landcarereseach.co.nz

3pm Afternoon tea

Wrap up