Wayland, MA, December 12, 2001 – The Open GIS Consortium, Inc. (OGC) announces that Dr. Mike Jackson, Head of Location Platform, at Hutchison3G UK Ltd (H3G), has joined OGC's Board of Directors.Dr. Jackson is responsible for the architecture and design of the location platform for Hutchison Wampoa's worldwide third generation mobile telecommunications companies He is a Special Professor at Nottingham University in the UK. Before joining H3G, Dr. Jackson was, for ten years, the Chief Executive of Laser-Scan Holdings plc, a leading geographic information systems (GIS) company based in the UK and USA.Dr. Jackson's technical and business experience in bridging the worlds of GIS and Location Services will bring significant insight to OGC's strategic planning discussions. The Board of Directors plays an active role in developing high-level strategic guidelines for OGC programs and conceptualizing such strategically important projects as the recently announced Open Location Services testbed. This project has been designed and implemented to ensure that position-aware wireless Internet devices can be supported by a robust, open and commercially utilized interoperability platform that fully connects the Wireless Internet with the Web's geospatial data and geoprocessing resources.On announcing Dr. Jackson's election, OGC's President, David Schell, referred to Dr. Jackson's long working relationship with OGC and his strong links with European Union geospatial programs, and he praised Dr. Jackson's unique experience in the “spatial enablement of the wireless industry.” Mr. Schell further stated that, “Dr. Jackson was a strong choice of both the OGC board and membership in that he brings to OGC a strong entrepreneurial talent and an invaluable understanding of global business development in both public and private sectors, based on his years of experience in the geospatial community as Chief Executive of Laser-Scan.”Regarding his appointment as a member of the OGC Board of Directors, Dr. Jackson expressed his pleasure at being able to contribute to the OGC's vision and strategic development. “The OGC” he said “has had a tremendous impact on the whole GIS community. Through the dedicated efforts of its member organisations and professional staff it has achieved unprecedented progress towards geospatial interoperability.”OGC is an international industry consortium of over 220 companies, government agencies and universities participating in a consensus process to develop publicly available geoprocessing specifications. OpenGIS Specifications support interoperable solutions that “geo-enable” the Web and mainstream IT, and empower technology developers to make complex spatial information and services accessible and useful with all kinds of applications. Visit the OGC website at www.opengeospatial.org .– end –“