Wayland, MA, March 10, 2005 – The Open Geospatial Consortium Inc. (OGC) has begun a “GML in JPEG” Interoperability Experiment to test and refine a draft implementation specification that defines how Geography Markup Language is to be used within JPEG 2000 data packages for geographic imagery.This Interoperability Experiment will implement several prototype GMLJP2 codecs (a codec is a data “compressor/decompressor”) based on the OGC draft specification, “GML in JPEG 2000 for Geographic Imagery” (OGC project document 04-045). The purpose is to confirm that the specification will support the requirements of geospatially related imagery over the Internet, and to improve the specification if it does not support these requirements. The participants will perform several individual experiments of increasing complexity and will demonstrate encoding similar to GeoTIFF.The initiator organizations are Galdos Systems, Inc. (Canada); LizardTech, Inc. (US); and the European Union Satellite Centre (Spain). Participant organizations are DM Solutions Group (Canada); ITT Industries Space Systems Division (US); SPOT Image (France); US Geological Survey, Astrogeology; US NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory; and Intergraph (Z/I Imaging) (US).The draft specification “GML in JPEG 2000 for Geographic Imagery” was submitted to OGC by Galdos Systems Inc. and Lizard Tech. The proposed specification includes:– Specification of the uses of GML within JPEG 2000– Packaging mechanisms for including GML within JPEG 2000.– GML application schemas for encoding of OGC coverages within JPEG 2000.Results of the experiment will include an Interoperability Experiment Report and a demonstration of the interoperable components developed in the experiment.An Interoperability Experiment is a process led and executed by OGC members to achieve a narrowly defined technical objective that furthers the OGC Technical Baseline. Prospective participants can contact George Percivall for more information.The OGC is an international industry consortium of more than 270 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. Visit the OGC website at http://www.opengeospatial.org.”