Wayland, MA, USA, February 26, 2002 – What does interoperability look like? Fortunately, interoperability is far more about what it enables, than what it looks like. Open GIS Consortium, Inc. members are preparing to show off their interoperable solutions as part of a real-time demonstration of standards-based commercial off-the-shelf geoprocessing software at the upcoming GITA conference in Tampa, March 17-20, 2002. The demonstration will be presented on the exhibition floor and will include live demonstrations from nearly a dozen OGC members illustrating how, by using OGC Interoperability Specifications, software products can work together, or plug and play, across different vendor brands and computing platforms.Through local area network (LAN) and dial-up connections, vendors will demonstrate how their products take advantage of OGC interfaces to optimize discovery, access, integration and application of geospatial information and applications distributed at various locations across the Internet. Autodesk, CubeWerx, Cadcorp Inc., Dawn Corporation, ESRI, GE Network Solutions, Hitachi Software Global Technology, Intergraph, IONIC Software, MapInfo, Safe Software and other vendors will illustrate a range of OpenGIS® Specifications including Web Map Server, Web Feature Server, Coordinate Transformation, Grid Coverages, Simple Features, Catalog, and Geography Markup Language (GML) Specifications. Conference attendees are encouraged to visit each of the participating vendors for a chance to win a high-tech prize.Bob Samborski, GITA's Executive Director feels “this is an unprecedented opportunity for everyone to gain an appreciation of the implications of interoperability for their organizations. This is a 'must see' event, and I'm delighted that it will be part of our 25th Anniversary Annual Conference!”In addition to the demonstration, OGC will be active in several panels. On Tuesday, March 19, 2002, 3:13-5:00pm, Bruce Cahan of Urban Logic, Inc. will moderate a panel on the rescue and recovery that followed the disaster at New York's World Trade Center, with a major focus on how information consortia serving the needs of government, utility and other infrastructure operators can align investments in spatial information to help mitigate and respond to future disasters. On Wednesday March 20 at 1:00 pm the OGC will join the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) for a roundtable, moderated by Milo Robinson of the FGDC, focusing on the capabilities and challenges of spatial data infrastructures to support collaborating communities. At the same time, OGC's Cliff Kottman will moderate a panel on Web Mapping, highlighting the functionality and use of OGC interfaces.OGC is an international industry consortium of more than 230 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 .Further information about the GITA conference is available at www.gita.org .– end –“