Orleans, France, December 10, 2008: An OGC Interoperability Day was held Tuesday, 9 December, 2008, at BRGM in Orleans, France. This event, organized by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) France Forum with the support of the Conseil Régional du Centre, followed the OGC Technical Committee meeting, an international event held last week in Valencia, Spain.

OGC Interoperability Days provide opportunities for business, government and academic organizations working in areas such as environment, urban planning, defense, construction, water, and earth observation to learn about the current state of interoperability in the field of geographic information.

Established in April 2008, the French Forum of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) is a platform for government, academic, research and industry organizations in France to learn about and discuss issues related to interoperability of geographic information involving OGC standards. The Forum seeks to promote interoperability and create synergy between the various producers and users of geographic information and geomatics products and services in France. The Forum also provides a way for French organizations to  coordinate their efforts to ensure that French requirements are addressed by the international standards of the OGC. To date, the French Forum of the OGC has among its members: AIS, Autodesk Inc., Bentley Systems, BRGM, Cadcorp Ltd., Camptocamp SA, CLS, CNES, CNIG, CS Information Systems, EADS Astrium, ERDAS Inc., ESRI France, Générale d'Computer, GeoConcept SA, GEOMATYS, GEOSYSTEMS France, IGN, OIEau, Spot Image, Thales Alenia Space France, and Thales Communications France.

The OGC(R) is an international consortium of more than 365 companies, government agencies, research organizations, and universities participating in a consensus process to develop publicly available geospatial standards. OpenGIS(R) Standards support interoperable solutions that "geo-enable" the Web, wireless and location-based services, and mainstream IT. OGC Standards empower technology developers to make geospatial information and services accessible and useful with any application that needs to be geospatially enabled. Visit the OGC website at http://www.opengeospatial.org.