OGC Newsletter - February 2004
CONTENTS
Presidents MessageConference OpportunitiesWebsite of the MonthDEPARTMENTS:
IP Update, New Members, OGC In The News, Events, Contact, Subscribe/Unsubscribe
Back issues of OGC News are available.
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PRESIDENTS MESSAGE
Enterprise Integration and OGC's Roots
OGC staff and many members talk about "spatially enabling the enterprise" and the OGC Planning Committee now has an Enterprise Architecture SIG. What does this focus on "the enterprise" mean for GIS users and remote sensing experts working in a university, government or non-governmental organization (NGO) setting? Though the Web Services trend is largely driven by, and its language colored by, business imperatives, Web accessible applications and services make it easier for all GIS users and remote sensing experts to discover, access, share and use geospatial data.
In corporations, some communications and transactions take place between people and offices within the corporation and others involve people, businesses and agencies outside the corporation. In characterizing these information flows, the dominant themes are change and heterogeneity. Therefore, the overall information system design ("enterprise architecture") must ensure flexibility. Only open interfaces enable the interoperability necessary to provide this flexibility.
The OGC has been defining and approving Web based interface specifications since before the term "Web Services" was coined. And the effective use of "spatial intelligence" gives businesses a competitive edge. So it is natural that corporations come to OGC with an interest in "spatially enabling the enterprise." This causes staff and members to pay close attention to "business objects," "service-based geoprocessing," "service brokers," OASIS and other terms, organizations and issues more familiar to corporate CIOs than to traditional GIS and remote sensing system users.
This coming together of two domains is a win-win situation for OGC's corporate and non-corporate stakeholders. Information flows in a research community or a watershed management community can be just as complex as those in a commercial value chain. So, though most researchers and local government officials don't yet know it, they are about to develop a rewarding relationship with OGC Web Services. Old data discovery, data access, data management and data sharing woes will begin to evaporate and costs will go down. These users will owe their good fortune to the positive competition/technology feedback loop that is driving Web-based enterprise computing. Conversely, most businesses implementing spatial processing capabilities do not yet appreciate it, but they are blessed by OGC's success in yoking together business and non-business spatial technologies. The rigor and richness of GIS and remote sensing, integratable with "business logic" through the Consortium's attention to enterprise computing, are bringing business benefits that would have been unobtainable if OGC were not securing the alignment today.
David Schell
President, OGC
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CONFERENCE OPPORTUNITIES
Europe
- IBC's Mobile Location Services Conference 2004
OGC is a sponsor for the upcoming Mobile Location Services Conference organized by IBC. This 8th annual event is scheduled for 26th and 27th May in Amsterdam. Last year's conference drew 125 people from 26 countries. OGC will be presenting a paper on OpenLS. OGC members are entitled to a 10% discount on registration. Contact Mark Reichardt for visit the website for details.
North America`
- Interoperability Demonstrations
OGC will be hosting on the exhibit floor interoperability demonstrations at GeoTec, March 28-30 in Toronto, GITA, April 25-28 in Seattle and Multi-INT 2004, May 18-19 in Arlington, VA. These are great opportunities to see how different products, from different vendors can plug and play. OGC members and staff will be on-hand to explore how these solutions can solve real world challenges.
- Interoperability Day
There will be an Interoperability Day event in connection with the OGC meeting in Ottawa, Canada in April. These are opportunity for local GIS users to explore OpenGIS specifications, technology and provide input to the process.
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WEBSITE OF THE MONTH
A swath from Radarsat is shown.
"The web mapping client is an in-house development that I did someyears ago. It uses DHTML techniques for loading the WMS imagery. Thereis also a prototype map viewer (nearly the same page, but without thesatellite imagery) that understands web map context documents... I amcurrently working on porting this code over to an open source projectcalled 'mapbuilder' which has adherence to the OGC specs as one of itsguiding principles."
The Radarsat image shows a
freeze up of the Great Slave Lake.
Adair notes that CCRS "has been using WMS for several years, since 1.0.0."
Know of a website that uses OpenGIS specifications to solve a real world problem or demonstrates an interesting use? Drop the adena [at] opengeospatial.org (editor)an e-mail with the details including the URL, organization behind thewebsite, specifications used, technology used and the goal of thewebsite.
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IP UPDATE
OGC Web Services (OWS-2)
The kickoff for OWS-2 will take place March 8-10 in Landover, Maryland. The initiative will run through mid-August 2004. Some of the areas that OWS-2 will be addressing include: extensions to Open Location Services, application schema development to support different business sectors, creation of SOAP and WSDL profiles of OGC Web services, and managed service chaining of OGC web services.
The project will also focus on Image Handling and Decision Support as well as further development of compliance tests (tests for Web Coverage Service and Catalog Services).
Emergency Mapping Symbology (EMS-1)
This initiative continues to make progress, and the initiative is on track for completion by late March 2004. Look for demonstrations of EMS capabilities as part of the Interoperability Day to be held at the conclusion of OGC meetings in Ottawa (23 April 2004).
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NEW MEMBERS
OGC welcomes new members who joined us recently.
Universidad Politecnico de Madrid
University
Earth Resource Mapping Ltd.
Associate
Collaxa
Associate
KORDAB International AB
Associate
M.O.S.S. Computer Grafik Systeme GmbH
Associate
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OGC IN THE NEWS
OGC in the Press
Little Back Corners
XML.com
John E. Simpson
February 25, 2004
2004 - The Year Web Services Go Mainstream
Directions Magazine
Joe Francica
February 11, 2004
Interoperability - Why it Makes Good Business Sense
Directions Magazine
Dr. Ignacio Guerrero
February 10, 2004
Interoperable GeoBase Data Services
ESRI Canada
February 10, 2004
IONIC RedSpider Studio Powers the Geospatial One-Stop-Transportation Portal
February 9, 2004
Look for the OpenGIS Certification Mark
GeoWorld
David Schell
iIETF Closes in on Linking Geographic Info, Presence
Instant Messaging Planet
January 28, 2004
OGC Interoperability Add-On for ArcGIS Now Available
January 28, 2004
OGC Press Releases
Software Developers Leverage Online OGC Compliance Testing Capability
February 20, 2004
OGC Members Show Geospatial Software Interoperability at U.N.
January 30, 2004
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EVENTS
March 28-30, 2004
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
The GeoTec Event - Pathways to Integration:
April 19-23, 2004
Ottawa, Canada
OGC Technical and Planning Committee Meetings
April 25-28, 2004
Seattle, Washington
GITA Annual Conference
April 27-28, 2004
Crete, Greece
AGILE Tutorial and Workshop on Interoperability for Geoinformation
May 18-19, 2004
Arlington, VA
Multi-INT 2004
May 26-27, 2004
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
IBC Mobile Location Services Conference 2004
June 14-18, 2004
Southampton, UK
50th OGC TC/PC Meetings - special events planned, stay tuned!
July 5-23, 2004
Near Florence Italy
Summer School on Geographic Information Science
July 25-29, 2004
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
GML Days 2004
For further info on events please contact gbuehler [at] opengeospatial.org (Greg Buehler).
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CONTACT
Please send comments and suggestions to:
adena [at] opengeospatial.org (Adena Schutzberg)
Editor, OGC News
Open GIS Consortium
35 Main Street Suite 5
Wayland MA 01778-5037
USA Phone: +1 508 655 5858
Fax: +1 508 655 2237
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Copyright 2004 by the Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc.
