Open GIS Consortium Charles Heazel March 19, 2003

What is the OGC? Not-for-profit, international consortium whose 230+ industry, government, and university members work to make geographic information an integral part of information systems of all kinds –Operates a Specification Development Program similar to other Industry consortia (W3C, OMG, etc.). –Operates an Outreach Program (OCAP) to facilitate the adoption of OGC technology and to identify new requirements for interoperability. –Operates an Interoperability Program (IP), a global, innovative, partnership-driven, hands-on engineering and testing program designed to deliver proven specifications into the Specification Development Program. OGC Vision A world in which everyone benefits from geographic information and services made available across any network, application, or platform. OGC Mission Our core mission is to deliver spatial interface specifications that are openly available for global use.

Iterative Development Yielding Tested Specifications Interoperability Program Specification Program Outreach Program Draft Specifications Adopted Specifications Holes and Enhancements SCOTS Implementations Prototype Implementations Requirements

Interoperability Program Process Types of IP Initiatives Feasibility Studies - Research efforts directed at understanding emerging technology areas. Testbeds - Collaborative, applied research and development efforts to develop, architect and test candidate specifications addressing Sponsor requirements. Planning Studies - Strategic studies that assess opportunities to expand and sustain an organization’s interoperability capacity. Pilot Projects - Collaborative testing efforts that apply technology implementing OGC specifications to the real world. Technology Insertion Projects - Collaborative projects focusing on expanding an organization’s interoperability capacity by laying the infrastructure (groundwork) for open implementations.

Interoperability Program Process

Assessment and Analysis Starting with a user community (sponsor) with unmet needs; 1) analyze the sponsors needs, 2) survey the GIS community for relevant technologies and resources, 3) identify the matches and the gaps between capabilities and requirements. Concept Development Develop a program plan for addressing the sponsors needs through; 1) integrating existing capabilities 2) developing new capabilities through a industry wide collaboration effort Architecture Development Develop an initial architecture to structure the initiative; Enterprise view - defines the operational environment Information view - defines the data models and flows Computational view - defines the services and processing capabilities

Interoperability Program Process The Process Initiative Preparation Develop a Request for Quotations (RFQ), OGC and sponsors select participants, allocate cost sharing funding. Note - the sponsors only provide part of the funding. Most of the participant cost of an initiative is provided by the participants themselves. Execute the Initiative In a collaborative environment; develop the technologies that are needed (including prototype software), test the technologies to assure that they work, conduct a public demonstration of the capabilities, document for submission to the specification program.