OGC Calls for Participants in a Major OGC Web Services Testbed

Wayland, MA, February 11, 2005 – The Open Geospatial Consortium Inc. (OGC) announced a Request For Quotations (RFQ) from technology developers interested in a major Interoperability Initiative to develop and enhance OGC Web Services (OWS) standards that enable easy discovery, access and use of geographic data and geoprocessing services. The OGC Web Services Phase 3 (OWS-3) testbed advances OGC Web Services, the set of OpenGIS(R) Specifications for interfaces, schemas and encodings that comprise the interoperability framework for the emerging “Spatial Web.”Building on previous work in other OGC initiatives and technical working groups, selected OWS-3 participants will work collaboratively to extend and “ruggedize” existing and draft OpenGIS standards into a robust and complete interoperability framework for implementing multi-vendor enterprise — and enterprise-to-enterprise — solutions in government and business. The work will address a rich set of requirements provided by OWS-3's public and private sector sponsors. Sponsors include: BAE Systems, IONIC Software, GeoConnections (Canada), Lockheed Martin, MAGIC Services Initiative, National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA), National Technology Alliance (NTA), Oak Ridge National Laboratory, NAVTEQ, Questerra, US Geological Survey (USGS) and other organizations.Participants will work in the following areas:– Common Architecture: Refining the OWS architecture for “publishing, finding and binding” geoprocessing services using the OGC Catalog Service for the Web (CS/W), profiles of CS/W, and the Business Process Execution Language.– Sensor Web Enablement (SWE): Extending the SWE architecture for access to a wide variety of sensor types and for scalability to nationwide sensor deployment. SWE will include in-situ and remote sensors; on fixed and moving platforms; with some sensors requiring tasking. SWE will include work on TransducerML and IEEE 1451. Work on SWE will result in mature specifications for SensorML, Sensor Observation Service, Sensor Planning Service and using CS/W to register sensors.– Geo-Decision Support Services (GeoDSS): Providing the distributed services necessary for a analyst to marshal distributed services from the spatial web to support decision making. GeoDSS includes Information Interoperability providing tools and techniques for making Geography Markup Language (GML) data compliant with application schemas available through WFS for high performance applications. Key will be development of a GeoDSS client for integrated access to numerous OGC services, control of service chaining, and for portrayal of geospatial information.– Geo-Digital Rights Management (GeoDRM): Augmenting the existing OWS access services with digital rights management. This will enable a broader distribution of geospatial data. While data providers are making more and more geospatial data accessible via OGC services, a limiting factor to further growth has become the need to manage the rights to that information.– Open Location Services (OpenLS). New additions and enhancements will be made to the existing Open Location Services framework.The Request for Quotations can be downloaded from http://www.opengeospatial.org/initiatives/?iid=162. A Bidder's Conference (a conference call) will be held, as announced in the RFQ, on February 22, 2005. Questions for the call must be sent to bidder@opengis.org by 2200 GMT on February 18, 2005. The response period begins February 11, 2005 and ends March 14, 2005. The OWS-3 kickoff will take place April 18-22, 2005 and the final demonstration of capabilities will take place in October, 2005. The initiative manager will be Chuck Heazel. For more information on the OWS-3 Initiative, please contact George Percivall, percivall@opengeospatial.orgOWS-3 is part of OGC's Interoperability Program, a global, collaborative, hands-on engineering and testing program that rapidly delivers proven candidate specifications into OGC's Specification Program, where they are formalized for public release. In OGC's Interoperability Initiatives, international teams of technology providers work together to solve specific geoprocessing interoperability problems posed by the Initiatives' Sponsors.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.”