Explore Geographic Digital Rights Management with the GeoData Alliance and Partners

Wayland, MA, USA, April 2, 2004 – The GeoData Alliance and the Open GIS Consortium, Inc. (OGC) invite interested parties to learn about the requirements for and the application of digital rights management (DRM) to geographic activities in a session May 24, 2004 at the Denver, Colorado Adam's Mark Hotel. The session is being held in conjunction with the ASPRS conference, which runs May 23-28, 2004.The GeoData Alliance (GDA) has partnered with OGC and other organizations to advance the implementation of an interoperable digital rights management framework for geographic data and services. Work will be performed as part of a geographic DRM initiative (geoDRM) focused on building consensus among government, businesses and academia regarding the application of open standards to manage digital rights for geospatial data and services. GeoDRM will work to validate a standards-based interoperability framework comprised of OGC Web services specifications and related international standards developed by the broader information technology industry. The initiative will also identify potential interoperability gaps to be addressed by new standards development.DRM is a technology for describing, identifying, trading, protecting, monitoring and tracking all forms of rights usages over both tangible and intangible information assets including management of rights-holders relationships. Geospatial DRM manages all rights, not only the rights applicable to permissions over digital geographic data. The current inability to confidently control the flow of such information activities has been a barrier to broader adoption of Web-based geospatial technologies. The adoption of an open DRM capability that is acceptable to all parties in a Web services transaction environment will enhance the flow of geographic data and information.The morning session, 9am-12pm will include a seminar on the state of the art of rights management technologies by Dr. Brian LaMacchia, a Software Architect for the Windows Security team at Microsoft Corporation in Redmond, WA. Following Dr. LaMacchia's presentation a panel of technologists, geographic information professionals, and librarians will share their perspectives on the technical and social implications of adoption of DRM by the geodata community. Anyone interested in learning about DRM in the context of geospatial data is welcome to participate.An afternoon working group, 1-4 pm, will begin the formulation of a prototype geographic digital rights management reference model. This model will be developed based the outcomes of the Open Data Consortium ( http://www.opendataconsortium.org ) activities. Experienced participants are invited to participate in the model's development. Attendance in this technical session is limited.Registration information for these sessions is available at http://www.geoDRM.org .GDA is a nonprofit membership organization open to all individuals and institutions committed to using geographic information to improve the health of our communities, our economies, and the Earth. The purpose of GDA is to foster trusted and inclusive processes to enable the creation, effective and equitable flow, and beneficial use of geographic information. Learn more: www.geoall.net . For more information on OGC visit www.opengeospatial.org .– end –“