OGC Announces Geographic Objects Study Results

Results support extending OGC Web Services to other Distributed Computing Platforms.Wayland, Massachusetts, USA. December 11, 2002 – Members of the Open GIS Consortium, Inc. (OGC) announced the completion of the Geographic Objects (GO-1) Initiative Feasibility Study.The GO-1 Feasibility Study, sponsored by the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) and Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR), evaluated the possibility of building a set of standard object definitions for building geospatial systems. This study assessed current OGC Web Services technology and examined the feasibility of extending that technology to other distributed computing environments, leveraging a robust modeling approach for interoperability. In addition, it examined work on standardizing application level objects and the possibility of integrating these objects with an OGC Web Services inspired infrastructure. Responses to a September 6, 2002 Geographic Objects Feasibility Study Request for Technology were received from thirteen organizations. Their recommendations addressed how platform independent and platform specific models, as well as application objects, can be developed to meet the Geographic Objects requirements. The study is available at http://ip.opengeospatial.org/go1/ .Members of the Java open source community, commercial vendors, and the Open GIS Consortium are all addressing parts of the Geographic Objects problem. Uniting these efforts under a common initiative is important to producing a coherent solution for geographic objects. Parties interested in sponsoring further work on an OGC Geographic Objects should contact Chuck Heazel at cheazel@opengeospatial.org .The Geographic Objects Feasibility Study 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 Initiative's sponsoring organizations. Questions about the Interoperability Program should be addressed to Mr. Jeff Harrison, Executive Director, jharrison@opengeospatial.org , (703) 491-9543.OGC ( www.opengeospatial.org ) is an international industry consortium of more than 230 companies, government agencies and universities participating in a consensus process to develop publicly available geoprocessing specifications. OpenGIS® Specifications support interoperable solutions that “geo-enable” the Web and mainstream IT, and empower technology developers to make complex spatial information and services accessible and useful with all kinds of applications.– end –“