Wayland, Massachusetts, USA May 9, 1996 – The Open GIS Consortium, Inc. (OGC) announces that the “OpenGIS(TM) Guide: An Introduction to Interoperable Geoprocessing, Part 1 of the Open Geodata Interoperability Specification (OGIS)” was recently completed and is now available to the public. This 134 page book, compiled from the submitted proposals and minutes of OGC Technical Committee meetings over the last eighteen months, and edited by Kurt Buehler and Lance McKee, provides a detailed description of the rationale and technical content of OGIS. Engineering specifications for implementing OGIS-based software on various distributed computing platforms such as OLE/COM, CORBA, Java, etc. will be coming out of the OGIS Project over the next several years. In addition to an introduction and description of the technical goals of OGIS, the “OpenGIS Guide” includes chapters on: the distributed computing technology foundations that underlie OGIS; the Open Geodata Model; Information Communities; and the OGIS Services Model. “The Guide” can be purchased from OGC for $55.50 (for mailing within U.S., $59.50 for mailing outside of U.S.). It can also be viewed in its entirety and downloaded from OGC’s public Web site, http://www.opengeospatial.org. About OGC OGC, a consortium of more than sixty corporations, government agencies, non-governmental organizations, and universities, coordinates collaborative development of an open geoprocessing software framework and helps organizations work together to develop business approaches related to this new technology. OGC’s goal is to create common interfaces that integrate geographic information systems (GIS), Earth imaging, digital cartography, facilities management, navigation, surveying, and other spatial technologies so that users will have unimpeded network-based access to heterogeneous geodata and geoprocessing resources. OGC’s efforts ensure that geographic information of all kinds will be an important and fully integrated part of the emerging national and global information infrastructures, serving a wide range of human needs.
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