Dr. Gobe Hobona is the OGC’s Director of Product Management, Standards. In this
role he manages coordination between Standards Working Groups (SWGs) and sets
priorities for standards development (in cooperation with SWG chairs). He also
provides oversight of OGC Application Programming Interface (API) evolution and
harmonization activities. He identifies opportunities for investment in SWG
participation, compliance test development, and initiatives of the Collaborative
Solutions and Innovation Program. He monitors and participates in SWG activities,
as well as organises code sprints to advance standards or verify their design.
Gobe represents OGC on the IST/36 committee on geographic information of the
British Standards Institution (BSI). He also serves as Chair of the OGC Naming
Authority and Co-Chair of the OGC’s Architecture Domain Working Group. He has
previously served on the Open Standards Board of the UK’s Cabinet Office.
Prior to joining OGC staff, Gobe was the Consultancy Team Leader and Head of
Applied Research at Envitia. During his time at Envitia, he was the technical lead of
a multi-year geospatial research project commissioned by a major UK government
ministry. He has also previously held postdoctoral research posts at Newcastle
University and the University of Nottingham.
He holds a PhD in Geomatics from Newcastle University. He also holds a Bachelor
of Science with Honours in Geographic Information Science from Newcastle
University. He is a professional member of both the Royal Institution of Chartered
Surveyors (RICS) and the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM).