October 18, 2007, Wayland, MA – At a special presentation ceremony and reception at the Army Navy Club in Washington, D.C. on October 17, 2007, David Schell, Chairman of the Board of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC®), presented the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) with the OGC Vision Award.
The OGC Vision Award, an inscribed marble and brass globe, was established to recognize the remarkable contribution of a member institution to advance the Consortium's vision of the benefits of geospatial information in the world community.
As David Schell explained, "For over a decade, both the leadership and professional staff of NGA have been far-sighted and innovative in their support of OGC programs to lead industry alignment on open standards. Through its ongoing support, NGA has achieved a range of its own organizational objectives, while at the same time enabling broad government, commercial and research community benefits. NGA's leadership has also encouraged other public and private sector organizations to seek active involvement in Consortium programs, accelerating industry's motivation to agree on open geospatial standards."
The OGC® is an international industry consortium of more than 350 companies, government agencies, research organizations, 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.”