Wayland, Mass., August 12, 2009 – The Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc. (OGC) and the Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization (MISMO) recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU). Under the terms of the MOU, the organizations will collaborate on standards development and outreach to enable and promote the use of Web based geospatial technologies in real property transaction applications.
Mark Reichardt, CEO and president of the OGC, explained that, “The OGC Board, membership and staff are excited about this partnership and the possibilities it brings to both organizations. Real estate by definition is a highly place-based activity. With so many actors involved in real estate development, transactions and forms of management, Web-based geospatial standards can help to further advance the industry in its modernization. MISMO data standards and OGC Service and data standards enable a straightforward path to realizing benefits across this industry.”
“The systemic changes underway in the capital markets only increase the need for data and service standards,” said Ron Duff, Chair of the MISMO Residential Governance Committee. “Lenders, title companies, insurers, appraisers and other stakeholders can more affordably meet MISMO's mission and communicate more efficiently because geospatial information is one of the key cross-over points for everything we do. There's an amazing potential here for countless businesses and agencies to save a lot of time and money.”
The Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization (MISMO) (www.mismo.org), a not-for-profit subsidiary of the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) managed by the Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. (MERS), is the leading technology standards development body for both the Residential and Commercial industry segments. MISMO promotes data consistency throughout the broader industry, reduces processing costs, increases transparency, and boosts investor confidence in mortgages as an asset class, while passing cost savings on to the consumer
The OGC® is an international consortium of more than 385 companies, government agencies, research organizations, and universities participating in a consensus process to develop publicly available geospatial standards. OpenGIS® Standards support interoperable solutions that “geo-enable” the Web, wireless and location-based services, and mainstream IT. OGC Standards empower technology developers to make geospatial information and services accessible and useful with any application that needs to be geospatially enabled. Visit the OGC website at http://www.opengeospatial.org.
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