OGC Announces Meetings and Canadian Interoperability Day in Ottawa, April 23

Wayland, MA, USA, March 22, 2004 – The Open GIS Consortium (OGC) today announced that PCI Geomatics and GeoConnections — a national partnership initiative led by Natural Resources Canada that is building the Canadian Geospatial Data Infrastructure (CGDI) — are hosting the 49th OGC Technical Committee and Planning Committee meetings April 19 – 22, 2004 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.The OGC also announced that PCI Geomatics and GeoConnections are sponsoring a Canadian Interoperability Day, a one-day event on April 23 to be held at the same location. Canadian agencies, organizations and companies are invited to attend the Canadian Interoperability Day to learn about, witness and discuss the use of the CGDI and OpenGIS specifications that are a central part of the CGDI's standards infrastructure. Vendors of GIS and other geoprocessing systems will showcase their products working together, demonstrating the benefits of interoperability enabled by open interfaces and encodings that comply with OGC's OpenGIS(R) Specifications.Dr. Robert Moses, President and CEO of PCI Geomatics; Dr. Irwin J. Itzkovitch, Assistant Deputy Minister of Natural Resources Canada and Chair of the GeoConnections Management Board; and David Schell, President and CEO of OGC will be among the speakers. There will be technical discussions of the CGDI architecture and the OGC specifications, lessons learned by communities who depend on OGC-enabled interoperability, a panel discussion, and opportunities for networking among users and providers of geospatial technology.The Canadian Interoperability Day is free and open to employees of the Canadian federal government, but attendees must register at OGC's Web site. An agenda, a list of participating companies and other details will be announced in the weeks leading up to the event.About OGCOGC is an international industry consortium of more than 250 companies, government agencies 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 .About GeoConnectionsGeoConnections is the Canadian partnership initiative led by Natural Resources Canada that is coordinating a project to make Canada's geospatial information accessible on the Internet. GeoConnections has two main roles:- Facilitating the creation of the Canadian Geospatial Data Infrastructure (CGDI), which will both harmonize Canada's geospatial databases and make them accessible on the Internet; and – Coordinating the investments and developments of the federal, provincial, territorial and private-sector partners and academia, who are creating the standards, protocols, and access and maintenance processes of the fast-growing collections of geospatial data in Canada. For more information visit www.geoconnections.org .About PCI GeomaticsPCI Geomatics is a world-leading developer of image-centric geomatics software solutions. PCI Geomatics' flagship solution, Geomatica, meets the growing demands of the Remote Sensing, GIS, Cartography, and Photogrammetry worlds. PCI Geomatics is celebrating the beginning of its third decade as an industry-leading geomatics solution provider and has long been recognized for their high-value geomatics software solutions, advanced algorithms, excellent customer assistance, and product support of the widest range of spatial data formats in the industry. Visit the PCI Geomatics web site at www.pcigeomatics.com .– end –“