OGC Calls For Participation In Geospatial Fusion Testbed

Wayland, MA, USA, April 18, 2000. The Open GIS Consortium, Inc. (OGC) today released a Request For Quotation (RFQ) to solicit technology proposals for the OGC Geospatial Fusion Services Testbed. OGC, in collaboration with In-Q-Tel ( http://www.in-q-tel.com ), will provide cost-sharing funds to partially offset expenses associated with the project. OGC seeks as many participants as possible who can enhance and/or make use of the GFS Testbed. The OGC RFQ and Call for Participation are available online at http://coverage.opengeospatial.org/gfs/ (username/password required).The GFS Testbed Project is designed to support In-Q-Tel and its sponsor, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. Much of the data gathered in the world has a geospatial component that is very important, but because it is usually “located” manually it is not always possible to do more complex analyses. This testbed is targeted to automate the fusion' of inherent geospatial characteristics into an overall information framework. The interfaces for the automation technologies, which we call the “Location Organizer”, will form the foundation for future phases.Proposals are due on May 17, 2000. Phase 1 work is scheduled to complete by mid-October of this year.The project may have multiple phases. Phase One involves advancing a prototype information discovery, dissemination, and visualization framework based on interoperable OpenGIS® web mapping technologies developed in OGC's 1999 Web Mapping Testbed, and the current OGC WMT USL Pilot Project. The existing prototype will become the foundation Location Organizer. The Location Organizer will support tailored fusion of data so users can automatically arrive at conclusions that are either manually accomplished today, or not accomplished at all. Follow on phases will concentrate on fusion and maintenance of the underlying geospatial data themselves, distributed decision support, analytical services, and tailored visualizations of data. Though based on capabilities developed in the 1999 testbed, and the 2000 USL Pilot, the first phase of the project will likely extend current OpenGIS® web mapping specifications to include the capability to encode spatio-temporal objects in the Geography Markup Language and to create and update geographic information across the Web regardless of differences between different vendors' software.The interoperable Location Organizer increases planners' and analysts' ability to visualize interactions between factors such as routes and tracking, rainfall, population density, etc. The basic web mapping dynamically integrates information from multiple online sources into one map image or a series of maps that visually communicate information. The Location Organizer will advance the state of that by leading to actual fusion' of the data. For example, a query for information in the Federal Triangle of Washington, D.C., would yield not only maps and perhaps of photos of the buildings, but text reports and incidents that occurred there as well. Having multiple cooperators' systems work together is critical for regional coordination, but it has been unrealizable prior to the OpenGIS® Specifications that enable interoperation across the Web between different vendors' geoprocessing systems.It is the OGC's intention to coordinate this Testbed with the Web Mapping 2 Testbed, an RFQ for that is scheduled for public release on April 28, 2000.OGC is a not-for-profit, international consortium whose 200+ industry, government, and university members work to make geographic information an integral part of information systems of all kinds.– end –“