Questerra Joins OGC as Strategic Member

Wayland, MA, June 27, 2003 – Questerra, a wholly owned subsidiary of MeadWestvaco Corporation (NYSE: MWV), and the Open GIS Consortium (OGC) have announced that Questerra has become a Strategic Member of the OGC. As a leading provider of Web-based spatial visualization and analysis solutions for industry and government, Questerra has a strong interest in playing a leadership role in the development, promotion and implementation of OGC's OpenGIS(R) Specifications for interoperability interfaces. At OGC's highest level of membership, Questerra will participate in OGC's Strategic Advisory Committee, Planning Committee, Technical Committee and Interoperability Program, helping to shape the progress of open architectures that enable the integration of spatial intelligence into information systems of all kinds.”Questerra believes that interoperability plays a critical part in empowering both private and public sector organizations with powerful, easy-to-use spatial visualization and analysis capabilities, said Tim Milovich, CEO of Questerra. “Therefore, it is our desire to assist the OGC in ensuring the successful development of such standards-based architectures within its Geospatial One-Stop Portal (e-GOV), Critical Infrastructure Protection Initiative (Homeland Security), and Property & Land Information Initiative (mainstream IT and State & local). Our becoming a Strategic Member demonstrates our commitment to assisting the OGC in this undertaking.”Standards-based architectures allow enterprises to benefit from easy-to-use Web-based services that give key decision-makers the ability to evaluate their operations in new ways by leveraging the spatial aspects of enterprise data and by combining enterprise data with spatial data from other sources. Analysis, visualization and reporting tools embedded in such Web applications will enable corporations and governments to make quicker, more informed decisions. Standards-based, web services architectures will also be a key factor for E-Government and Federal Enterprise Architectures, providing the backbone to link multiple E-Government solutions to legacy applications and data within and outside the Federal Government.David Schell, OGC's president, said, “OGC is very fortunate that Questerra sees the value of working in OGC to advance their remarkable vision for next generation decision support. As a Strategic Member, Questerra is in a position to provide real leadership on the business intelligence and visualization frontier. Questerra's vision goes beyond mapping and GIS, and it requires an interoperability standards foundation. Questerra's commitment to interoperability will be very good for industry sectors like insurance that stand to benefit immensely from inference based spatial information used in support of business processes.”About QuesterraQuesterra is a provider of information technology and services to Global 2000 companies and governments worldwide. Founded in 2000, the company provides web-based business intelligence mapping, an innovative solution to visual decision support analysis of spatial or location-relevant data sets. The company integrates enterprise data and a comprehensive range of spatial information into an easy-to-use information interface that allows users throughout the enterprise to rapidly query, visualize and analyze disparate data to make more insightful decisions. A wholly owned subsidiary of MeadWestvaco Corporation (NYSE: MWV), Questerra, LLC, is headquartered in Charlottesville, Va., with a technology office and data center located in Orange County, Calif., and sales staff across the United States.For more information about Questerra's web-based decision support solutions for the government, insurance and reinsurance companies, view the company's demo at www.questerra.com, or for more information contact Questerra directly at 866.711.9226, or e-mail sales@questerra.com ; Questerra, 210 Ridge-McIntire Rd., Suite 500, Charlottesville, Va., 22903.About MeadWestvacoMeadWestvaco, headquartered in Stamford, Conn., is a leading global producer of packaging, coated and specialty papers, consumer and office products, and specialty chemicals. Among the principal markets it serves are the automotive, beverage, consumer products, healthcare, media and entertainment, and publishing industries. The company operates in 29 countries and serves customers in nearly 100 nations. Its highly recognized consumer and office brands include AT-A-GLANCE(R), Cambridge, Columbian(R), Five-Star(R), and Mead(R). MeadWestvaco manages strategically located forestlands according to stringent environmental standards and in conformity with the Sustainable Forestry Initiative(R) program. For additional information, visit www.meadwestvaco.com .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 www.opengeospatial.org .– end –“