1. What is the Open Geospatial Consortium?
2. What does OGC do?
3. What problem is OGC attempting to solve?
4. What are some difficult activities that OpenGIS Specifications will make easy?
5. Why is the OGC necessary?
6. Does OGC promote free software and free data?
7. What are the roles of the OGC Board of Directors, Planning Committee and Technical Committee?
8. Why does OGC often use the words "geospatial" instead of "geographic," "geoprocessing" instead of "GIS," and "services" instead of "software?"
9. Why should an individual take Individual Membership in the OGC?

Q: What is the Open Geospatial Consortium?

A: OGC is a consortium of over 365 companies, agencies and universities working toward a world in which everyone benefits from geographic information and services made available across any network, application, or platform. OGC is organized as a tax-exempt "membership corporation," as defined in section 501(c)(6) of the US tax code. The mission of the OGC is to promote the development and use of advanced open systems standards and techniques in the area of geoprocessing and related information technologies. OGC is supported by Consortium membership fees and, to a lesser extent, development partnerships and publicly funded cooperative programs.

[ Top ]

Q: What does OGC do?

A: OGC manages a global consensus process that results in approved interface and encoding specifications that enable interoperability among and between diverse geospatial data stores, services, and applications. In the OGC, geospatial technology users work with technology providers. Our membership is international and includes universities, Federal government agencies, local government agencies, earth imaging vendors, content providers, database software vendors, integrators, computing platform vendors and other technology providers. OGC facilitates their reaching agreement on OpenGIS® Specifications for interfaces, schemas and architectures. Systems implementing OpenGIS standards can interoperate, whether those systems are running on the same computer or the same network. OGC standards provide essential infrastructure for the Spatial Web, a network of geospatial resources that is thoroughly integrated into Web.

[ Top ]

Q: What problem is OGC attempting to solve?

A: Much geospatial data is available via the Web and in off-line repositories, but most of these data are stored in different data formats, using different data models, coordinate reference systems, geometry models etc. Thus, sharing spatial data has required considerable time, expertise and special software. OGC manages a consensus process in which specifications for common software interfaces and encodings are developed to enable users to maximize the value of past and future investments in geoprocessing systems and data. That general need points to three more specific classes of user needs:

1. The need to share and reuse data in order to decrease costs (avoid redundant data collection), get more or better information, and increase the value of data holdings.
2. The need to choose the best tool for the job, and to reduce technology and procurement risk (i.e., the need to avoid being locked in to one vendor).
3. The need for more people with less training to benefit from using geospatial data in more applications: That is, the need to leverage investments in software and data.

Those three classes of user needs point to the following still more specific needs:

1. The need for organizations to have access to each other`s spatial information without copying and converting whole data sets. This includes:
   • The need for passing data and instructions between different vendor`s systems.
   • The need to easily use data in various data models, formats and coordinate systems.
   • The need to visually integrate map displays from different data servers.
   • The need to find and evaluate data and services held in other locations.
   • The need to understand and overcome the differences between different data models.
2. The need to have the pieces of a solution work together. This includes:
   • The need to add or replace a capability in a current system, regardless of vendor, with minimal integration costs, and have it work seamlessly.
   • The need to understand the interoperability requirements of application domains and define architecture profiles and application design strategies for each.
   • The need to integrate geoprocessing Web services with mainstream Web services, and to develop "loosely coupled systems" using network-resident services.
3. The need to base geoprocessing on the World Wide Web open architecture. This includes:
   • The need to follow common best practices, to create 'reusable' data and components. Once users have geoprocessing, they want their systems to work together. Once their systems work together with other systems on the open network, new opportunities/needs arise that require a standards foundation:
   • The need to organize geographic data stored in text and on video, audio, and other media.
   • The need to access and process on-line sensor data from multiple sources.
   • The need for Location Based Services that are portable across devices, networks, and providers.
   • The need to apply different symbology to data for different applications.
   • The need to take advantage of grid computing for geoprocessing applications.
   • The need for standards supporting e-commerce in spatial data and services.

[ Top ]

Q: What are some difficult activities that OpenGIS Specifications will make easy?

A: The following points answer this question. They are extracted from the INSPIRE architecture document. (INSPIRE is a program to develop a European Spatial Data Infrastructure.)

• Geospatial information should be easy to find, without regard to its physical location.
• Once found, geospatial information should be easy to access or acquire.
• Geospatial information from different sources should be easy to integrate, combine, or use in spatial analyses, even when sources contain dissimilar types of data (raster, vector, coverage, etc.) or data with disparate feature-name schemas.
• Geospatial information from different sources should be easy to register, superimpose, and render for display.
• Special displays and visualizations, for specific audiences and purposes, should be easy to generate, even when many sources and types of data are involved.
• It should be easy, without expensive integration efforts, to incorporate into enterprise information systems geoprocessing resources from many software and content providers.

[ Top ]

Q: Why is the OGC necessary?

A: The OGC is necessary because cooperation is necessary to solve the difficult interoperability issues in the geospatial marketplace. Some user needs -- such as the need to share and reuse geodata in order to decrease costs, get more or better information, and increase the value of data holdings -- can only be addressed by cooperation among technology users and providers. The OGC brings together geoprocessing technology users and vendors and provides a formal structure for achieving consensus on our specifications. No single vendor can "set the standard" that enables heterogeneous systems to interoperate in an open network environment like the Web.

Standardization is the reason for the success of the Internet, the World Wide Web, e-Commerce, and the emerging wireless revolution. The reason is simple: our world is going through a communications revolution on top of a computing revolution. Communication means "transmitting or exchanging through a common system of symbols, signs or behavior." Standardization means "agreeing on a common system." Someone needs to set standards to help people publish, discover, display, and use digital geospatial data. It serves both providers and users of geospatial technology to have an international, open, inclusive standards-setting process.

[ Top ]

Q: Does OGC promote free software and free data?

A: No. OGC promotes the development and use of consensus-derived publicly available and open specifications that enable different geospatial systems (commercial or public domain or open source) to interoperate. For example, OpenGIS Specifications can be used to geospatially enable interoperable Web based applications and portals. These applications or portals can provide either free or available-for-fee services and data that are widely available to Web users. (See the OpenGIS® Project Document 02-039r1, Web Pricing & Ordering Service (WPOS) XML Configuration & Pricing Format (XCPF) Specification, which describes a standard for e-commerce in geospatial information and services.)

It is important not to confuse "open source" with "open standards." They are entirely different. The special licenses that govern use and sale of open source software exist not to ensure profits to the software`s owner, but to ensure that the software`s source code remains in the public domain (free to all), though companies are allowed to sell products that include some or all of the source code. Open source software is usually developed not by a single company but by a distributed, informal team of developers. Open source software developers use OpenGIS Specifications for the same reasons commercial developers use them: to make their products interoperate with others.

[ Top ]

Q: What are the roles of the OGC Board of Directors, Planning Committee and Technical Committee?

A: The OGC Board of Directors is comprised of respected leaders in OGC's stakeholder communities who are elected by the OGC Planning Committee. Directors need not be affiliated with OGC member organizations, and joining at the highest level of membership does not guarantee a seat on the Board. The Board maintains OGC's bylaws and strategic plan and approves the corporate business plan.

The OGC Planning Committee is composed mainly of Principal and Strategic Member representatives. The Planning Committee provides guidelines and a management structure for OGC's Technical Committee and Interoperability Program. The Planning Committee is charged with business planning for OGC as well as management of the consortium's technology release process and strategic member programs. The OGC Planning Committee approves special negotiated memberships and committee participation.

The Technical Committee (TC) is where the formal specification consensus process occurs. The Technical Committee is comprised of a number of working groups (WGs). These WGs provide a forum for discussion of key interoperability issue areas, discussion and review of specifications, and presentations on key technology areas relevant to solving geospatial interoperability issues. The primary service of the TC is the processing and adoption of OpenGIS Specifications (which are often drafted in OGC testbeds). The TC is also responsible for the maintenance and revision of OGC's adopted specifications. The Technical Committee is organized to focus on both general and domain-specific specification development.

[ Top ]

Q: Why does OGC often use the words "geospatial" instead of "geographic," "geoprocessing" instead of "GIS," and "services" instead of "software?"

A: It is necessary in the standards setting process for OGC's members to reach agreement on precise technical terms.

-- "Geographic" is the right word for graphic presentation -- maps -- of features and phenomena on or near the Earth's surface. "Geospatial," (or "spatial") also refers to data about Earth features and phenomena, but the data are not necessarily graphically presented. Many geoprocessing applications do not involve a human-readable map on a display.

-- "GIS" (Geographic Information System) is just one of many technologies used to create, manage, store, analyze and display geospatial data. "Geoprocessing," is more inclusive, referring to GIS and also to systems for Earth imaging, navigation, facilities management, digital cartography, Location Based Services, spatial database operations, and surveying and mapping. OGC addresses all of these.

-- "Service" refers to a processing task that is invoked by a client software component and executed by a server software component, usually across a network. Much of the current work in OGC involves geoprocessing via the IT industry's Web Services standards framework. The OpenGIS Specifications that make this possible are referred to as "OGC Web Services."

[ Top ]

Q: Why should an individual take Individual Membership in the OGC?

A: A new Individual Membership option was created by the OGC in 2007 to enable independent consultants and other individuals to participate in the OGC. This new option enables individual technology developers and technology users to enjoy many of the same benefits that organizations enjoy through membership, as described in the answers to the other FAQs on this page. Individual Membership in the OGC also provides opportunities for individuals to advance their understanding of technical issues and to increase their visibility and standing in the professional community. These opportunities are frequent and ongoing, and OGC is the only professional organization focused on geospatial interoperability, a field that is rapidly growing in scope, importance and visibility in the world of information and communication technology.

[ Top ]