What is the OGC?
OGC Newsletter - December 2002
CONTENTS
Editor's NotePresidents MessageNews From the Thousand Oaks MeetingAustralian Tender Highlights OpenGIS SpecificationsInteroperability Program NotesWhat`s New on the OGC WebsiteNew MembersMember CornerOGC In The NewsEventsContactSubscribe/UnsubscribeBack issues of OGC News are available.
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EDITOR'S NOTE
As we move from 2002 to 2003, we like to take OGC News in some new directions.
First, if you, your municipality, organization, or country has a story to tell about how OpenGIS Specifications(R) are solving problems and enabling new kinds of interoperability, please let us know.
Second, we'd like you, our readers, to use OGC News as a forum for your questions. What OGC does can look like a continuously changing blur and so can the various technologies we draw upon. Do you have a question about how something works? Or how our specifications play out in a particular area? Drop us an e-mail message and we'll try to answer general interest questions, in plain English, in a new column called "Ask OGC."
Thanks for your continued support of OGC's mission and look for the next issue in late January. Happy New Year.
Adena Schutzberg
Editor, OGC News
adena [at] opengeospatial [dot] org
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PRESIDENTS MESSAGE
For the Sake of the Commonwealth
Since the first patent law was enacted in Venice in 1474, patent protection has been granted by governments to stimulate innovation "for the sake of the commonwealth." Ownership of an idea is not an inalienable right, but is a limited right granted to an inventor through a social contract. Inventors are promised time-limited monopoly on their inventions' commercial use. Society grants this protection to stimulate development of new inventions in which it eventually gains unrestricted commerce. Patents are becoming a critical issue for information technology (IT) industry consortia, including OGC, as described below. As the discussion evolves, the key phrase to remember is "for the sake of the commonwealth."
Sometimes patents are granted wrongly to someone whose idea is not innovative as claimed. Last summer, in response to a request from Carl Reed, Executive Director of the OGC Specification Program, OGC members helped compile numerous examples of publicly documented Web mapping applications implemented prior to August 1995. These applications are "prior art" very similar to the technology described in European Patent EP 0845124 B1, dated August 16, 1995 and associated US Patent 6240360 dated May 29, 2001, both of which, in effect, claim original invention of Web mapping.
If the owner of these patents were to sue Web mapping software vendors for patent infringement, I believe the vendors would prevail by claiming that prior art had been overlooked when the patent was granted. But the larger issue raised by this case is the issue of whether any patents should be granted on essential parts of the world's information technology infrastructure. In a longer essay, there would be room to discuss ridiculous patents on mouse clicks and metadata, consortium policies on royalty-free technologies, and whether society ought to in some cases invoke compulsory licensing or "eminent domain," or perhaps cut back on the duration of IT patents to reflect the time-to-market and product life-cycle realities of the IT industry. A longer essay would also explain how public infrastructure supports innovation, freedom, fairness and prosperity and it would offer criteria for defining IT infrastructure elements that qualify as part of the "commons."
I encourage OGC members and others to consider and discuss these issues and participate in their resolution through democratic processes. We must not forget that as a technology consortium OGC and its members exist in a world of institutions and social policy, and that if we lose sight of our place within that world we diminish our potential to serve it. I believe we will find that OGC's requirements-driven, user-driven process is quite unique and is a model that will prove useful as society sets about reconciling the sometimes conflicting needs and claims of classes of IT stakeholders.
David Schell, President, OGC
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NEWS FROM THE THOUSAND OAKS MEETING
The December OGC Technical and Planning Committee meetings in Thousand Oaks, California, sponsored by General Dynamics, were busy and productive. The following key votes and actions occurred during the meetings, the 43rd set:
- The Web Coverage Service draft implementation specification (OGC Document 02-024) was approved for release as a public Request for Comment. The closing date for comments is January 17, 2003. http://www.opengeospatial.org/press/pressrelease/20021218_WCS_RFC_PR.htm
- New Web Feature Service and Style Layer Descriptor Revision Working Groups were formed. These groups will work on evaluating and incorporating enhancements and corrections documented in formal change proposals to these two specifications.
- A new Catalog Revision Working Group has been formed. The primary work effort for this group will be to harmonize the existing Catalog Interface Specification 1.1 with the Service Registry work being done in the OGC Web Services Initiative.
- An OGC Technical Document Baseline was approved. This Baseline document will be posted to the OGC website and is a single table reference containing the latest versions of all approved OGC implementation and abstract specifications as well as public Discussion and Recommendation Papers.
- RFP 12, Complex Geometry, has been withdrawn. It may be re-issued at a later date.
- The Web Pricing & Ordering Service (WPOS) OGC Document 02-39r1 will be released as an OGC Public Discussion Paper. This document describes a general pricing approach for computing transaction fees for spatial data obtained over the Internet.
- Once informative "boxes" highlighting issues that require harmonization are incorporated, the SensorML IPR (OGC Document 02-026r4) will be released as an OGC Public Discussion Paper. SensorML provides a common XML based framework for encoding and communicating sensor (dynamic or in-situ) sensor data.
- Once the final GML 3.0 document is posted, an electronic vote will be held. If successfully, GML 3.0 will become an adopted OpenGIS Specification. This means that GML 3.0 will become a public document in late January or early February.
- There were numerous changes to the OGC Technical Committee Special Interest Group and Working Group structure. The two key changes are:
All active Special Interest Groups have been changed to Working Groups. This change will reduce complexity in the Technical Committee structure and process.
The WWW SIG and the Architecture SIG have been merged into the Architecture Working Group.
All active Special Interest Groups have been changed to Working Groups. This change will reduce complexity in the Technical Committee structure and process.
The WWW SIG and the Architecture SIG have been merged into the Architecture Working Group.
- The next OGC meeting is being held in Annapolis, Maryland on Feb 10-14, 2003.
Carl Reed, Director, Specifications Program
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AUSTRALIAN TENDER HIGHLIGHTS OPENGIS SPECIFICATIONS
A tender aimed at providing an interactive graphical facility for the community to interact with Councils to locate and use local services/facilities in Australia is currently up for bid. The documents note the importance of open interfaces and standards and explicitly mention OpenGIS specifications. More in formation is available at:
http://www.local-e.nsw.gov.au/phase2/tenders.html
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INTEROPERABILITY PROGRAM NOTES
- A Request for Quotations (RFQ)/Call for Participation (CFP) in the OGC Geospatial One-Stop Portal Initiative (GOS-PI) was issued in mid-December. Responses to the RFQ/CFP, available at http://ip.opengeospatial.org/gos-pi/, are due January 22, 2003. GOS-PI aims to build a standards-based portal for geospatial information discovery, access, and mapping. OGC is partnering with the Geospatial One-Stop project on this work. Led by the Department of the Interior, GOS is one of 24 US Office of Management and Budget E-Government initiatives to improve effectiveness, efficiency, and customer service throughout all layers of government. Geospatial One-Stop builds upon National Spatial Data Infrastructure objectives to enhance interoperability among geographic components of government activities. More information about Geospatial One-Stop is available at http://www.geo-one-stop.gov/.
- Geographic Objects (GO-1) Feasibility Study
The Open GIS consortium has developed a robust set of Web-based technology. The Geographic Objects Feasibility Study, sponsored by the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) and Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR), has examined the possibility of extending that technology to other distributed computing environments (DCEs) leveraging a robust modeling approach for interoperability. The study is available at http://ip.opengeospatial.org/go1/. Release of the Geographic Objects RFQ is expected in early January 2003. Parties interested in participating in or sponsoring this initiative should contact Chuck Heazel at cheazel [at] opengeospatial [dot] org.
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WHAT`S NEW ON THE OGC WEBSITE
The following product was added to the list of products implementing OpenGIS Specifications:
http://www.opengeospatial.org/testing/product/index.php
Explanations of abbreviations of specifications can be found here: http://www.opengeospatial.org/testing/product/stats.php
- Galdos Systems Inc.
http://www.galdosinc.com
Geographic Data Server (GDS) 1.0 (Server)
Filter 1.0.0, GML 2.0, GML 2.1, WFS 1.0.0, WFS(T) 0.0.14,
INdicio 1.0 (Server)
WRS 0.0.2
- MapInfo Corporation
http://www.mapinfo.com
MapXtend 2.5 (Encoding [GML/XML])
GML 2.1
MapMarker J Server 3.0 (Server and Client)
DD CRS 1.1.0, GML 2.1
- Pixxures
http://www.pixxures.com
WebPix WMS Web Service 1.0 (Service)
WMS 1.1.0, WMS 1.0.0
- IBM Corporation
http://www.ibm.com
IBM DB2 Spatial Extender 8.1 (Server)
SFS TF 1.1
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NEW MEMBERS
The Open GIS Consortium welcomes our members who've joined us since November 2002:
Commerce One
http://www.commerceone.com/
Technical
DM Solutions Group Inc.
http://www.dmsolutions.ca
Associate
IMAGIS (Indianapolis Mapping and Geographic Infrastructure System, managed via the School of Liberal Arts, Indiana U. Purdue
U. Indianapolis (IUPUI))
http://www.iupui.edu
University
InComKorea Co., Ltd
http://www.xlbs.net/
Associate
INT (Interactive Network Technologies, Inc.)
http://www.int.com
Associate
NORUT IT
http://www.itek.norut.no
Associate
Oregon Dept. of Transportation, GIS Section
http://www.odot.state.or.us/home/
Associate
Oregon Geospatial Data Clearinghouse
http://www.sscgis.state.or.us/
Associate
Spatial Business Systems
http://www.spatialbiz.com
Associate
Siskiyou County (California)
http://www.co.siskiyou.ca.us
Associate
SPAWAR (Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command)
http://enterprise.spawar.navy.mil/spawarpublicsite/
Technical
Xunta de Galicia, Consellería de Medio Ambiente (Spain)
http://www.xunta.es/
Associate
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MEMBER CORNER
The December meeting exemplified again why IfGI has been an active
OGC member for over six years. It produced significant advances in
technologies that we use in a wide range of research and consulting
projects, as well as in our teaching. For example, at the meeting OGC
members decided to publish the Web Coverage Services Specification, and
finalized GML 3.0. Earlier in December, OGC approved and posted a new
Catalog Services Specification, We rely on this progress, and actively
contribute to it, in our work on the NRW GDI (http://gdi-nrw.uni-muenster.de), on semantic interoperability
(http://musil.uni-muenster.de), and on simulation architectures.
The meeting also showed that the process is at least as important as its results. For example, the discussion on the future of the Interoperability Program raised fundamental questions of how standardization and testing should interact. It was reassuring to conclude that good standardization should follow the same criteria as good research: it should identify clear interoperability problems, design and test simple solutions, and then see where and how they can be improved.
Prof. Dr. Werner Kuhn
Institute for Geoinformatics (IfGI)
University of Muenster, Germany
http://ifgi.uni-muenster.de
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OGC IN THE NEWS
- OGC in the Press
GML Relay News, Dec 13, 2002
http://www.safe.com/news/2002/dec20_2002.htm
(Safe Software)
http://www.directionsmag.com/pressreleases.php?press_id=6177
(Snowflake Software)
http://www.gdmc.nl/GML-relay/gml_relay_13_december_2002_in_em.htm
(presentations and pictures of the event)
JLS Newsletter
http://www.jlocationservices.com/Newsletter/Dec.02/Dec.02.html
Dec 2002
Pilot Projects Catalyze Global Spatial Data Infrastructure
http://www.geoplace.com/gw/2002/0212/0212opng.asp
GEOWorld
Mark E. Reichardt
Dec 2002
Industry Outlook 2003
http://www.geoplace.com/gw/2002/0212/0212it.asp
GEOWorld
David Schell and other OGC member organization leaders look ahead
Dec 2002
OGC Encouraging Local Input
http://www.fcw.com/geb/articles/2002/1216/web-ogc-12-16-02.asp
Federal Computer Week
Brian Robinson
Dec. 16, 2002
- OGC Press Releases
OGC Seeks Public Comment on Proposed Web Coverage Service Specification
http://www.opengeospatial.org/press/?page=pressrelease&year=0&prid=124
Dec 18, 2002
OGC Seeks Quotations/Participation in the Geospatial One-Stop Portal Initiative
http://www.opengeospatial.org/press/?page=pressrelease&year=0&prid=123
Dec 18, 2002
OGC Announces Interoperability Internship Project
http://www.opengeospatial.org/press/?page=pressrelease&year=0&prid=122
Dec 17, 2002
OGC Announces "Geographic Objects" Study Results
http://www.opengeospatial.org/press/?page=pressrelease&year=0&prid=121
Dec 11, 2002
OGC Announces New Local, State and Provincial Membership Levels
http://www.opengeospatial.org/press/?page=pressrelease&year=0&prid=120
Dec 9, 2002
OGC Demonstrates Open Location Based Services; European Debut Occurs at IIR's GIS In Telecoms Conference
http://www.opengeospatial.org/press/?page=pressrelease&year=0&prid=119
Dec 5, 2002
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EVENTS
February 10-14, 2003
Annapolis, Maryland
OGC Technical and Planning Committee Meetings
http://www.opengeospatial.org/ogcEvents.htm
March 2-5, 2003
San Antonio, Texas
GITA's 26th Annual Conference
http://www.gita.org/events/annual/26/intro.html
March 16-19, 2003
Vancouver, BC, Canada
The GeoTec Event
http://www.geoplace.com/gt/
April 7-11, 2003
Orléans, France
OGC Technical and Planning Committee Meetings
For further info on events please contact Greg Buehler,
gbuehler [at] opengeospatial [dot] org.
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CONTACT
Please send comments and suggestions to:
Adena Schutzberg
Editor, OGC News
adena [at] opengeospatial [dot] org
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Copyright 2002 by the Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc.
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