Gobe Hobona's blog

Last month, OGC, Ordnance Survey, the European Space Agency, and NGA held a hackathon in London aiming to advance OGC APIs. 

It is envisaged that the output of the hackathon will be instrumental to the evolution of OGC web service standards to a modern API-based approach, setting the course for open geospatial standards for the next decade. The output should lead to a solid, common core and advancement of a whole new generation of OGC standards that are flexible in modern IT environments. This does not mean that existing OGC web service standards will fade away. Instead, it means that a new suite of OGC standards will give developers and users the option of leveraging capabilities offered by Web APIs.

With geospatial technologies becoming increasingly mainstream, there has been a growing need for OGC to provide a way for individuals to prove their expertise in the application of OGC standards. As such, OGC staff have been developing the infrastructure required to deliver an OGC e-Learning program that includes certification of successful completion of examinations that focus on OGC standards. Enrolment will begin on December 17, 2018.

It is an exciting time to be joining OGC as Director of Knowledge Management (DKM). One of the reasons why I am very excited about this is that geospatial interoperability standards are increasingly seen as the key ingredient for allowing much in society to be better understood.