November 10, 2008, Wayland, Massachusetts. The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) announced that Dr. David Arctur has been appointed as a Director, Interoperability Programs for the Consortium.  In his new position, Dr. Arctur plans and manages OGC Interoperability Initiatives which include testbeds, pilots and experiments – all designed to develop, test and validate new standards that promote improved access to and application of geospatial information in decision making.  As part of the OGC's Interoperability Program team, Dr. Arctur is leading the sixth OGC Web Services (OWS-6) Interoperability Initiative, a major testbed activity.

Dr. Arctur's appointment to the OGC's staff underscores the Consortium's commitment to maintaining technology leadership as the preeminent consensus standards organization in geospatial technology and location based Web services.

"David has been a valued member of the OGC community almost from the Consortium's inception," said Mark Reichardt, OGC's President and CEO. "We are fortunate indeed to have him on staff now to play a key role in advancing  OGC Interoperability Initiatives."

Dr. Arctur has dedicated his career to advancing the power of geospatial information and technologies for the benefit of decision makers, educators and researchers worldwide. Most recently, he served as President and Chief Technology Officer for the OGC Interoperability Institute (OGCii), a non-profit organization promoting greater interoperability of scientific information resources. Before OGCii, he served ESRI as a data architect and interoperability engineer. Prior to that position, he served as Chief Scientist at the US subsidiary of Laser-Scan, Ltd. He received his BS and MS in Electrical Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, and his PhD in Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Florida.

The OGC® is an international consortium of more than 365 companies, government agencies, research organizations, and universities participating in a consensus process to develop publicly available geospatial standards. OpenGIS® Standards support interoperable solutions that "geo-enable" the Web, wireless and location-based services, and mainstream IT. OGC Standards empower technology developers to make geospatial information and services accessible and useful with any application that needs to be geospatially enabled. Visit the OGC website at http://www.opengeospatial.org/.