The OGC and OpenGIS Development

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The OGC and OpenGIS Development
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What is OpenGIS?

• OpenGIS is defined as transparent access to mixed
  geodata and geoprocessing resources in a
  networked environment.

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The Importance of OpenGIS for the development of
WebGIS

• Interoperability established by OpenGIS standards
  will enable web users to combine data from many
  locations by eliminating obstacles created by
  platform differences.

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Sample application

• A student who is interested in the proximity of
  new public schools to closed landfills can easily
  create a map on his browser by connecting to just
  the data he needs. The student does not know that
  the data is coming from two different state
  agencies (TNRCC and TEA), or that the data is
  kept in two different GIS platform types. With
  the creation of true OpenGIS interfaces the
  student can create a map that was never even
  imagined by the suppliers of the data.

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The OpenGIS Consortium
The OGC was created in order to develop the means
by which the next level of GIS interoperability
can be realized. The OGC is made up of developers
and users of geographic information resources
including vendors, system integrators, academia,
government agencies, and standards organizations.
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Goal of the OGC

• The goal of the OpenGIS Project is to provide a
  comprehensive suite of shared interface
  specifications. These specifications will enable
  developers to write the software components that
  will provide true interoperability.

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Completed Implementation Specifications

• The OpenGIS Simple Features Specification
  currently open to public at http//www.opengis.org
  

• The OpenGIS Grid Coverage Specification
  (Available to the public late 2000)

• The OpenGIS Catalog Services Specification
  (Available to the public late 2000)

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Future OGC Specifications

• Feature Identity Relationships
• Geometry
• Ordinary Coverages
• Presentation- The OpenGIS Mapping
  Specifications GetMap, GetCapabilities, and
  GetFeatureInfo

• In the normal Technical Committee process, these
  are created first as abstract specifications
  and than as an implementation specifications.

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OGCs recent breakthrough Web Mapping Testbed 1

• The WMT demonstrated two uses of Web mapping

• Thin Client- A user easily and rapidly
  searched, retrieved, compiled geospatial
  information from multiple locations on the WWW
  with only a web browser.

• GIS Client- A disaster management agency used
  the interoperable web-based geodata to feed
  pre-made functions on a agency GIS which created
  data that would otherwise take to long acquire
  and process.

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Future DIR Research Topics

• Open Source GIS platforms (GRASS, EPPL7)

• Freely distributed Web mapping software
  (UMN Mapserver, Jshape)

• Emerging and existing Metadata Standards