[OSGeo-Discuss] OSGeo and Spatial Data Quality

[steven.ramage at 1spatial.com]

1Spatial has been around a while (formerly Laser-Scan) and we have used open
source software extensively for internal use, as well as developing millions of
lines of code ourselves. We hadn't seen anything similar to OSGeo and what it
does for the industry, so that coupled with the capabilities of FDO made us
think that we should be associated with OSGeo as a sponsor.

On a separate but related note, we initiated and now chair the Data Quality
Working Group at the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC). The motion was
unanimously passed at the OGC Technical Committee Meeting in San Diego, so we
know this is an area that people would like to address. At this stage we are
creating a Working Group (WG) with specific focus on spatial data quality and
my colleague Graham Stickler (at 1Spatial) was elected Chair of this WG, with
Patrick Cunningham, President of Blue Marble Geographics as the Vice-Chair.

The Charter of this WG is to attempt to establish how data quality can be both
defined and communicated, using standards to help in the reuse of spatial data
and in the creation and management of spatial data infrastructures. I am
interested to know from an OSGeo perspective, the members' views on spatial
data quality and if they have any way to address their issues via open source
software. This was part of our thinking behind the use of FDO to provide a data
access bridge to our Radius Studio SCOTS software.

Regards
Steven (Ramage)