FYI: press release: OGC SEEKS INPUT ON WEB MAPPING STANDARD

[Brent Fraser]

MapServers,

  I know some have seen this press release, but for 
those not in the loop, here it is...

Brent Fraser
GeoAnalytic Inc.
1150 , 633 - 6th Avenue SW Calgary, AB T2P 2Y5
Tel:  (403)213-2700 Fax:  (403)213-2707
bfraser at geoanalytic.com 
www.geoanalytic.com

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OGC SEEKS INPUT ON WEB MAPPING STANDARD
Wayland, MA, USA, December 13, 1999: The Open GIS Consortium, 
Inc. (OGC) today issued Requests for Comment on its pending 
OpenGIS Web Map Server Interface Specification and OpenGIS 
Geography Markup Language (GML) Specification.

The OpenGIS Web Map Server Interface Specification provides a 
set of open protocols that will make it possible for users of 
ordinary web browsers to obtain and automatically overlay "map
 layers" of the same geographic region, where each layer is a 
"view" into geographic data potentially held by a different 
web server. Map servers can be from different vendors, and 
they can vary widely in terms of processing capabilities and 
data type (including multiple vector and raster types). The 
three protocols are relatively simple, and it is not difficult
 in most cases to add them to data servers. GetCapabilities 
provides information about what a server can do. GetMap gets 
maps, which might be georeferenced images (such as JPEG and 
PNG), simple display graphics (such as SVG or WebCGM), or more
universally displayable "picture element" data (Simple 
Features XML, also known as GML). GetFeature_info provides 
information about features, so that users can query to get 
attributes of specific geographic features in a map layer.

GML is a method for encoding OpenGIS Simple Features (basic 
vector-based geographic data) in XML. XSLT "stylesheets" can 
then be used to render this "smart data" in 
application-specific ways. The GML draft document will be 
submitted to W3C as a Note.

In the OpenGIS Web Mapping Testbed, the Web Map Server was 
used with catalog services defined in the OpenGIS Catalog 
Services Specification, which provides a common architecture 
for online automated directories or registries of web-based 
geospatial data and geoprocessing services, rather like 
"spatial search engines."

As vendors implement these open standards in software, and as 
online geodata suppliers make their data available, web users 
will easily find, view, overlay, and combine different 
thematic maps for a given region.

Geospatial data includes digital maps (including individual 
map elements such as roads, lakes and political boundaries), 
Earth images, and database records with street addresses or 
other fields that indicate physical location. Much geospatial 
data is currently available on the web, but users must posses 
considerable expertise and special geographic information 
system (GIS) software to overlay or otherwise combine 
different "map layers" of the same geographic region. Now, 
consensus among GIS software vendors in OGC has made it 
possible for such overlays and combinations of complex and 
essentially different kinds of geographic information to 
happen automatically over the Internet, despite differences 
in the vendors' geographic data storage, analysis, and 
display systems.

The OpenGIS Technical Document 99-077 titled, "Web Map Server 
Interface Specification" was submitted by BBN Technologies 
(Cambridge MA), Cadcorp Ltd. (UK), CubeWerx Inc. (Canada), 
Ionic Software s.a. (Belgium), Laser-Scan Ltd. (UK), SICAD 
Geomatics GmbH & Co. oHG. (Germany), Social Change Online Pty 
Ltd. (Australia), and the US Army Engineer Research and 
Development Center (Alexandria, VA). The OpenGIS Technical 
Document 99-082r1 titled "Geography Markup Language (GML)" 
was submitted by Galdos Systems, Inc. (Canada), Oracle Corp. 
(Redwood Shores, CA), MapInfo Corp. (Troy, NY), Compusult, Ltd
 (Canada), and CubeWerx (Canada). Both documents are available 
for comment at http://www.opengis.org/techno/request.htm.

After the OGC Technical Committee reviews and incorporates 
comments, these specifications are likely to be formally 
adopted (as a single specification) at the OGC Technical 
Committee and Management Committee meetings to be held in 
Vancouver, BC in February, 2000.

OGC is an international, not-for-profit organization working 
toward integration of geospatial capabilities into the world's 
information systems.

Lance McKee
Vice President, 
Corporate Communications and Public Sector Programs
Open GIS Consortium, Inc.
35 Main Street
Wayland, MA 01778 USA
Tel. 508-655-5858
Fax 508-655-2237
http://www.opengis.org
lmckee at opengis.org

www.opengis.org