[MetaCRS] URIs for spatial reference systems

[Simon.Cox at csiro.au]

My attention has been drawn to SpatialReference.org.

I understand that the goal is to provide URL-based links to SRS definitions.

I also see that you have coined names like http://spatialreference.org/ref/epsg/4326/ for entries in the EPSG database.



You may be interested to know that OGC recently revised its polices in this area[1], and is now maintaining URL references for all of the EPSG database.

For example, try http://www.opengis.net/def/crs/EPSG/0/4326

The URL pattern is actually just a mapping from the URN syntax previously used by OGC[2].

Hence the /0/ element in the URL just indicates 'unversioned' entries, and the OGC service gets the data from EPSG by re-writing the URL into the request-with-argument expected by EPSG.



I expect you will be pleased that OGC is now taking on the job of providing persistent URLs for resources that it maintains or for which there is an agreement with the owner.

In my role as chair of the OGC Naming Authority I am pushing for OGC to understand and support the implications of this across an increasing array of OGC resources.

Simon
[1] OGC-NA Name type specification - definitions: Part 1 - basic name http://portal.opengeospatial.org/files/?artifact_id=37802
[2] OGC Naming Authority (OGC-NA) Policies & Procedures http://portal.opengeospatial.org/files/?artifact_id=37800
Simon Cox
Research Scientist
CSIRO Earth Science & Resource Engineering
Phone: +61 8 6436 8639 | Fax: +61 8 6436 8555 | Mobile: 0403 302 672
simon.cox at csiro.au<mailto:lyndelle.broadfoot at csiro.au> | www.csiro.au<http://www.csiro.au>
Address: ARRC, PO Box 1130, Bentley, WA 6102, Australia


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