[OSGeo-Standards] OGC vote on LAS 1.4 as a community standard

[Howard Butler]

> On Jan 31, 2017, at 11:38 AM, Arnulf Christl <arnulf.christl at metaspatial.net> wrote:
> 
> Folks,
> 
> ((I have a distinct feeling of old men fighting over history. Please
> don't feel insulted, I am absolutely including myself in this category
> and cannot suppress a grin... ))

Some of us are poking our walking sticks in the air for good reasons :) Past behaviors and circumstances influence current enthusiasm for the proposal, and I'm nitpicking because these kinds of discussions in previous contexts (GeoJSON) were not so clear as they are in this case.

> I'd be interested in learning how the new "community standard" might
> help to support the widespread use of the open LAS format version.

LAS needs no OGC support for widespread use. It already is the prominent industry standard for lidar data interchange, with all the good and bad baggage that comes with it.  Other lidar standardization efforts such as ASTM's E57 have failed to gain as much traction in the marketplace, even though it is possible that it is technically better in some situations and has a full standards body behind it. The OGC community standard moniker will make it simpler for government and contract folks to reference it for data delivery, archival, and transmission. It will also make it easier for those within OGC to build upon and reference it.