In Valencia, Spain, at the December Technical Committee meetings of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), the OGC and the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to coordinate in advancing open geospatial standards (OGC’s mission) and open source geospatial software and data (OSGeo’s mission).
Open source software is software that has been designed and developed in an open, community process. The OGC’s open standards are similarly developed in an open, community process, but they are specifications (for interfaces, encodings and best practices), not software.
The MOU provides for the assignment of up to six one-year Individual Memberships in the OGC. Memberships will be selected by OSGeo and are subject to OGC qualifications for Individual Membership.
The OSGeo is a not-for-profit organization founded in 2006 whose mission is to support and promote the collaborative development of open source geospatial technologies and data.
The OGC is an international consortium of more than 365 companies, government agencies, research organizations, and universities participating in a consensus process to develop publicly available geospatial standards. OpenGIS® Standards support interoperable solutions that "geo-enable" the Web, wireless and location-based services, and mainstream IT. OGC Standards empower technology developers to make geospatial information and services accessible and useful with any application that needs to be geospatially enabled.
For more information, please visit www.opengeospatial.org and www.osgeo.org