The members of the Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc. request comments to a revision to the OpenGIS Web Services Common Standard. This document specifies many of the aspects that are common to multiple OGC Web Service interface Implementation Standards. These common aspects are primarily parameters and data structures used in operation requests and responses. Examples of common usage are how to handle bounding boxes, exception processing, URL requests, URN expressions, key value encoding, and so forth.
The primary use of OWS Common is as a normative reference for other OWS standards. Those standards currently include the OpenGis Web Map Service, Web Feature Service, and Web Coverage Service Standards. Rather than continuing to repeat this material in each Implementation Standard, each standard normatively references each relevant part of OWS Common.
The 30 day public comment period begins April 20, 2009 and closes on May 20, 2009. Comments will be reviewed and processed by the OGC Membership. The intent is to edit the OWS Common standard and move the revised document to be an approved OGC standard. The OpenGis Web Services Common Standard Request for Comment document can be downloaded from www.opengeospatial.org/standards/requests/57.
The OGC is an international consortium of more than 380 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. Visit the OGC website at www.opengeospatial.org.
