OGC and ISPRS to collaborate on GEOSS and other activities

The Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc. (OGC) and the International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to enhance the development and use of geospatial standards.

Under the agreement the two organizations will work cooperatively to raise the awareness, acceptance, and implementation of open standards and to promote educational programs and best practices that benefit the memberships of ISPRS and OGC and practitioners worldwide. This will involve Global Earth Observing System of Systems (GEOSS) demonstrations and workshops, sensor network standardization events, and events on topics such as multi-source data fusion and multi-spectral image processing. They will seek resources and partnerships to advance joint OGC testbeds, pilot projects, and experiments that address such topics, and they will encourage cooperation between the members of the OGC Working Groups and ISPRS
Commissions.

"This is an important step forward for the global remote sensing community," explained Mark Reichardt, President and CEO of the OGC. "OGC benefits from the ISPRS’s century of industry stewardship and experience. Members and stakeholders of the ISPRS will benefit from closer ties with those who are developing open standards that improve application of diverse technologies for observing and measuring Earth features and phenomena."

According to Orhan Altan, president of ISPRS, "The joint activities of OGC and ISPRS will strengthen the ISPRS involvement in standards and interoperability and will allow the ISPRS Working Groups to have input into OGC projects."