OGC calls for participation in Major Geo Standards Testbed

The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) has issued a Request for Quotations/Call for Participation (RFQ/CFP) for the OGC Web Services, Phase 8 (OWS-8) Interoperability Initiative, a testbed to advance OGC’s open interoperability framework for geospatial capabilities. The RFQ/CFP is available here.

The organizations sponsoring OWS-8 seek open standards that address their interoperability requirements. OWS-8 will be organized around the following threads:

1) Observation Fusion — Detection, tracking, and bookmarking of moving objects in video using Sensor Web Enablement (SWE) and other OGC encoding and interface standards; as well as OGC Web Coverage Service (WCS) Interface Standard 2.0 application profile, Web Coverage Processing Service Interface Standard, and coverage access and processing.

2) Geosynchronization (Gsync) — Geodata bulk transfer (distributing data sets in a consistent manner offline and over networks), with Web services and client components to support synchronization and updates of geospatial data across a hierarchical Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI).

3) Cross-Community Interoperability (CCI) — Advancement of semantic mediation approaches to query and use; mediating among heterogeneous data models via the OGC Web Feature Service WFS Interface standard; style registries and styling services; KML; and UML/OCL for schema automation on domain models.

4) Aviation — Maturing the delivery, filtering and update of Aeronautical Information Exchange (AIXM) 5.1 using WFS-Transactional and OGC Filter Encoding standards; continuing development of reusable tools, benchmarking of compression techniques for enhanced performance, advancing styling and portrayal, and validating the emerging metadata and OGC Geography Markup Language (GML) Encoding Standard profiles; event notification architecture, including digital Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) events; Weather Information Exchange Model (WXXM) using coverages for encoding weather forecast and radar datasets; supporting on-demand Coordinate Reference System (CRS) transformations; exploring distributed architectures for Units of Measure (UoM), demonstrating probabilistic Terminal Aerodrome Forecasts (TAF) decision making applications; and reviewing/validating WXXM schemas.

Many fusion processes are deployed in closed architectures with existing single provider software and hardware solutions. The goal of the fusion threads is to move those capabilities into a distributed architecture based on open standards including standards for notifications, authentication, and workflow processing.

The Aviation Thread builds on work from OWS-6 and OWS-7, addressing certain aviation applications, including flight planning and operations. OWS-8 expands the scope to include ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) symbology and portrayal, performance issues, handling digital NOTAM, and other tasks.

The RFQ/CFP includes details of these threads as well as details of the bidders’ conference (to be held on 6 December 2010 at 10:00 EST – http://opengeospatial.webex.com/ ), the selection process and kickoff. Proposal responses are due by 5:00 p.m., 14 January 2011. If your organization is interested in participating, contact David Arctur at darctur@opengeospatial.org.

OWS testbeds are part of OGC’s Interoperability Program, a global, hands-on and collaborative prototyping program designed to rapidly develop, test and deliver proven candidate specifications into OGC’s Specification Program, where they are formalized for public release. In OGC’s Interoperability Initiatives, international teams of technology providers work together to solve specific geoprocessing interoperability problems posed by the Initiatives’ Sponsors. OGC Interoperability Initiatives include testbeds, pilot projects, interoperability experiments and interoperability support services – all designed to encourage rapid development, testing, validation and adoption of OGC standards.