The W3C and OGC Spatial Data on the Web Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of its Best Practices document for Spatial Data on the Web. This is a concerted attempt to bring together techniques used by the geospatial industry and Web technologists, especially those making use of Linked Data techniques. Typical use cases include environmental and cartographic data, transport and administrative data. Although clearly a lot remains to be done, the editors seek to illustrate the full scope of the best practices. If you wish to make comments regarding this Public Working Draft, please send them to Email Contact ( subscribe and archives). All comments are welcome. The editors are particularly keen for reviewers to cite examples that may be used to further illustrate the best practices.

The First Public Working Draft of the Spatial Data on the Web Working Group Best Practices document, published simultaneously by the OGC and the W3C, is available at www.w3.org/TR/2016/WD-sdw-bp-20160119 .

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is an international community where Member organizations, a full-time staff, and the public work together to develop Web standards. Led by Web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee and CEO Jeff Jaffe, W3C’s mission is to lead the Web to its full potential. Contact W3C for more information at Email Contact.

The OGC is an international consortium of more than 515 companies, government agencies, research organizations, and universities participating in a consensus process to develop publicly available geospatial standards. OGC 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.