OGC Interoperability Program Status

1. OGC Interoperability Program Status Lance McKee Open GIS Consortium, Inc. lmckee@opengis.org http://www.opengis.org

2. OGC’s Interoperability Program Goals • Accelerate the OpenGIS Specification process. • Accelerate acceptance of OpenGIS Specifications. • Pilot programs build critical mass of interoperable sites. • Reference implementations build critical mass of online resources. • Work with with ISO and government officials to make specifying SCOTS a standard procurement practice. • Be a public/private partnership that matures and enriches the geospatial market.

3. Interoperability Program Goals, cont’d • Overcome current lack of interoperability infrastructure. • Shape specs with immediate, hard, commercial feedback. • Meet specific user requirements reflected in trends. • Help users and providers seize new opportunities. • Refine consensus methods for directing technology.

4. Interoperability Program Features • Interoperability Initiatives • Feasibility Studies • Testbeds • Pilots • Prototypes • Demonstrations • Insertion Studies • Reference Implementations • Specification validation and development • Professional services: planning, engineering, training

5. Web Mapping Testbed Phase 1 – A Success GetMap - fetches map images from data stores in specified projections (which might be georeferenced images such as JPEG and PNG). GetCapabilities - provides information about what a server can do. GetFeatureInfo - provides a mechanism that allows users to query map displays to get attributes of specific geographic features in a map layer. MapServer Interfaces Version 0.1

6. Goals for Web Mapping Testbed Phase 2 • Expand the range of interoperable web mapping services. • Create new specifications. • Bring more data on-line using WMT protocols. • Lay a foundation for Pilot Projects that put local data on-line using WMT protocols. One Web Mapping Pilot, targeting flood control and environmental management in the Upper Susquehanna and Lackawanna River region of Pennsylvania, is already underway.

7. WMT 2 Objectives • Finalization of the first three OpenGIS Web Map Server Interface Protocols. • Provide interoperability mechanisms for legends and symbols. • Add authoring and publishing tools, WMT protocol Tool Kits : "How to" implement protocols on map servers for easy of serving maps on the Web. • Enhance GetMap so it serves up simple features. WMT I focused on raster (e.g. GIF) format transfers. WMT 2 will support transporting vector feature data (either in graphical or geographical form in XML-based packaging) to enable smart applications. • Integrate Web Mapping with Catalog Services. Give users tools to cope with very large libraries of imagery and spatial information. • Make agency servers available on-line via WMT protocols. • Extend vector feature data access capability to imagery and raster data (“grid coverages”) to get information at a specific point in the image (e.g., average temperature at a specific location).

8. WMT 2 Organizational Issues • The WMT 2 initiative is expected to run from May until November, 2000. • Initiative is funded through “MIPR’ing” of agencies’ money through NIMA. Work cannot begin until funds are received. • It is not too late for new sponsors to join and add their requirements – use cases, scenarios. • Reconciling of sponsors’ requirements and testbed scope will happen in the second requirements meeting (date TBD) and in the process of writing the RFQ.

9. Coming Soon: New Interoperability Initiatives • Pending: SCOTS JMTK (Standards-based Commercial Off-The-Shelf Joint Mapping ToolKit) Testbed. Multi-phase, April, 2000 - June, 2001. Sponsor is NIMA. SCOTS JMTK will nominate commercial APIs to replace most or all of NIMA's JMTK APIs, so multiple vendors can compete to provide different but interoperable elements of the toolkit. • Planned: "Web Mapping Infrastructure," a distributed and rigorously maintained set of reference servers (and supporting databases), reference clients, and reference documents to support Initiatives. • Planned: "opengis.net”, extension of Web Mapping Infrastructure, to provide "Reference Implementations," working prototypes robust enough to serve as templates for similar implementations. Opengis.net will provide test tools and a test environment.

10. Features (Access and Basic Analysis) Add Feature Identity and Relationship Add Geometry (Types and Dimension) Add Topology Coverages (Access and Basic Analysis) Finalize Gridded Coverages Extend to General Coverages Dynamic Segmentation, TIN,... Catalog Services Finalize Baseline Catalog Services Extend to Satisfy Latent Requirements Service Registry Semantic Registry Visualization/Presentation Web Mapping Web Authoring Symbology Other Visualization Services Coordinate Transformation Services Geocoding and Gazetteers Image Exploitation Services Image Coordinate Transformation Other IE Services Feature Analysis Services Terrain Analysis (Line of Sight, Mobility, etc.) Route Planning Other FA Services Information Community Enablement Services Semantic Management/Transforms Thesaurus, Metadata, Thematic content Conversion and Conflation Production, Finishing, and Dissemination Services Interoperability is NOT Here Yet: Unfinished Interface Specifications

11. Schedule Must Account for Dependencies Geocoding & Gazetteers Production & Finishing IC Enablement Image Exploitation Feature Analysis Coverages Features Catalog Services Coordinate Transforms Visualization/Presentation

12. The Interoperability Development Logjam Image Exploitation Coordinate Transforms General Coverages Geocoding & Gazetteers Gridded Coverages Feature Analysis Visualization/Presentation WMT Phase3/SCOTS 2 Visualization/Presentation WMT Phase 1 Visualization/Presentation WMT Phase2/SCOTS 1 SCOTS 3 General Features Simple Features Production & Finishing2 Production & Finishing1 IC Enablement 1 Basic Catalog Services IC Enablemen2 Extended Catalog Services Data Fusion Date? Date? Date? Date? 6/99 10/99 Date? Now

13. How to Do More, Sooner, Better: • Agencies that need interoperability will get it sooner, and will shape it, if they share in its development. • Support FGDC’s NSDI development programs. • Participate in OGC’s Gov SIG. • Work with other agencies (and industry) to coordinate requirements, share costs.