The OGC(R) Announces Call for Participation in OWS-4 Testbed

Please see the OWS-4 RFQ
Announcement below:

PRESS
ANNOUNCEMENT FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For information about this announcement, contact:

Sam Bacharach

Executive Director, Outreach and Community Adoption

Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc

tel: +1-703-352-3938

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April 11, 2006, Wayland, Massachusetts. The Open Geospatial
Consortium

(OGC®) has issued a Request for Quotes/Call for Participation

(RFQ/CFP) for the OGC Web Services, Phase 4 (OWS-4) 
Interoperability

Initiative, a testbed to advance OGC's open interoperability
framework

for geospatial capabilities. The RFQ/CFP is available at

http://www.opengeospatial.org/initiatives/?iid=199.

The OWS-4 sponsors are organizations from multiple countries 
seeking

open standards for their interoperability requirements:
GeoConnections

(Canada), Oak Ridge National Laboratory ORNL (US), BAE Systems,

Lockheed Martin Corporation, the US National Aeronautical and Space

Administration (NASA), the US General Services Administration 
(GSA),

other major US agencies, the National Technology Alliance, the NATO
C3

Agency, the Ordnance Survey of Great Britain, and TeleAtlas NV.
OWS-4

activities are proceeding in coordination with other standards

initiatives in OASIS, IEEE and IAI.

After analyzing the sponsors' input, the OGC Interoperability Team

recommended to the sponsors that the content of the OWS-4 
initiative

be organized around the following 7 threads:

- Sensor Web Enablement (SWE): Standards for discovering and
accessing

Web-resident sensors

- Geo Processing Workflow (GPW): Development of GML Application

Schemas and testing OWS in the larger Web service workflow
environment

- Geo Decision Support (GeoDSS): Refining OWS as an open framework
for

DSS

- Geo-Digital Rights Management (GeoDRM): Standards to support

geospatial DRM including underlying security standards.

- Computer Aided Design/Geospatial/Building Information Model

integration (CAD/GIS/BIM)

- OGC Location Services (OpenLS): Extending OGC standards for
Location

Based Services

- Compliance Testing (CITE): Improving tools for testing compliance

and interoperability of products and services that implement OGC

standards

The RFQ/CFP includes details of these threads as well as details of

the bidders' conference, selection process and kickoff. Responses
are

due by May 5, 2006. If your organization is interested in

participating, contact George Percivall at

.

OWS initiatives 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 Initiative's sponsoring

organizations. OGC Interoperability Initiatives include test beds,

pilot projects, interoperability experiments and interoperability

support services – all designed to encourage rapid development,

testing, validation and adoption of OGC standards.

The OGC®is an international industry consortium of more than 300

companies, government agencies, research organizations, and

universities participating in a consensus process to develop
publicly

available interface specifications. OpenGIS® Specifications support

interoperable solutions that "geo-enable" the Web, wireless
and

location-based services, and mainstream IT. The specifications
empower

technology developers to make complex spatial information and
services

accessible and useful with all kinds of applications. Visit the OGC

website at  
http://www.opengeospatial.org.

_______________________________________________

Tc mailing list

https://mail.opengeospatial.org/mailman/listinfo/tc

George Percivall

Open Geospatial Consortium

http://www.opengeospatial.org/

E-mail:

Voice: 1+301-560-6439