The OGC(R) Announces Successful OWS-6 Testbed Kick-off Event

The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) completed a successful kick-off meeting October 14-17 for the OGC Web Services, Phase 6 (OWS-6) Interoperability Initiative, a testbed to advance OGC's open interoperability framework for geospatial capabilities.

The organizations sponsoring OWS-6 seek to develop and improve on the open standards for their interoperability requirements. The content of the OWS-6 initiative is organized around the following threads:

1) Sensor Web Enablement (SWE)

2) Geo Processing Workflow (GPW)

3) Aeronautical Information Management (AIM)

4) Decision Support Services (DSS)

5) Compliance Testing (CITE)

The list of sponsors and details about the content of the threads are available at http://www.opengeospatial.org/standards/requests/50. Teams of participants -- vendors, integrators and universities -- will work in each of these areas to develop candidate standards and best practices that will be featured in an interoperability demonstration in the summer of 2009. For more information, 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.

The OGC(R) is an international industry consortium of more than 365 companies, government agencies, research organizations, and universities participating in a consensus process to develop publicly available interface specifications. OpenGIS(R) 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.