Here in the duldrums of August comes the news (press release) that OGC will be participating in the FOSS4G conference this fall in South Africa and the focus will be on a memorandum of understanding between the two bodies. The details of the MOU are not detailed.

Some (most? all?) OSGeo projects do indeed implement standards (OGC's and other's), though that's not required to be an official OSGeo project. That said, per the release it's pretty important.

The two organizations agree to expand collaboration and promote the synergy between open standards and open source software in the geospatial domain. The OGC, founded in 1994, is the world's leading industry organization for geoprocessing standards used by the world's providers of geoprocessing software. The OSGeo's goal is to encourage the use and collaborative development of community-led open source geospatial software projects, most of which depend on open standards like those from the OGC.

OGC, per Carl Reed writing in GeoWorld in 2007 doesn't endorse either open source or proprietary licensing.

The OGC doesn’t care if software are proprietary or open source. Our goal is that OGC standards help make geospatial or location-based content and services ubiquitous—to improve the ability of decision makers to address the many pressing social, environmental and economic issues they face.

What’s important, from the OGC’s point of view, isn’t the purchasing and licensing details of software products, but their adherence to a shared, open, non-proprietary system for communicating geographically.

OSGeo may need to update its FAQ which includes this statement about the relationship:

What is the relationship between OSGeo and OGC?
There is no relationship between OSGeo and OGC. OGC is a organization for creating GIS standards, while OSGeo is an organization for promoting open source GIS work. That said, a number of parties/individuals in OSGeo work with OGC standards, and vice versa. It is also an explicit goal of OSGeo to support and promote standards, including OGC standards.

Our editors ponder Autodesk's quarterly expectation-beating revenues. The company reported solid growth around the world even as gas and food costs remain high. Just what is the company doing right and what can we extrapolate to geospatial companies in particular? Also, a look at Autodesk's recent acquisition of 3D, standards focused company in Germany.


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The German company provides "software and services for geo-visualization: solutions for effectively creating, analyzing, managing, and distributing large-scale geo information" and is a "maker of intelligent 3D urban models software." Further, "The products of 3D Geo are made in accordance with international standards such as CityGML." The company is based in Potsdam, Germany and is privately held.

The interesting bit about the company found in the "about" part of the press release: 3D Geo GmbH, is a spin-off company of the Hasso Platter Institute. Hasso Platter? He co-founded SAP and I believe I saw him on stage at ESRI UC back when ESRI was implementing, then partnering with SAP. He funds the institute which focuses on IT; there is no tuition!

The company has two sites: 3D Geo and LandXplorer (a free CityGML viewer for models created with for fee LandXplorer Studio, there's a full suite including a server, developer platform, a product to put data in to Google Earth and another to support geotainment). I am surprised not to find 3D Geo in the list of OGC member companies.

This is a clear step that Autodesk is trying to fill in any gaps it has between BIM and 3D GIS. Autodesk gets a gold star for holding the announcement until after the ESRI User Conference. Autodesk is taking a very different route than Google and Autodesk here, focussing on standards-based tools for professionals for 3D modeling. Google and Microsoft seem to be going after the "amateurs" providing free tools to build up and share home made versions of a 3D world.

- press release

Our editors review the morning plenary at the 2008 ESRI User Conference. The main focus included enhancements in ArcGIS 9.3; 3D, imagery and announcements from Dirk Kempthorne, Secretary of Interior stole the show.

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As we ponder visions for SDIs and GSDI, the geologists will launch theirs in just a few days. The OneGeology project aims to unites geological information for the entire world on the Web. Sixteen countries are already serving data and the British Geological Survey is leading the way. From the project website:

OneGeology is an international initiative of the geological surveys of the world and a flagship project of the 'International Year of Planet Earth'. Its aim is to create dynamic geological map data of the world available via the web.

So, what's the tech? No magic; just WMS. The site even offers a cookbook that details how to serve up your data in WMS via open source MapServer. And the future vision, if I understand correctly is support for GeoSciML.

The map of participants (80, the latest to join is Rwanda) and those already serving data is here.

The launch will be at the International Geological Congress (IGC) in Oslo, Norway, 6th -14th August 2008. This is the model I hope many other international (even local) "interest groups" can use to share their data. Go geologists!!

- BBC