Monday, May 5. 2008

Where GIS Gets Lost: Interoperability

That's the premise of Patrick Marshall's article in GCN. He sites high GIS use based on an April survey but offers no figures on interoperability problems. He does however cite specific interoperability problems due to how geocoding is done.

In an April GCN survey, two-thirds of respondents said their agencies already use GIS applications, and most said they expected to use more geospatial data in the next five years. Surprisingly, 67 percent of respondents also reported that their organizations were already using location-based services for tracking vehicles or other assets.

Although hundreds of geospatial applications are blossoming at the federal, state and local levels, they have been developed in large part independently, without common standards.

As a result, an application developed by one organization often can’t digest and work with data collected by another.

However, just because most software supports OGC interfaces doesn’t mean that a consultant or vendor will use them. “They know [their own interfaces] better, and it’s to their competitive advantage to keep you tied up with their proprietary interfaces,” Bacharach said.
So he said he advises implementers to insist that any application be customized to use standard interfaces.

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The key to interoperability is having systems that are interoperable. Duh! What I mean is to be interoperable the systems must have two things. One is a message content standard for text and spatial data. One standard that is rapidly gaining recognition and implementation is the Common Alerting Protocol developed by O.A.S.I.S. The second thing needed is a national information backbone so CAP-compliant systems can connect and share data, information and requests. Such a backbone is DHS's Open Platform for Emergency Networks (OPEN). I addressed this issue in my recent two-part article in Directions Magazine: http://www.directionsmag.com/article.php?article_id=2739&trv=1 and http://www.directionsmag.com/article.php?article_id=2740. I would appreciate feedback on the concept presented in that article.

#1 Ric Skinner, GISP (Link) on 2008-05-06 05:29 (Reply)

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