OGC Membership Approves Six New Specifications

The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) (MA, USA) has announced that the OGC membership has adopted six OpenGIS Specifications. Each of the newly adopted specifications enhances the existing open body of knowledge and furthers the OGC vision of a world where geographic data and services are easily shareable via the variety of networks and devices available today and into the future. All of the newly adopted specifications are or will soon be available online at www.opengeospatial.org/specs/?page=specs.

The Web Map Context Documents Implementation Specification 1.1 (WMC) defines how a map created using geospatial data from one or more map servers can be described in a portable document and shared with other software packages.

The Filter Encoding Implementation Specification 1.1 (FES) defines an XML encoding to express a combined spatial and attribute query for retrieving features from one or more geospatial databases.

The Geographic Objects-1 Application Implementation Specification (GO-1) allows developers to define an interoperable geospatial application once, and then build that application for use on multiple development platforms, such as C++ or Java.

The OpenGIS Location Services: Core Services Implementation Specification 1.1 (OpenLS) enhances six interfaces for location based services applications including geocoding, routing, directory (yellow pages), and location gateway.

The Web Feature Service Implementation Specification 1.1 (WFS) defines and updates interfaces for data access and manipulation operations on geographic features.

The OGC Web Services Common Implementation Specification 1.0 specifies best practices for common definitions that are or will be used within OGC Web Service (OWS) interface Implementation Specifications. This specification will act as a base on which each such Implementation Specification will be built.