Ordnance Survey Becomes Principal Member of OGC

Ordnance Survey, UK, has announced that it has raised its Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) membership level from Technical Committee level to Principal level. As a Principal Member, Ordnance Survey will participate in OGC's Planning Committee to explore market and technology trends relevant to OGC's mission to assure that OGC's policies and procedures remain effective and agile in a changing technology environment. Ordnance Survey will also be involved in final-approval decisions for all OGC standards.

Ordnance Survey is a world-renowned national mapping authority already internationally recognised as a leader in the adoption and consensus advancement of geospatial standards. The move to become a Principal-level OGC member can only further enhance this recognition and leadership position, said Mark Reichardt, president and CEO of the OGC.

This is an important development for Ordnance Survey, highlighting the British national mapping authority’s commitment, and ongoing support, to the development of international open standards. Ordnance Survey has been a long-term Technical Member of OGC, taking a lead role on various geospatial standards projects including the development of CityGML and more recently the OGC Web Map Service (WMS) Interface Standard.

Open Standards

The new Principal Membership reinforces Ordnance Survey’s vision to be at the forefront of developments in open standards development. Under the new membership, Ordnance Survey will increase their engagement with the international geospatial community to ultimately improve the quality of standards globally and to enable the industry to continue to innovate and grow.

The new level of membership also aligns with the UK Government policy on using open standards and it is expected to create new opportunities for Ordnance Survey to further develop collaborations with Government by shaping standards that promote interoperability.

Peter ter Haar, Ordnance Survey director of products and innovation, added that Ordnance Survey has an excellent working relationship with OGC and the new Principal Membership highlights OS's commitment to the development of open geospatial standards. Ordnance Survey expects the new level of membership to deliver significant opportunities, by firstly helping to future-proof systems and secondly by creating opportunities to develop commercial growth for Ordnance Survey and Ordnance Survey International.

The British mapping authority is looking forward to building on its already good relationship with the OGC and is especially keen to lead on some of the emerging geospatial standards for mobile, 3D and linked data, Ter Haar concluded.