The View From Here

In this issue of OGC User we look at three very different applications of OGC standards:

• Spain's IDEE GeoNetwork is a wonderful case study showing the value of OpenGIS Specifications in building a modern national spatial data infrastructure. Spain is implementing a national model of what INSPIRE will be for Europe.
• GOMOOS shows what a boon OGC-enabled interoperability has become for the oceanographic research community. Researchers in other domains will surely look at this and see that deploying OGC standards ought to be taught as best practices in their disciplines.
• SensorNet represents a major boost for OGC's Sensor Web Enablement (SWE) effort. This US-funded Oak Ridge National Laboratory project is providing SWE technical input, standards harmonization and incentives for vendor adoption and user deployment of these extraordinarily consequential standards.

These are all new deployments of OpenGIS Specifications (and in the case of SWE, specification prototypes). But they are not experiments. The way forward is clear. There is a clear need for a single, open interoperability framework for geoprocessing, and that is what OGC provides.

Lance McKee
Editor