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.

Steffen Vogt
Institut f. Physische Geographie
Albert-Ludwigs-Universitaet Freiburg
Werderring 4, D-79085 Freiburg, Germany
email: steffen.vogt@geographie.uni-freiburg.de

Probably nowhere else in Antarctica is the need for coordinated approaches in research activities and environmental management more evident than on King George Island. This is reflected by the recommendation of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) adopted at the XXVIth Meeting of SCAR in Tokyo, July 2000, which calls for efforts to integrate scientific objectives and for collaboration among the nations working on the island. The King George Island GIS (KGIS) project provides a fundamental contribution to these endeavors.

by Lance McKee

and Jeroen Ticheler
ARTEMIS - SDRN - FAO-UN
Room F817
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla
00100 Rome - Italy
Jeroen.Ticheler@fao.org

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations leads international efforts to defeat hunger. Serving both developed and developing countries, FAO acts as a neutral forum where all nations meet as equals to negotiate agreements and debate policy. FAO is also a source of knowledge and information to help countries modernize and improve agriculture, forestry and fisheries practices and ensure good nutrition for all. FAO focuses special attention on developing rural areas, where 70 percent of the world's poor and hungry people live.

In this issue of OGC user we look at two international portals for data sharing, one large and one small. GeoNetwork is the Spatial Data and Information Portal of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, providing a wide variety of UN organizations and other groups with interactive maps, satellite imagery and related spatial databases from FAO units and other organizations. The King George Island GIS (KGIS) project of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) provides international teams with data to support research and environmental management on the island.

by Éamonn Ó Tuama (1), Clive Best(2), Torill Hamre(3) (1) Coastal & Marine Resources Centre (Ionad Acmhainní Cósta is Mara) - ERI, University College Cork (IE)
(2) Joint Research Centre (JRC) - Institute for the Protection and Security of the Citizen (IPSC), Ispra (IT)
(3) Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center (NERSC), Bergen (NO)

Editor's Note: This is an excerpt of a paper presented at CoastGIS 2003 in Genoa, Italy in October 2003. Used by permission of the authors. The complete paper is online.

Spatial Data Infrastructure and Return on Investment

Almost anyone involved in geospatial pursuits could make an argument for data sharing and data and services interoperability. But how do you explore the impact of creating this piece of the information infrastructure? How do you quantify costs and benefits, the return on investment (ROI)? That's the task that fell to the Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe (INSPIRE) Framework Definition Support (FDS) Working Group. The group of 35 contributors and several dozen stakeholder reviewers with the aid of contractor Max Craglia of Sheffield University (UK) put together a report answering those very questions in the context of a spatial data infrastructure for the European Union. The document, available online, presents an interesting process for examining these questions, along with some insightful conclusions.

Because the Open GIS Consortium's headquarters is in the United States, and because I live in the United States, it's easy to imagine this corner of the world has a "lead" on geospatial interoperability. Of course, in today's world of real-time collaboration and a new Europe, that idea would be hard to defend.

So, it's with some pleasure that I introduce the first issue of OGC User of 2004 which takes a look at the role of standards within the spatial data infrastructure work of INSPIRE and a European prototype for coastal zone management.

We are interested in the use of OpenGIS Specifications in all corners of the world (and beyond). We encourage you to share what's going on where you are.

by Zsolt Nagy and Julia Harrell 

"If you build it…"

Remember the film Field of Dreams and its tagline, "If you build it, they will come"? That's not how they do things in North Carolina, at least not when it comes to GIS. In North Carolina, they drew on as many players as possible from the beginning, and had them participate, not just in the building, but the planning and the vision definition of an interoperable statewide data sharing application. And, it's worked. The NC OneMap Regional Demonstration Site has been online for several months, and has provided its creators with key insight into future solutions.

One of the measures of the success of a technology is its ability to move from early adopters to those who are "just regular people." Here in the U.S. wireless computer connections have made that leap. And, I think OpenGIS Specifications are making the leap, too. Two cases in point are detailed in this issue of OGC User.

GIS innovations typically are first taken up in commercial arenas, and in corners of the federal government. When they move to the state and local level, it's time to take note. That's what's happening in North Carolina. A pilot project has the state and a dozen local governments (one in neighboring South Carolina) exploring what's possible if they agree to use the Web Map Service (WMS) Specification.

Archeology and GIS

Archeology was one of the first social sciences to tap into the power of GIS to map and manage data acquired during excavations. Such systems document the location of finds large and small, the age of the artifacts, and store detailed measurements. The GIS may also contain insights into the people or creatures that might have lived there and then.

While archeologists are keen on finding where relics are buried, they are also called upon to determine if areas are void of such finds. Maps of "archeologically negative" areas are equally important to locate, especially when present day construction is planned.