OGC Demonstrates Major Advances in Interoperable Geoprocessing for Military”

March 7, 2002

Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC)

Reston, VA -- As part of the Open GIS Consortium (OGC) Military Pilot Project Phase 1.1 (MPP-1.1), OGC members recently demonstrated important new developments in interoperable solutions for the communication, portrayal, and analysis of geographic information to more than sixty invited federal agency and defense contractor IT managers.

MPP-1.1 Sponsors -- the U.S.Army Corps of Engineers Engineering Research and Development Center (ERDC), the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA), In-Q-Tel, and IMC Corporation (Japan) -- set requirements and provided support for the initiative and the demonstration.MPP-1.1 Participants -- Compusult (Canada), CubeWerx (Canada), IGS3, Intergraph, iONIC (Belgium), Laser-Scan (UK), Lockheed Martin Corporation, PCI Geomatics (Canada), Polexis, Skyline, Syncline, University of Alabama at Huntsville, and 3i (Canada) -- enhanced existing software products with interoperability interfaces based on OGC's OpenGIS(R) Specifications.Many of the vendors were on hand to demonstrate how their products work together using these interfaces, which were developed in OGC's rapid-prototyping testbeds.

The MPP-1.1 scenario focused on the operations of a fictional multi-nation coalition working to bring stability to a war-torn nation.A joint "GeoCell" was established to provide integrated geospatial information in support of coalition operations, using different vendors' Web map servers located in the US, Canada, and Europe.Twelve adopted and candidate OpenGIS Interface Specifications were implemented in participant's products, which were shown to work together in a distributed network of servers and wirelessly connected laptop computers and PDAs.

Kevin Backe, Associate Technical Director, U.S.Army Topographic Engineering Center, said, "The Military Pilot Project demonstration was an important milestone for the U.S.military and the commercial geospatial community.It demonstrated the potential for a robust imagery and geospatial architecture composed of many heterogeneous yet interoperable and secure (using PKI encryption) commercial servers and services that are needed by our military.Products with interfaces based on the draft or approved technology specifications enable our users to access and merge together various sources of imagery and geospatial information; symbolize it using military symbology; create, store and share annotation including military symbology; add/edit features; and generate 3D terrain displays."

Jim Jancaitis, Director, Acquisition Pre-Acquisition Office, NIMA, said, "There are lots of interfaces that still must be identified to get to where we need to be in the future.NIMA will be supporting an MPP-2 and hopes that other sponsors will step up to the plate.OGC has used a scenario-based prototyping technique that helps to identify new interfaces that need to be developed.It enables us to see where systems need to interact and where new interfaces need to be scoped out, with their development prioritized and acted on along with development of enhancements to existing interfaces.This process has been valuable for us, and NIMA has provided initial planning funding for the next MPP-2 initiative.We all hope that other sponsors will supply related scenarios and additional resources."

In response to questions about how soon these capabilities will appear in the market, David Schell, president of OGC, said, "This demonstration has shown solutions to an extraordinary number of longstanding interoperability problems.Industry has already begun to implement many of these interfaces in commercial products.Therefore, now is the time for technology procurements to require vendors to adhere to OpenGIS Specifications.This will further encourage industry to build out the supply chain of interoperable products, increasing user choice and market competition."

ABOUT CUBEWERX INC.
Founded in 1996, CubeWerx has been developing standard-based off the shelf software products (SCOTS) in response to Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) requirements for interoperable information infrastructures. CubeWerx is an innovative software company whose expertise includes development, marketing and selling of Web Services and Spatial Warehousing software products. These products and other location-based software product components support the most demanding requirements for the integration, access, and management of very large volumes of Spatial Data over the web. CubeWerx products such as CubeXPLOR, CubeSERV and CubeSTOR were developed using open and interoperable specifications from the Open GIS Consortium. These products allow organizations responsible for Geospatial data to respond to their most demanding client requirements and offer them on-line Web services in a multi-vendor products environment. More information on CubeWerx is available on the Internet at www.cubewerx.com.

For more information please contact:
Edric Keighan (CubeWerx)
Tel.: (819) 771-8303 x207
E-mail

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