– The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) and the Association of Geographic Information (AGI) have joined forces to offer European organizations the chance to learn more about open standards and interoperability. Hosted at the Met Office in Exeter on Friday, 22nd June 2012, following the OGC Technical Committee meetings earlier that week, the day will be of interest to everyone in the geospatial community, especially those who want to know more about what Open Government and international geospatial standards can offer them and their organisation.

If you are interested in standards policy and the EC INSPIRE Directive, or the recent UK Government consultation on Open Standards, there will be representation from Central Government, Ordnance Survey Great Britain and the Met Office, amongst others. If you are more technically minded there will be a hands-on workshop where you’ll get the chance to try out OGC compliant Web services and data feeds in open source software. Remember to bring your laptop!

Provisional Programme:

0900 Registration, coffee and exhibition

0930 Welcome

0940 What is the OGC? - Steven Ramage, OGC

1000 Why Met Office are using Open Standards - Chris Little, Met Office

1030 OGC Standards and INSPIRE - Graham Vowles, Bloxstore

1100 Coffee and exhibition

1120 Open Standards in the UK Location Programme - Alex Coley, Environment Agency

1200 Open Standards Workshop - Mike Saunt, Astun Technology

1300 Lunch and exhibition, sponsored by 1Spatial

1400 OGC Compliance Program - George Percivall, OGC and Jens Fitzke, lat/lon

1440 Coffee and exhibition

1500 Using Open Standards at Ordnance Survey - Andy Howles, Ordnance Survey GB

1540 Closing Session

Interoperability Day location:

Met Office

FitzRoy Road

Exeter

Devon

EX1 3PB

Registration

This is a free event, but registration is required. Please register at https://portal.agi.org.uk/App/MemberPages/frmLogin.aspx?Event=311.

Sponsors and Exhibitors

1Spatial is sponsoring the refreshments. Astun Technology is exhibiting at this event. If you are interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at this event, please contact Claire Huppertz claire.huppertz _at_ agi.org.uk. The cost to exhibit is £200+VAT for corporate members

GeoDrinks - 21st June

The Interoperability Day event will be preceded by a GeoDrinks event (21st June at 1900), to be held at The Well House Tavern, 16 Cathedral Yard, in Exeter. This will be a free event, however, registration is required so we know how many to expect. Please register here: http://geodrinks-sw-june-2012.eventbrite.com/

See details of the OGC Technical Committee meeting and instructions for Technical Committee meeting registration at http://www.opengeospatial.org/event/1206tc.

Continuous Professional Development (CPD)

AGI members: Please note that as a delegate at this event you can allocate 4 points towards the AGI continuing professional development scheme. More information on the scheme can be found here. Attendance certificates can be requested.

About the AGI

The Mission of the AGI is to maximise the use of geographic information (GI) in the UK for the benefit of the citizen, good governance and commerce. With over 2000 named members, individual and corporate, AGI is THE membership body for everyone with an interest or involvement with GI and has been active since 1989. Now in its 22nd year, AGI is a member of the UK Location Council, an INSPIRE Spatial Data Interest Community (SDIC) and provides logistical and expert support to the British Standard's Committee for Geographic Information (IST36), amongst its many other activities. Visit the AGI website at http://www.agi.org.uk/.

About the OGC

The OGC is an international consortium of more than 445 companies, government agencies, research organizations, and universities participating in a consensus process to develop publicly available geospatial standards. OGC standards support interoperable solutions that "geo-enable" the Web, wireless and location-based services, and mainstream IT. OGC standards empower technology developers to make geospatial information and services accessible and useful with any application that needs to be geospatially enabled. Visit the OGC website at http://www.opengeospatial.org/contact.