The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC®) announced that Dr. Jinsoo You has become the first Director of Asian Services for the OGC.

In this new role, Dr. You will represent the interests of OGC in the region.He will promote awareness and adoption of OGC standards, help OGC members optimize their engagement in the OGCprocess, assist with recruitment, and represent OGCin dealing with OGC alliance partners. As the Asian Services Director, Dr. You will support the OGC Asia Forum, which was approved by the OGC membership in 2011 as a mechanism to represent and coordinate the interests of the Asian region in the OGC's international process. 

Dr. You has a distinguished record of professional contributions in the field of geospatial information beginning in the early 1990s. His work with organizations in industry, research, academia, and government has reflected his belief that the successful use of geospatial information comes from organizations working together for mutual benefit. He has been involved in OGC activities in his previous work and has helped his organizations better accomplish their missions by aligning with OGC standards.

Dr. You has participated in standardization projects for both OGC and ISO/TC 211 Geographic information/Geomatics during the last decade. He has also been involved in the development of urban information systems and geospatial web services. He served as a Co-Chair of the OGC-ISO/TC 211 Joint Advisory Group (JAG) for harmonization of standards from the two organizations. In 2009 he became the Chair of the OGC Korea Forum to seek interoperability and create synergy between the various Korean producers and users of geospatial products and services. As the Chair of OGC Korea Forum, Dr. You has focused on developing a geospatial services network in Korea based on international standards.

Before joining the OGC, Dr. You worked at Yonsei University, Korea as a research professor and at the University of Nottingham, UK as a research fellow for geospatial interoperability research. He also worked as a CTO and a CIO of leading geospatial information technology firms based in Seoul, Korea. Dr. You earned his Ph.D. in GIS for Transportation from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, receiving the Outstanding Ph.D. Award in 2000.

The OGC® is an international consortium of more than 435 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. Visit the OGC website at http://www.opengeospatial.org/. See our recent "What is the OGC?" video.