The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC®) has issued [http://www.opengeospatial.org/projects/initiatives/ows-9] . The OWS-9 Testbed is run under OGC’s Interoperability Program (IP), designed to rapidly develop, test and deliver proven candidate specifications into OGC’s Specification Program.

OWS-9 builds on the outcomes of   prior OGC initiatives [http://www.opengeospatial.org/resource/demos] , more specifically the OWS-8 testbed [http://www.opengeospatial.org/projects/initiatives/ows-8],which addressed interoperability architectures, enhancements to existing OGC standards, and other candidate standards in four main areas: Aviation, Observation Fusion, Geosynchronization/Geodata Bulk Transfer, and Cross-Community Interoperability.

OWS-9 will also explore new areas, including but not limited to Compliance Testing, Decision Fusion (including Augmented Reality, Digital Rights Management and Points of Interest), Sensor Web Enablement (SWE) (including Internet of Things concepts), Semantic Mediation in various domains (such as Aviation and Hydrology), and Mass-Market innovations (such as Web Mapping/Tiling innovations, and “app store”-like concepts for geospatial resources).

Interested organizations are invited to attend a planning meeting on Monday October 31, 2011 10-12:30 EDT in the Washington DC area (remote participation via telecom/webex will also be provided). At this meeting, potential sponsors will review the OGC standards baseline, discuss OWS-8 outcomes, and capture initial OWS-9 requirements and plans. Sponsors of OGC IP initiatives provide requirements, use/business cases and funding towards selected initiatives.

Participation in this planning meeting does not constitute a commitment to sponsor OWS-9. Sponsor and participant commitment will be part of a subsequent Request for Quotation / Call for Participation

(RFQ/CFP) process. OGC also welcomes the participation of other Standards Developing Organizations (SDOs), as that assures cooperation and sharing among the SDOs and convergence of standards employed by OGC members.

If your organization is interested in this initiative and/or the planning meeting, contact Nadine Alameh at   nalameh (at) opengeospatial.org  or George Percivall at   gpercivall (at) opengeospatial.org.

OGC testbeds, pilot projects and interoperability experiments are part of OGC's Interoperability Program, a global, hands-on collaborative prototyping program designed to rapidly develop, test and deliver proven candidate specifications into OGC's Specification Program, where they are formalized for public release.

The OGC® is an international consortium of more than 420 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/.