OGC and NSGIC partner to collaborate on promoting the uptake of location-based technology trends.

20 September 2021: The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) is excited to announce that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the National States Geographic Information Council (NSGIC). Under the MoU, OGC and NSGIC will work together to promote the uptake of location-based technology trends.

OGC CEO, Dr. Nadine Alameh, commented: “I’m very excited about the OGC partnership with NSGIC during these unique times where geospatial (as a technology and as a community) is being widely recognized for the value it can bring to problem solving, such as during pandemics or disasters. The partnership between OGC and NSGIC further unifies our community and will enable both organizations to make a bigger impact on our world.

“I’m particularly excited about our partnership bringing the community together to better understand the implications and the opportunities around the US Geospatial Data Act of 2018, and look forward to future common community and standardization activities based around that.”

NSGIC President, Frank Winters, commented: “The term governance is met with mixed reactions. Some think of bureaucratic controls increasing overhead. In our discussions with OGC we are looking at governance differently. Governance has two functions: awareness and trust. First, we gain awareness of the contributions of others, freeing us to concentrate on our most impactful efforts. Second, we establish a framework allowing us to trust in the work of others and build off it, further advancing our own contribution. I am excited about the collaboration between NSGIC and OGC. It is an important step in helping our geospatial ecosystem thrive.”

The collaboration between OGC and NSGIC started in the early days of the pandemic when there was a realization that geospatial is still handled as its own separate function within government entities, unnecessarily delaying targeted actionable information during critical events such as a growing pandemic. With that in mind, this collaboration is primarily centered around raising the awareness of the value of geospatial, and to promote the uptake of location-based technology trends at all levels of government. Inspired by the success of the collaboration on the US GDA community workshop, OGC and NSGIC will work together on the scoping, execution, and promotion of joint initiatives such as: webinars and workshops; invitations to events; articles/discussion papers around location information and interoperability topics; and other projects.

About The National States Geographic Information Council (NSGIC)

The National States Geographic Information Council (NSGIC) advances effective state-led geospatial coordination for the nation. NSGIC serves as a national forum to develop future-oriented geospatial leadership and advance sound policies and practices for geospatial activities. In promoting the coordinated, impactful, and cost-efficient application of location-based information and analytics, NSGIC emphasizes the power of initiatives and public policy that connect across local, state, tribal, federal, and private sector partners. For more than 30 years, NSGIC state representatives - state government Geospatial Information Officers and equivalents - have joined their peers across the country in leveraging geographic information systems data, technology, and coordination to support efficiency, integration, and smart decision-making in their own states and together for the nation. In recent years NSGIC has broadened its outreach to play an important role in larger geospatial ecosystem.

Visit nsgic.org.

About OGC

The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) is a collective problem-solving community of experts from more than 500 businesses, government agencies, research organizations, and universities driven to make geospatial (location) information and services FAIR - Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable.

The global OGC Community engages in a mix of activities related to location-based technologies: developing consensus-based open standards and best-practice; collaborating on agile innovation initiatives; engaging in community meetings, events, and workshops; and more.

OGC's unique standards development process moves at the pace of innovation, with constant input from technology forecasting, practical prototyping, real-world testing, and community engagement.

OGC bridges disparate sectors, domains, and technology trends, and encourages the cross-pollination of ideas between different communities of practice to improve decision-making at all levels. OGC is committed to creating an inclusive and sustainable future.

Visit ogc.org for more info on our work.