Invitation to Participate in the November 2021 Geospatial API Virtual Code Sprint

The next OGC Code Sprint will focus on developing and testing implementations of the joint OGC API - Features / ISO 19168-1:2020 Geospatial API for features Standards

29 November 2021: The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) and ISO / TC 211 invite software developers to the November 2021 Geospatial API Virtual Code Sprint, to be held from November 15-17, 2021, with a pre-event orientation webinar on November 9. Registration is available here, and is open to OGC Members and non-members alike. Sponsorship opportunities are also available.

An OGC Code Sprint is a collaborative and inclusive event driven by innovative and rapid programming with minimal process and organization constraints to support the development of new applications and candidate standards.

Participants of the Sprint will spend the majority of their time collaborating in active coding in order to develop and test early implementations of all parts of the jointly published OGC API - Features and ISO 19168-1:2020 Geospatial API for features Standards, including related extensions.

OGC API - Features offers the capability to serve, create, modify, and query spatial data on the Web and specifies requirements and recommendations for creating APIs that follow a standard way of sharing feature data. ISO 19168-1:2020 Geospatial API for Features is the ISO version of Part 1 of OGC API - Features, which focuses on delivery of feature content.

The Sprint will foster discussion between participants on technical issues, requirements for Application Programming Interface (API) solutions, and findings from the prototyping of the OGC API family of Standards, while additionally providing mentoring and introductory content for developers who are new to the specifications.

OGC and the ISO Technical Committee on Geographic information/Geomatics (ISO/TC 211) have a long-standing partnership to advance Standards that enable the interoperation of location information. Supporting this partnership, OGC is developing a new generation of Standards for building web API solutions that make location-referenced information more Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR). These new OGC API Standards and draft specifications come from the OGC community's effort to create modular, resource-oriented API standards that use OpenAPI to describe interfaces that offer location-referenced information over the web.

To ensure that all OGC API Standards are as developer-friendly, usable, and mature as possible before release, each draft specification gets put through one or more code sprints to test and improve their ‘readiness’ before starting the OGC Standards approval process. Feedback from the Sprint will go on to inform the refinement of the draft specifications for OGC API Features - Part 3 (Filtering and the Common Query Language) and Part 4 (Simple Transactions), as well as the next versions of Part 1 (Core) and Part 2 (Coordinate Reference Systems By Reference).

To learn more about how the family of OGC API Standards work together to provide modular “building blocks for location” that address both simple and the most complex use-cases, visit ogcapi.org.

Call for Sponsors: OGC also invites organizations to sponsor the Code Sprint. A range of packages are available offering different opportunities for organizations to support the geospatial development community while promoting their products or services. If interested in sponsoring the code sprint, please contact the OGC Standards Program at standards-team@ogc.org.

Registration for the November 2021 Geospatial API Virtual Code Sprint and its associated Pre-event Webinar is available here. The 1-hour pre-event webinar on November 9 at 9:00am (US EST) will outline the scope of work for the code sprint, and provide an overview of the candidate standards.

The Sprint will be held from 7:00am (US EST) November 15 to 5:30pm on November 17, 2021.

Registration closes at 2:00am US EST on November 15, 2021. Participation is open to OGC Members and non-members alike.

For the latest information about the November 2021 Geospatial API Virtual Code Sprint, including the schedule, background information, mentorship options for newcomers, and more, please visit the November 2021 Geospatial API Code Sprint GitHub repository.

Information about previous and upcoming OGC code sprints can be found on the OGC Sprint webpage on ogc.org.

About ISO/TC211

Technical Committee 211 of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO/TC 211) manages a set of standards for geographic information, that is, information concerning objects or phenomena that are directly or indirectly associated with a location relative to the Earth.

TC211 standards specify methods, tools and services for management of geographic data, including definition and description, acquisition, processing, analyzing, accessing, presenting and transferring such data in digital/electronic form between different users, systems and locations.

In this, ISO/TC211 works closely with OGC, and tries to use appropriate general standards for information technology and data where possible. The standards provide a framework for the development of sector-specific applications using geographic data.

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.