One of the talks I attended at the URISA conference last week in Orlando was presented by Raj Singh of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) on the subject of "geosynchronization". This has nothing to do with satellite orbits, but with distributed geospatial data stores.
Raj outlined the evolution of spatial data infrastructure technology from simple file management through to on-line geoprocessing using distributed data stores, where on-line geoprocessing services from different vendors could be used to automate a work flow.
- SDI 1.0 - File management
- SDI 2.0 - Web portal for searching and reading spatial data
- SDI 3.0 - Web portal for writing/updating as well as searching and reading
- SDI 4.0 - Distributed write/read/search
- SDI 5.0 - On-line geoprocessing and distributed write/read/search
He described a prototype of SDI 4.0 developed by GeoConnections Canada for highways and roads that was attempted using WFS and WFS-T standard-based servers. The project team concluded that WFS was not enough which led to the proposed Geosynchronization standard. Version 1.0 of the OGC Geosynchronization standard will be available for public comment in about a week.
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