The Open Landscape of Geospatial Information: Open data, open source, open standards Presented at ASPRS GeoTech 2013 conference: http://www.asprspotomac.org/geotech2013/ Abstract: The many dimensions of "open" provides users with higher quality geospatial information. Open Standards ensures interoperability to information whether its served by proprietary or open source software. Open Source software benefits the development of open standards and leads to a business ecosystem that includes more providers, more partnerships and more customers.[1] In the end the user does not care if the code is open or proprietary. Users care about access to data and the quality of the data. Open Data has advanced with the recent policies from GEOSS Data-CORE [2] and the US Open Government Initiative [3]. Open Earth Observation data from government sources benefits industry and users. Open standards, Open source and Open data can result in higher quality information. The fusion of data from multiple sources results in higher quality. Fusion is possible based on multiple data sources that can be interrelated [4]. Improving Data Quality through knowing the uncertainty and the provenance of derived information is dependent upon an open landscape of geospatial information. [1] http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Open_Source_and_Open_Standards [2] http://www.earthobservations.org/geoss_dsp.shtml [3] http://www.whitehouse.gov/open [4] http://www.opengeospatial.org/projects/initiatives/fusion2

1. ®
The Open Landscape of
Geospatial Information
Open Data, Open Source,
Open Standards
George Percivall
OGC Chief Engineer
ASPRS GeoTech 2013
9 December 2013
© 2013 Open Geospatial Consortium

2. The Open Landscape of Geo Information
Open Source
its about the code
Open Data
its about the license
Open Standards
its about interfaces & encodings
Related but Distinct Concepts that
allow greater use of information
OGC
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3. Open Source Software
Open Source Definition
opensource.org/docs/osd
1. Free Redistribution
2. Source Code
3. Derived Works
4. Integrity of Source Code
5. No Discrimination: Persons
6. No Discrimination: Fields
7. Distribution of License
8. License Not Product Specific
9. Not Restrict Other Software
10. License Technology-Neutral
OGC
OS Development
• OS Geo
• LocationTech
• Apache Foundation
• Independent activities
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4. OS Geo Projects
• Web Mapping
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• Desktop Applications
deegree
geomajas
GeoMoose
GeoServer
Mapbender
MapBuilder
MapFish
MapGuide Open Source
MapServer
OpenLayers
• Metadata Catalogs
– GRASS GIS
– Marble
– QGIS
• Geospatial Libraries
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FDO
GDAL/OGR
GEOS
GeoTools
OSSIM
PostGIS
– GeoNetwork
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5. Hosted by Eclipse Foundation
Community of open source projects and a trade association of companies
• Incubating Projects
– GeoMesa
– uDig
• Proposed Projects
– JTS Topology Suite
– GeoGit
– SpatialHadoop
– GeoTrellis
– GeoMesa
– Geoff
– GeoScript
OGC
• Strategic Members
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6. Apache Software Foundation
• Spatial Information Systems
• SOLR
• CouchDB (Geocouch)
• Hadoop (SpatialHadoop, WPS-Hadoop)
• Open Climate Workbench
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7. Open Source and Open Standards
• SQLite
– Cross-platform C library that implements a
self-contained, embeddable, zero-config SQL database engine
– Maintained by SQLite Consortium
•
OGC GeoPackage - universal file format for geodata
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Built on SQLite, so works on any desktop or mobile OS
Application and platform independent,
Self-describing
Connected / disconnected environment use
The modern alternative to
shapfile, GeoTIFF, SDTS and vendor specific
• Experience it here: http://www.ogcnetwork.net/geopackage
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8. Open Data: Open Knowledge Definition
A work is open if:
• Access at no more than a reasonable reproduction cost,
preferably downloading via the Internet without charge.
• Free of restrictions on Redistribution
• Reuse through derivative works
• Distribution in an open data format
• May require attribution with redistribution
• Integrity: modifications use different name or version
• No discrimination against persons, groups, endeavors
Above is highly paraphrased. Go see the source: http://opendefinition.org/okd/
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9. Recent US Government Executive announcements on
US Open Data and Earth Observations
• Open Data Policy - Managing Information as an Asset
– OMB Directive M-13-13 (9 May 2013)
– “Open data” is publicly available data structured in a way that
enables the data to be fully discoverable and usable by end users.
• National Strategy For Civil Earth Observations
– OSTP April 2013
– Establish a publicly available open data policy and a supporting
data-management approach that addresses all aspects of the data
life cycle, including open publishing of data, and metadata and
quality-assurance management.
• National Plan for Civil Earth Observations – to be published
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10. GEOSS Data Sharing Principles
• Full and Open Exchange of Data
• Data and Products at Minimum Time delay and
Minimum Cost
• Free of Charge or Cost of Reproduction

11. GEOSS Information System
and GEOSS DataCORE
www.geoportal.org
• GEO Portal - new version
released last week
• More than 14 million
discoverable Resources
• More than 1.2 million
are
• Brokered Search of >20
Community Catalogues
• Example search found:
1081 datasets for
Land Cover
© GEO Secretariat

12. Open Data: a Culture of Cooperation
• “Who will pay for public access to research data?”
– F. Berman and V. Cerf, Policy Forum, 9 August, p. 616
• Letter to Editor response by 44 persons in EarthCube
– “Although the question of who pays for open data is important…
– A greater challenge lies in implementing institutional and cultural
changes required before data from government-sponsored research
can be openly shared”
– Science 29 November 2013: V. 342 pp. 1041-4042
• NSF's EarthCube
– Cyber infrastructure for integrating data, tools, and models in the
geosciences,
– illustrates challenges and benefits of community engagement and
institutional alignment
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© GEO Secretariat

13. EarthCube
Stakeholder Alignment
Data and Principles
Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld,
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Nick Berente, University of Georgia
Burcu Bolukbasi, UIUC
Leslie DeChurch, Georgia Tech University
Courtney Flint, Utah State University
Michael Haberman, UIUC
John L. King, University of Michigan
Eric Knight, University of Sydney
Barbara Lawrence, UCLA
Ethan Masella, Brandeis Uniersity
Charles Mcelroy, Case Western
Reserve University
Barbara Mittleman, Nodality, Inc.
Support from the National Science Foundation is deeply appreciated:
Mark Nolan, UIUC
NSF-VOSS EAGER 0956472, “Stakeholder Alignment in Socio-Technical Systems,”
Melanie Radik, Brandeis University
NSF OCI RAPID 1229928, “Stakeholder Alignment for EarthCube,”
Namchul Shin, Pace University
NSF GEO-SciSIP-STS-OCI-INSPIRE 1249607, “Enabling Transformation in the Social Sciences, Geosciences, and
Cyberinfrastructure,”
Susan Winter, University of Maryland
NSF I-CORPS 1313562 “Stakeholder Alignment for Public-Private Partnerships”
Ilya Zaslavsky, UCSD

14. Where such standards exist, EarthCube should use formal, internationally
approved, geoscience-wide data access/sharing standards and protocols
(e.g. ISO, OGC). (v100 R2)
Where there are not formal, international standards, please indicate your
priority between, on the one hand, EarthCube encouraging development or
extension of formal, internationally approved, geoscience-wide data
access/sharing standards and protocols (0) versus EarthCube have its own
systems of standards and protocols (1). (v101 R2)
1
0.9
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
Formal international standards
EC encourage where no standards

15. Why Open Standards?
• Prevents a single, self-interested party from controlling a
standard
• Lower systems and life cycle costs
• Encourage market competition
– Choose based on functionality
desired
– Avoid “lock in” to a proprietary
architecture
“People want government
to be transparent, so why
shouldn't the technology
be?”
Jim Willis,
Director e-Government
Rhode Island
• Stimulates innovation beyond the standard by companies
that seek to differentiate themselves.
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Source: Open Standards, Open Source, and Open Innovation: Harnessing the Benefits of
Openness, April 2006. Committee For Economic Development. www.ced.org

16. How does the OGC define Open?
• Freely and publicly available
• Unencumbered by patents and
other intellectual property
• Non discriminatory
• No license fees
• Vendor neutral
“What OGC brings to
the table is…everyone
has confidence we
won’t take advantage of
the format or change it
in a way that will harm
anyone”
Michael Weiss-Malik, Google
KML product manager
• Data neutral
• Agreed to in a Consensus Process
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17. OGC Points of Interest Standard
• POI Standard development
– Began in W3C with OGC participation
– OGC Standards Working Group formed to complete work
– Final OGC vote and adoption process
• Key Use Case for POI Standard
– Authoritative sources maintain POIs
• E.g. Starbucks maintains their POIs
– Aggregators gather POIs from authoritative sources
using OGC POI Standard
• E.g., Google Gathers POIS from many sources
– POI Aggregators offer services
• E.g., Google offers search on PoI database
openpoi.ogcnetwork.net
OGC
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Copyright © 2013, Open Geospatial Consortium

18. OGC continues to expand on openness
• Public mailing lists
• Commenting and issue management on GitHub
– Already in place for POI and GeoPackage SWGs
• Public request for comments more often
• Publication moving from proprietary MSWord format to
PDF and HTML and ascii doc open formats
• OpenPOIs code is public open source on GitHub
– OpenPOIs as reference implementation showing capability
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19. Advancements in Open Standards
in OGC OWS-9 Testbed
OGC
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Copyright © 2013, Open Geospatial Consortium

20. Advancements in Open Standards
in OGC OWS-9 Testbed
OGC
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Copyright © 2013, Open Geospatial Consortium

21. The Open Landscape of Geo Information
• Symbiosis of all three “opens”
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Open Source is vital development of Open Standards
Open Source thrives using Open Data
Access using Open Standards flourishes with Open Data
Policies built on Open Standards, Open Data and Open Source
• OGC White Paper on “Open Source and Open Standards”
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Developed jointly by OS Geo and OGC
Similarities and differences – Open Standards and Open Source
Ensuring Interoperability of Proprietary and Open Source Software
www.opengeospatial.org/pressroom/papers
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22. Interoperability is about Organizations
“Interoperability seems to be about the
integration of information.
What it’s really about is the coordination of
organizational behavior.”
George Percivall
gpercivall@opengeospatial.org
@percivall
www.opengeospatial.org
OGC
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Copyright © 2013, Open Geospatial Consortium

23. Additional References
• OWS-9 Testbed Videos
• Open Data by Arnulf Christl
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