Release date: 07 June 2022
The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) and the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo) have renewed their Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).
Open Software and Open Standards are complementary pieces of the geospatial ecosystem to which OGC and OSGeo are both committed.
“With our increased focus on the OGC APIs and empowering developers (even non-geospatial) to leverage location in their development, the ongoing partnership between OGC and OSGeo makes perfect sense,” said OGC CEO Dr. Nadine Alameh. “We both have a growing market to deliver to, and our joint commitment to Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR) and Open data principles will help us both accelerate how the world integrates geospatial/location information into everything.”
“As a free and open source software foundation, standards provide OSGeo the ability to interoperate in numerous environments and markets,” said OSGeo President Dr. Angelos Tzotsos. “Our long-standing collaboration with OGC will now evolve to the next level of OSGeo projects’ standards development, implementation, and compliance. We are excited for what the future holds as a result of the renewed MoU, and look forward to further collaboration.”
As part of the MoU, the two organizations will coordinate activities to maximize the achievement of their respective missions and goals, including: the planning and execution of further joint code sprints, along with participating in code sprints from the other organization; identifying open source technologies that could be used as Reference Implementations for adopted OGC Standards and/or validate OGC compliance tests; assess the modernization of the Compliance Program software environment; coordinate to organize joint outreach activities; and work together with OGC Standards Working Groups on new Standards and Standards changes that may be required as a result of new and updated open source software.
OGC and OSGeo have formally collaborated via MoU since 2008 collaborating on numerous joint presentations at conferences and co-hosted code sprints. This new MoU provides OSGeo with an organizational membership in OGC so that OSGeo participants can represent their priorities in the development of OGC Standards and supporting documents and services.
About OSGeo
The Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo) is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to foster global adoption of open geospatial technology by being an inclusive software foundation devoted to an open philosophy and participatory community driven development.
The foundation provides financial, organizational and legal support to the broader open source geospatial community. It also serves as an independent legal entity to which community members can contribute code, funding and other resources, secure in the knowledge that their contributions will be maintained for public benefit. OSGeo also serves as an outreach and advocacy organization for the open source geospatial community, and provides a common forum and shared infrastructure for improving cross-project collaboration.
Visit osgeo.org for more information.
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.
