Geospatial Interoperability and the Open Geospatial Consortium Mike Jackson [email protected] Centre for Geospatial Science University of Nottingham

Geospatial Interoperability and the Geospatial Interoperability and the Open Geospatial ConsortiumOpen Geospatial Consortium

Mike JacksonMike [email protected]@nottingham.ac.uk

Centre for Geospatial Science Centre for Geospatial ScienceUniversity of NottinghamUniversity of Nottingham

16 March 200616 March 2006

Mike Jackson

Centre for Geospatial Science

What are the factors driving geospatial interoperability?

• Benefits from being able to share and exchange data

• Benefits from being able to share services

• Benefits from being able to avoid vendor lock-in

• Benefits from being able to work within mainstream IT environment

Mike Jackson


The early push came from the ‘specialist’ Mapping, Charting and Geodesy or MC+G community

This was a small community of medium to large defence and civil government agencies

Programmes tended to be long-term and focussed on data gathering, storage and delivery - quality and completeness were usually more to the fore than immediate operational needs or commercial application

And as result, although the benefits just listed were important the approach was correspondingly considered and cautious

Mike Jackson


This changed for the defence MC+G community as a result of the 11th September 2001 terrorist attack on the USA when the importance of interoperability was put into an new operational perspective.

Homeland security and counter-terrorism became much more important. Improved methods of monitoring and surveillance became essential, acceptable timescales for response were radically reduced.

The resulting political focus has driven new technologies from a range of disciplines which need to be brought together with more established MC+G approaches.

The Security Challenge

• An attack may be any where in the world

• Targeted at civil or military personnel or assets

• Indiscriminate as to who may be impacted

• The perpetrators are willing to sacrifice their own lives

• Delivered from local “isolated” groups

• May use high or low technology

• Can be initiated by small teams in very short timescales • Maximum loss of civilian life seen as a justified goal

• Nothing sacrosanct (funerals, weddings, places of worship)

• Not nation v nation – most nations may be targets

Mike Jackson


But the pressures towards interoperability are not just a consequence of the drive towards efficiency from mapping and charting agencies or changed security and defence priorities.

Mike Jackson


• Political … increasing demands from local government, national government and the EU to provide data and services, empowering the individual

• Societal … focus on individual choice, continuing increases in mobility, leisure, environmental concern, Internet awareness by all but especially the youth

• Economic … home ownership, disposable wealth, knowledge based businesses

• Environmental …climate change, natural and man-made disasters <earthquakes, flooding, drought, pollution>

Mike Jackson


And so from a technical dimension -

Position, location, spatial context are no longer just the domain of the mapping and surveying communities

They are increasingly of critical importance to other major growth industries and social programmes

These new activities will be a source of location-based data, of relevant software and hardware and of geospatial services as well as a customer of them

But they bring their own way of doing things, their own semantics, their own ways of organising and presenting data.

Ubiquitous precision positioning

Persistent surveillance

Globally networked search

High band-width mobile comms

Up to the minute data

Nanobots

UAV’s

Videocams

GPS-Galileo-INS ++

Google earth

EO Satellites

VOIP

• In 2000 £4.4b was spent on 3G licences by the 5 UK telecomms companies.• In 2005 816m mobile phones were sold (680m in ’04) (+86m on est. ’06 est 930m)

• Consider the pace of development in this technology – voice, messaging, cameras, data services, positioning, TV• What will the mobile device we each carry be like in 5 or 10 years time? - a powerful computer, linked into global databases, comprehensive voice, text, graphics and sensorycommunications, that knows precisely where you are, knows your

routines, likes, dislikes, with still and video cameras, search engines to locate

anything, navigational capabilities to take you to it, identify anything you point at,

guides to give you local current and historical information, has electronic banking and financial

transaction capabilities to allow you to order and pay for services and even ?????

3G Mobile Communications

Sony Ericsson W950 – “there's no storage card slot – so four Gigs is your lot” Nokia's 6136 to feature UMA support - can seamlessly move between 3G and Wi-Fi without dropping a call - announcement by Rabbit .. will offer a 2 cents call via Wi-Fi to anywhere in the world - http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/02/16/hands_on_with_3gsm_phones/

More and more data!

Mike JacksonCentre for Geospatial Science

Data floods – in the UK> OS MasterMap and OS have 25cm imagery though this is a once per three years snap shot. From 2008 NGA unclassified satellite 41cm resolution imagery available. Also increasing low cost satellite + UAV and video surveillance imagery. Huge amounts of data available directly from web sources and informal / free postings.

Official DARPA Grand Challenge 2005 Winner Announced

The amazing thing is that four autonomous vehicles have finished the 132 miles desert course. What a contrast to last year's Grand Challenge, where no robot car came close to finish the course.

Developments in navigation and robotics

INSIDE YAHOO! Yahoo! Maps - Driving Directions


Biggest ‘happenings’ on the web – Google, Yahoo, Amazon, Ebay – all from new beginnings, each is service oriented, Accessed daily by millions, each engage the user to enrich and self-tune the offering back to the consumer, all use open source software platforms and the first three at least are increasingly focussing on the spatial dimension as is Microsoft.

Virtual Neighbourhood walks.


A9.com brings Yellow Pages to life by adding 26 million images

“Block View,” brings Yellow Pages to life by showing a street view of millions of businesses and their surroundings. Using trucks equipped with digital cameras, GPS receivers, and proprietary software and hardware, A9.com drove tens of thousands of miles capturing images and matching them with businesses and the way they look from the street.

The whole process (except for the driving!) is completely automatic. Block View allows users to see storefronts and virtually walk up and down the streets of currently 24 U.S. cities using over 26 million photographs. We are driving and at some point hope to cover the whole country.

Windows Live™ Local

Why do I need street-side views?

• Historically, maps give you a perspective of geographical information about a place. In Windows Live™ Local, powered by Virtual Earth™, you’ve seen road, aerial, and hybrid maps.

• Then, we introduced bird's eye views to give you a perspective from above.

• Now, we want you to be there, right in front of the pizza shop you are searching for, in the street-side views offered by Windows Live Local. Even though you haven’t left the comfort of your computer chair, you’ll feel like you’re actually there.


How do I use the Technology Preview?

• Street-side views enables you to view imagery as if you were driving or walking along the street. There are a number of ways to explore street-side views.

• You can explore street-side views by "driving" along streets in the map or you can also "Walk" along the street.

• When the car is on a street that has street-side images, the car headlights turn on and you can view the front, right, and left views through the car windows above.

Windows Live™ Local,

Searching

• You can use the two boxes at the top to search for interesting places. • You can search for addresses and select the city. • For example, you can search for “pizza” in the category box to find nearby

pizza places.

• Or you can use the address box to find a friend’s house. • Once you’ve found something, hover over the icon for the details.

• There is also a link to zoom directly to the street.


Using the Car • The car is your navigation aid when viewing

street-side views. Move it around to view imagery from any direction along the street.

• Hold your mouse over the headlights to rotate the car to a new direction. The headlights come on when there is imagery available.

• You can also use the keyboard arrows to move the car or change directions.


Zooming

• You can spin the mouse wheel forward to zoom-in and backward to zoom out.

• You can also use the + key on your keyboard to zoom-in, or the - key on your keyboard to zoom-out.

• You can also double click the map or the car to zoom-in.

Amazon Mechanical Turk :What is Mechanical Turk?

• To read about Amazon Mechanical Turk and its web services APIs, go to www.amazon.com/webservices • Complete simple tasks that people do better than computers. And, get paid for it. Learn more.• Choose from thousands of tasks, control when you work, and decide how much you earn. • If you are a software developer and would like to learn more about using Amazon Mechanical Turk APIs,

click here.

• What is a HIT? • HIT stands for Human Intelligence Task. These are tasks that people are willing to pay you to complete. For

example a HIT might ask: "Is there a pizza parlour in this photograph?" Typically these tasks are extraordinarily difficult for computers, but simple for humans to answer.

• How do I find HITs to work on? • Just click the "Get Started Now" button to browse thousands of available HITs, without any obligation.

• How do I work on a HIT? • Once you have chosen a HIT to complete, click the "Accept HIT" button to have it assigned to you. • Follow the instructions on how to complete the HIT and when you are done, click the "Submit " button to save your

answer. • How do I get paid? • You are paid when your answer is approved by the person that listed the HIT. • The money you earn is deposited into your Amazon.com account, where you can turn it into cash at any time by

transferring it to your personal checking account.


Responding to Change:

So is there an issue over all this change apart from keeping our heads from spinning? YES – the world is not going to slow down – it’s increasingly important to align to mainstream IT trends if one is to keep services up-to-date, cost effective and capable of change.

Can we manage things in a smooth evolutionary manner?? Depends on where you are starting from but will become easier if you get the under-pinning architecture right.

What do we need to do to ensure we don’t hit brick walls??? To move software and systems increasingly towards an open web- enabled distributed architecture compliant with international interoperability standards e.g. ISO, OGC, OASIS, W3C.

Mike Jackson


Example of Web-Mapping

Are there lessons from the past????

Web mapping services was a disruptive technology for the established GIS vendors.

At first pass the extension of the traditional GIS systems to provide Internet mapping seemed straight forward.

Mike Jackson



What were the requirements ……..

• Minimal or simple analysis of data other than routeing• Fast map display based on address matching• Medium to small data sets • Support for large numbers of users• Intuitive interface - users were general Internet-aware public• Typically desktop display

Mike Jackson



But GIS had been developed to handle: -

Complex analysis with sophisticated data models Medium sized but relatively static data bases Rich functionality Usually well defined and relatively stable application paths Small numbers of simultaneous users Powerful hardware with large (and even dual) screen displays

And for: -

Well trained users. Lengthy evaluation, procurement and implementation timescales.



The differences though subtle are significant

and the incumbent GIS vendors were not sufficiently flexible to meet the new demand – the winning web mapping suppliers were all new entrants – Mapquest, Multimap, Mapblast and now Internet services companies using these products – Google, Microsoft, Yahoo etc.

A good example of disruptive technology

Mike Jackson


The changes driven by developments in the mobile telephony and mobile internet world, will impact nearly every tax and rate payer and will be just as significant as web mapping services and from a systems developers perspective are even more unpredictable

New products, new vendors, new customers, new demands - new suppliers??

And another disruptive technology?


Example of Location Based Services

Again we have a new technology influence – 3G mobiles will give us:

• High band width + always on connectivity to data services

• Colour displays + good graphics potential – but still tiny screen

• Client-end processing and mass storage potential

• Accurate (metres) device self-locate [LSS GPS + INS]

• Data centric focus - wide range of app’s and x-app synergies

• High-res still / video camera for location data enrichment

Mike Jackson


Example of Location Based Services

And that delivers both the best and most challenging of GIS and the web-mapping worlds ….

• Accurate location and precision app’s detailed mapping/content • Very large data bases – e.g. in UK, terabytes• Need for sophisticated data models to deliver wide range of app’s• Need for real-time response• Need to service very large numbers of users• Enterprise-wide architecture needed – integral links to CRM, .

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...Billing, Location Server, business logic, etc.• And a tiny display!

Mike Jackson


Areas of Technical Challenges

• Data

• Database

• Query

• Data mining and knowledge creation

• Portrayal

Mike Jackson


Areas of Technical Challenges

But perhaps the biggest challenge is at the architectural level - to evolve towards and then maintain an open, interoperable environment that can accommodate new technologies, access emerging data at source and new vendor functionality on a best-of-breed basis without starting from base point every time something new arrives on the scene.

This is where the Open Geospatial Consortium sets its goal.

The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) is a:

• Not-for-profit, international, voluntary consensus

standards organization,

• Founded in 1994, HQ’d in US with UK + Australian

subsidiaries, and with

• 300+ industry, government, and university members

The OGC Mission

To lead the global development, To lead the global development,

promotion and harmonization of promotion and harmonization of

open standards and architectures open standards and architectures

that enable the integration of that enable the integration of

geospatial data and services into geospatial data and services into

user applications and advance the user applications and advance the

formation of related market formation of related market

opportunities.opportunities.

The OGC Vision

A world in which everyone benefits from the use of geospatial information and supporting technology.

The Growth of OGC

• Over 300 members worldwide from 35 countries & 6 continents– 125+ European members across 20 countries– 34+ Asia-Pacific members from Japan, S Korea, Australia,

China, and Thailand• 17 publicly available Implementation Specifications

• Broad participation with other industry and international standards organizations

• 30+ candidate Implementation Specifications in work

• OGC Reference Model defines interoperable geo-architecture

• Rapidly growing list of vendor implementations

– http://www.opengeospatial.org/resources/?page=products

OGC Partner Organizations

• World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)• Digital Geospatial Information Working Group (DGIWG) • International Organization for Standards (ISO)• CEN• OASIS• Object Management Group (OMG)• Open Mobile Alliance (OMA)• Web3D• Simulation Interoperability Standards Organization

(SISO)• International Alliance for Interoperability (IAI) • IEEE Technical Committee 9 (Sensor Web)

OpenGIS ® Standards

• Simple Features

- SQL, COM data access

• Catalog Services– Includes Web Profile

• Grid Coverages– Non web imagery

• Coordinate Transformation• Geography Markup Language• Web Map Service

– Map Graphic in .png, .jpg, .gif

• Styled Layer Descriptor– Change symbology in WMS

• Web Map Context– Save WMS session

• Reopen or send to others

• Web Coverage Service– Imagery raw or rectified

• Open Location Services– Mobile terminal integration with

the WWW (Nextel, Vodaphone, Verizon use them)

• Web Services Common– Query box, things used in more

than one web specification

• Geospatial Objects– JAVA, .net versions of major

interfaces in existing specifications

• Filter Encoding– Query syntax to select features

• Web Feature Service– Access to individual features

In Work OGC Specifications • Sensor Web Enablement

- Sensor Model Language; Sensor Planning Service; Transducer Markup Language

• CAD GIS Integration- Continuous record from exterior to interior

• Trans XML (AASHTO using GML)- Complete transportation planning, construction, management set of XML (GML

based) documents

• City GML- Detailed Urban models for visualization and simulation

• Geo Decision Support• Semantic Interoperability• Schema Aggregation and Subsetting Tools• GML in JPEG 2000

Open, Consensus Standards.

• Freely and publicly available– Non-discriminatory – anybody, anytime, anywhere

– No license fees – Why do you think that IP won and BCS lost?

• Vendor neutral– Controlled by the market place not a single company

• No single vendor can manipulate the market for its advantage

• Data neutral• Open process allows the whole world to comment on

work as it reaches standard status– Many brains are better than one

– Marketplace has opportunity to compete based on technical competency, not just marketing prowess

Benefits of Open Standardisation

• Financial– Minimize development, deployment and maintenance costs

• Technical– Assembly of proven components is less risky than bespoke development

– Single interface can communicate with tens of sources instead of each source needing its own custom connection

• Schedule– Timely completion is more likely as less development needed

• Interoperability– Multi-jurisdictional communities have no way to force all of the participants to buy

the same hardware and software

From Distributed Objects to Service Oriented

• Web Services drove the change by allowing more complex transactions– Give me an answer instead of give me the data

• Enables integration at service level instead of data level– Less complexity

– Less ‘post processing’ required

– Faster initial response

• “Bind at Runtime” characteristic of OGC standards is consistent with prevailing network security requirements

Examples of OGC Adoption

• NATO Core Geographic Services procurement in next generation Command and Control (Bi-SC AIS)– Built on OGC and ISO interface standards

• EUSC Reference Facility– Awarded in 2005, Built on OGC architecture and interface and encoding

standards

• EU INSPIRE Initiative– INSPIRE Implementation Drafting Teams building out infrastructure based on

OGC specifications and application schema methods– Sixth Framework’s ORCHESTRA and RISE projects built around OGC

specifications

• U.S. Department of Homeland Security geospatial architecture

• U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) Registry (DISR) defines net-centric standards and includes OGC specifications for use in that country’s military

• NGA announces requirement for OGC and complementary standards (Release no. 05-18, De. 22 2005)

But progress requires more than mandating standards

At the motherhood and apple pie level it is easy to see the benefit and accept the needs, but…

The detail is often opaque to the majority,

There can be multiple seemingly similar standards from different bodies, national <BS>, EU <CEN>, international <ISO> and de facto and de jure standards

Vendors can (just sometimes) obfuscate in relation to standards

Effective interoperability can be impacted by many factors even when adherence to standards is being followed

There may be inhibiting aspects associated with performance

New skills and expertise may be needed

Conformancy needs to be tested

The relationship to emerging developments, technologies and standards needs to be evaluated

“Persistent Test-bed”

There is now a need to have a permanent facility where the community can see such an interoperable architecture in an deployable context, testable for operational performance in a multi-vendor context, with access to very large local and remote datasets.

Such a facility is needed also as a research test-bed, to identify and address critical system and technology problem areas and to be the basis of capability evolution and integration of new technology from related disciplines as it emerges.

“Persistent Test-bed”

The University of Nottingham Centre for Geospatial Science in association with the OGC have recognised this need and are planning such a capability.

Initial funding has been secured, equipment being procured and research and support staff being engaged.

Commercial supporters for the related research programme currently include Intergraph, LogicaCMG and QinetiQ.

Some Conclusions (1)

• Systems involved in capturing and managing spatial data, providing spatially enabled services or geospatial analysis face massive change over the next few years. •

• The developments including digital mapping, GIS, GPS, web mapping services and location based services have resulted in numerous discrete and fragmented products and capabilities.

• To meet current demands, to protect current investment and gain maximum value from new investment requires a considered long-term development plan. A flexible architectural roadmap is likely to be based upon W3C/OASIS/OGC enabled web services providing interoperability at the component level and access to data and services available over the Internet.

Mike Jackson


Conclusions on trends (1)

• Increased focus on data issues – there is a need to reformulate data to deliver the objects of interest. But what are the data objects of importance?

•This will further drive need for data association and integration tools, >> cleaning, aggregation and conflation.

•Criticality of adoption of standards and sound implementation architecture will continue to increase.

• Move towards ‘best-of-breed’ interoperable components within a loosely coupled OGC-compliant architecture.

• Mike JacksonCentre for Geospatial Science

Conclusions on Trends (2)

• Separation of applications from the software platform technology opening-up opportunity for innovative app’s developers which will further drive data needs

• Move away from single vendor and stove- pipe solutions

• Increasing need for greater domain expertise from the system

integrators responsible for detailed design and delivery.

• Need to re-visit how spatial information is perceived by and

best communicated to users.


Thank You

Centre for Geospatial ScienceMike Jackson

[email protected]/cgs

Research Topics?

• Defining geographic objects of interest in context of next generation of users – can we generate these from current map database structures?

• Data models – topologies-meta-data that allow real-time creation of objects of interest according to context.

• “Now” data rather than “recent” data • Data association techniques • Semantics + ontologies for interoperability (dynamic categorisation according

to context)• Spatial cognition + multi-scale representation; schematisation; spatial

communictions (graphics, text, voice, haptics)• 3-D cities – integrated 3D data models and edit/update systems • Interoperability of algorithms, components, services as well as data.• Integration of SOA, GRID and active agent technologies for distributed

computing with both data and models being maintained at the source of origination or expertise.

Documents

Geospatial Interoperability and the Open Geospatial Consortium Mike Jackson [email protected] Centre for Geospatial Science University of Nottingham