OGC announces a Request for Information on Marine Concept Development Study

15 November 2018: The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) is requesting information to help shape the Marine Spatial Data Infrastructure Concept Development Study (MSDI- CDS), which will assess the current state of data management and exchange technologies used in the marine domain.

The marine domain describes all phenomena and activities that occur within, around, or are related to, the space of earth’s inland waters, seas and oceans. Demand for the marine geospatial data collected and managed by organizations supporting, operating within, or researching this domain is increasing, due to a growing user-base with a variety of new applications.

The knowledge gained from the Marine SDI CDS will be captured in a technical report and provide both an interoperability reference architecture for MSDI as well as a foundation for a potential future pilot that will in turn advance the state of Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDIs) that support discoverability, accessibility, and interoperability of marine geospatial data across the globe.

The purpose of this Concept Development Study is to bring together the marine and broader geospatial standards communities to guide future OGC Innovation Program partnership activities by:

• Engaging executive-level participants to understand the most important challenges
• Engaging different marine geospatial data stakeholders (i.e. data providers, developers, and users)
• Helping participants better understand activities occurring at OGC, the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) and other key organizations
• Engaging operational and technical stakeholders to gather and share information on the current and future state for using marine geospatial data and services, including:
• Understanding what data, applications, tools, and services are currently available;
• Understanding what data, applications, tools, and services stakeholders need;
• Understanding discoverability, accessibility, and usability challenges;
• Understanding interoperability challenges and integration opportunities;
• Identifying gaps in data, applications, tools, and services; and
• Bringing together diverse participants to understand what challenges may translate into requirements for a potential, multi-organization-supported pilot that would kickoff after completion of the MSDI-CDS in February 2019.

To learn more about the study, visit the Marine SDI Concept Development Study page on the OGC website.

Responses to the RFI are requested by January 17, 2019. The RFI includes instructions on how organizations can respond to and submit questions about the RFI.

The RFI is available for download from portal.opengeospatial.org/files/81715.