OGC calls for Sponsors of a major Innovation Initiative, Testbed 16

1 May 2019: The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) has issued a call for sponsors for its latest innovative interoperability initiative, Testbed 16.

Testbeds are OGC's largest Innovation Initiatives, typically receiving several million dollars of sponsorship and in-kind contributions. Testbeds are part of OGC’s Innovation Program, which provides a venue to advance standards-based solutions for modeling, finding, accessing, analyzing, and visualizing location-related data.

OGC Testbeds provide a unique platform where sponsors work closely with technology providers to rapidly generate prototypes and test environments that address mission-critical geospatial information integration and interoperability requirements. Testbeds result in more than just requirements for new and updated standards: outcomes also include guides, overviews, and best practices for solving critical interoperability problems affecting location-based technologies.

Based on technology trends, and building on the work from previous Testbeds, below are some preliminary areas that Testbed 16 may examine:

• Big Data Analytics
• Distributed Ledger Technologies, including Blockchain
• OGC Web API Interfaces
• OGC GeoPackage
• Workflows on Hybrid Cloud Environments
• Application Containers, such as Docker
• GeoSemantics and Linked Data
• Tiled Feature Data, including Vector Tiles
• Security
• GeoHealth
• Smart Cities
• OGC MapML Specification
• Discrete Global Grid System (DGGS)
• Data Cubes
• Unmanned Systems

More areas of interest can be found at OGC’s ideas repository on GitHub.

Sponsoring a Testbed has great benefits:

• Sponsors advance solutions that can provide global benefit, such as the use of OGC standards in disaster management and response;
• Sponsors influence the technology, advancing standards and tools that will be available worldwide;
• Sponsors will get early insight into a particular technology or solution from a team of experts; and
• Sponsors, as a pool, come together and can fund a more robust prototype (e.g. more servers and clients) while complementing their requirements with other sponsor's requirements.

For more information about how to join the upcoming sponsors’ meetings at OGC’s June TC meeting in Leuven, Belgium or how to contribute ideas, please visit OGC’s Testbed 16 webpage or contact Luis Bermudez, Executive Director of OGC’s Innovation Program: [email protected].