OGC is seeking participants for its GeoPackage (GPKG)

30 August 2017: The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC®) announces a Call for Participation (CFP) in the OGC GeoPackage (GPKG) Related Tables Extension Interoperability Experiment (GPKG-RTE IE).

An OGC GeoPackage is a portable database for sharing and displaying geospatial data that is optimized for use on mobile mapping systems. GeoPackages may contain raster maps and imagery, vector features, and elevation data, and extensions may be developed to support additional types of geospatial data such as routing networks. GeoPackage is being used to meet the geospatial data requirements of users in multiple domains, including defense and intelligence, emergency management, and outdoor recreation, among others.

Compusult has proposed a Related Tables extension to the OGC GeoPackage Encoding Standard (12-128r14). This extension is designed to explicitly define the relationship between features in core GeoPackage feature tables and rows in attribute tables. One use case for this extension is the association of multimedia objects (such as videos, pictures, and PDF files) to geographic features. The extension is intended to be transparent and to not interfere with existing software packages that support the GeoPackage Encoding Standard.

The GeoPackage Standards Working Group (SWG) proposes to validate this extension by running an Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Interoperability Experiment (IE). An OGC Interoperability Experiment is a rapid, low overhead, formally structured activity in which members achieve specific technical objectives that further the OGC Standards Baseline.

The GPKG-RTE IE will test and refine the Related Tables extension. To do this, the SWG needs the international support and acceptance of a globally representative community that provides both domain and technical expertise to this project. The GPKG-RTE IE will perform the following experiments:

• Experiment #1: Producing GeoPackages containing related tables in accordance with the proposed extension and verifying that they conform to it.
• Experiment #2: Loading the GeoPackages into software systems, extracting the associated media files, and confirming that they can be used as expected.
• Experiment #3: Loading the GeoPackages into software systems that do not implement the extension and verifying that those software systems still function normally.

The results of the Interoperability Experiment will be documented in an OGC Engineering Report. In addition to the Engineering Report, a demonstration is tentatively scheduled for the OGC Technical Committee meeting in Orleans, France in March 2018.

The kickoff, where participants will introduce themselves and discuss their expected roles, is tentatively scheduled for 25 September 2017, 10:30 EDT, and will be run online.

The OGC asks interested organizations to indicate their support and commitment to be involved in this Interoperability Experiment. Non-OGC members can participate as observers to the process. A summary of the activity plan, requirements for participation, schedule, and kick-off meeting details are available online.

Experience has shown that those working in these initiatives gain valuable insights that can be used to improve existing information systems or fast-track the development of new systems. Participants gain sufficient expertise to start deploying working services for their existing data and local situations.