OGC recognizes the IJIS Institute with Distinguished Member Award

The Distinguished Member and Lifetime Achievement awards are bestowed by the OGC Board. The Distinguished Member Award was established by the OGC Board to recognize OGC member organizations that have made a substantial, positive, and sustained impact on one or more areas of OGC mission accomplishment through a high level of commitment surpassing traditional member engagement. This award is granted by the Board in recognition of the IJIS Institute’s commitment to advancing interoperability that supported the development of national standards and policy, in turn enabling information sharing in the public safety, justice, and homeland security communities.

Since 2010, the IJIS Institute and OGC have engaged in a formal alliance partnership to raise awareness of the benefits of geospatial information, technology, and associated best practices for the law enforcement, corrections, and justice communities. This partnership has been invaluable in helping to advance common open standards best practices for improved information management, sharing, and safeguarding across these communities.

Through a combination of voluntary and funded initiatives, the IJIS Institute and OGC have worked with a wide range of US and International Government Organizations, Standards Development Organizations, and other Associations to:

• establish an ongoing dialog between IJIS and OGC membership to identify and advance interoperability solutions of importance to the communities we serve;
• mature a Standards Coordination Council to coordinate and align the public and private sectors on standards and policy best practices in support of anti-terrorism related information sharing and safeguarding;
• develop, test, and demonstrate innovative new standards-based best practices for Incident Management Information Sharing;
• advance interoperability solutions to promote safe and resilient cities; and
• establish a conformance assessment and certification process for the public safety, justice, and corrections communities served by IJIS.

Throughout this period, IJIS leadership has worked diligently and collaboratively with OGC to deliver recommendations and solutions of great benefit to organizations across the communities we serve – outcomes that would not have been achievable by working in isolation.

On behalf of the Board of Directors, this OGC Distinguished Member Award is presented to the IJIS Institute with deep appreciation for the longstanding and exceptionally productive alliance with OGC to advance solutions of importance to our respective communities. OGC looks forward to continuing this fruitful partnership.

The OGC Board also approved a Lifetime Achievement award for IJIS Executive Director, Steve Ambrosini, in recognition of his outstanding personal commitment and leadership to bring together the public safety, justice and corrections communities - all of which stand to benefit from the power of geospatial data and technologies - to establish, sustain, and grow a highly productive partnership between IJIS and OGC to extend the power of interoperability across diverse fields of practice.

“The OGC - IJIS relationship generated substantially improved understanding of the power of location and best harnessing of technology innovations to foster improved public service. Steve’s network, leadership and passion was a substantial element of our technical advances, and helped OGC link more closely with the public safety community,” said Jeffrey Harris, Chairman of OGC.

Image: Mark Reichardt (left) and Jeffrey Harris (right), present Steve Ambrosini (center) with the awards.