public comment on major revision to OGC Abstract SpecificationTopic 0

21 May 2019: The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) seeks public comment on an update to Abstract Specification Topic 0 - Overview.

The purpose of the OGC Abstract Specification is to create and document a conceptual model that enables the creation of the consistent, interoperable, high quality OGC Implementation Standards.

The OGC Abstract Specification is comprised of a number of Topic volumes. Topic 0 provides an overview of the OGC Abstract Specification. Each Topic addresses a specific conceptual model, such as for metadata or geometry, as a foundation unit upon which to build OGC standards. The complete set of Topic volumes collectively form the OGC Abstract Specification. The Abstract Specification is an evolving baseline. This update to Topic 0 is a major revision deleting many obsolete topics and adding several new topics.

The Abstract Specification, while being implementation-neutral, provides robust technical concepts for discussing issues of interoperability. The Topic 0 Overview provides a summary of all the Abstract Specification Topics as well as guidelines developed by OGC for the development of technical standards. The Topic 0 also discusses how OGC conducts a community-based consensus processes to define, test, edit, and approve standards for interfaces and encodings that enable interoperability of geospatial content, services, and applications. For example the “core and simple standards” guideline discusses methods to consider the comprehensive scope of applications when developing a new standard while recognizing that the best standards are as simple as possible.

The candidate OGC Abstract Specification Topic 0 - Overview is available for review and comment on the OGC Portal. Comments are due by 20 June 2019 and should be submitted via the method outlined on the candidate OGC Abstract Specification Topic 0 - Overview’s request page.