Public comment on proposed Geocoding API Standards Working Group

5 September 2017: The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC®) is requesting comments on the draft charter for an OGC Geocoding API Standards Working Group (SWG).

Geocoding is the act of linking a text and/or numerical string to a location on Earth. Typically, a user searches for an address or a point of interest on a map, which necessitates the geocoding of the user input and return of a position on a map. Such functionality is commonly enabled via geocoding APIs and web services.

There are a number of different APIs on the market for such geocoding, as well as a variety of different algorithms for translating strings into locations. However, the lack of standardization makes the connection between the user and the algorithm a challenge for application developers. OGC has thus identified the need for standardized interfaces for geocoding.

The standardization of a Geocoding API is aimed at simplifying interoperability between business intelligence, mapping, and routing tools, and the services that geocode strings, and adds the capability to easily replace geocoding services, or chain them together to improve the success rate of searches.

The Geocoding API SWG aims develop a new OGC candidate standard for access to geocoding services and to progress it to the state of an adopted standard.

The draft charter of the Geocoding SWG is now available. Comments should be sent via email and are due by 26 September 2017. The OGC and the SWG welcome comments from all interested parties.