Open Geospatial Consortium

''Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc. (OGC) and OSGeo are distinctive organizations with individual goals and visions. This page describes the OGC, an organization dedicated to developing Standards for the geospatial realm.''

About OGC
 From http://www.opengeospatial.org/ogc:

The Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc (OGC) is an international industry consortium of 346 companies, government agencies and universities participating in a consensus process to develop publicly available interface specifications. OpenGIS® Specifications support interoperable solutions that "geo-enable" the Web, wireless and location-based services, and mainstream IT. The specifications empower technology developers to make complex spatial information and services accessible and useful with all kinds of applications.

Vision
From: http://www.opengeospatial.org/ogc/vision

Realization of the full societal, economic and scientific benefits of integrating electronic location resources into commercial and institutional processes worldwide.

Mission
To serve as a global forum for the collaboration of developers and users of spatial data products and services, and to advance the development of international standards for geospatial interoperability. Strategic Goals:


 * Goal 1 - Provide free and openly available standards to the market, tangible value to Members, and measurable benefits to users.
 * Goal 2 - Lead worldwide in the creation and establishment of standards that allow geospatial content and services to be seamlessly integrated into business and civic processes, the spatial web and enterprise computing.
 * Goal 3 - Facilitate the adoption of open, spatially enabled reference architectures in enterprise environments worldwide.
 * Goal 4 - Advance standards in support of the formation of new and innovative markets and applications for geospatial technologies.
 * Goal 5 - Accelerate market assimilation of interoperability research through collaborative consortium processes.

History
The early history of the OGC is closely related to the Open Source software GRASS. Read more on the OGC website at: http://www.opengeospatial.org/ogc/history.