OGC has made a release today concerning OWS content and ATOM encoding standards, and can be found at: The OGC adopts OWS Context Conceptual Model and ATOM Encoding Standards. If implemented there will be a new standard for web map interoperability.  For example, say if you make a map in Google Maps and you want to show it in Bing or an advanced GIS tool. Basically, it would be like opening a Word document in another tool like OpenOffice.

This capability seems simple enough, but as you know we cannot do this now. Actually quite the opposite. Most viewers require coding to make a mashup or workflow configuration work in its own application. This standard paves the way for sharing across OGC services.  And Xentity staff have supported the input into the ATOM XML encoded standard. They also provided support to drive for the JSON encoding, which is more HTML5 and browser friendly. It can also help for tablet, light viewer solutions as well.

One key outcome of this release will be the ability for “first-responders” to gather a common “situational awareness” from the map and imagery features. Subsequently, they must access asset information from a common operating picture.