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| GeoCommunity Mailing List |
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| Subject: | RE: GISList: OGC and Standards |
| Date: |
01/07/2003 11:20:53 AM |
| From: |
<creediii .. mindspring.com> |
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Anthony -
I hate to jump into this public discussion/debate once again.
However, I must correct your misrepresentation of a couple of statements I
made in a private email to one member of the GISList.
First, in terms of OGC revenue, my statement was that 95% of the funding for
the Consortium operations was from sources other than the major GIS vendors.
Second, in my comments regarding users, I am not sure why you say I took such
a US centric view. I have previously listed many other non US organizations
who are users of GIS technology and who also particpate in OGC activities.
These include consumer organizations from Europe, Asia, and Australia.
Having followed this discussion from the beginning, it is obvious to me that
we are beginning to enter the cirular argument phase. In IETF parlance, this
is becoming a "rathole" discussion. As such, this discussion may be becoming
counter productive. Personally, I would rather we all use our energies to
promote the effective use of geospatial technology and serve our communities
as best we can regardless of our philosophical and/or technical differences.
Thank you to everyone who has particpated in this discussion. Regardless of
the differences in viewpoint, such discussions keep everyone thinking and our
discipline vigourous.
Happy Holidays to all!
Carl Reed
OGC
On Mon, 23 Dec 2002 16:09:32 -0500 Anthony Quartararo
<ajq3@spatialnetworks.com> wrote:
> Sonny,
>
> Nicely articulated. However, the debate has
> hardly deteriorated at all,
> given the sheer number of off-list emails I
> have received in support of not
> only my comments/positions, but others of like
> perspective. I can only
> surmise that there is a significant number of
> people that are
> disenfranchised, disappointed, disillusioned
> and otherwise dismayed at the
> state of the industry, in no small part due to
> OGC and it's sugar-daddies.
>
> Further, I'm glad as well to see a refreshing
> piece of candor and frankness
> from you, and I echo what Dimitri said
> regarding the larger OGC market spin.
> Be honest and clear about what OGC's mission
> and efforts and don't pretend
> there are no hidden agendas. Carl Reed replied
> to another person off-line
> (the post was made public by someone else so
> it's fair game), that 95% of
> OGC's revenue comes from the like of USGS,
> Census, NIMA, Ordnance Survey
> and the like. I'll take his word for it, even
> though my math differs from
> his math based on OGCs website figures. If
> this is true, this is a
> regrettably scenario. USGS, Census, NIMA, et
> al should absolutely not be
> involved in controlling the destiny of
> "interoperability" at any level,
> whether "internet only", "desktop", or
> wherever. The devote public funds
> towards proprietary private technology is
> wrong. The organizations do not
> represent the global geospatial user base nor
> do they have that
> constituency's best interest(s) at heart. To
> further quote Dr. Reed in this
> email, he suggests that vendors appreciate
> getting the feedback from "users"
> to help drive product development. As I assert
> that the dubious title of
> user as bestowed on USGS, etc. is a falsehood,
> I was unaware that a prime
> objective of OGC was to help vendors refine
> product. Does this bother only
> me ? First we have major US Government
> organizations providing a majority of
> the funding to OGC and in turn, they get to act
> unilaterally as
> representatives for GIS users worldwide in
> defining highly focused
> specifications
> (http://www.directionsmag.com/pressreleases.php?press_id=6151)?
> Who do you
> think supplies 90-99% of US Government GIS
> software ? Is the term "coverage"
> not a proprietary term referring to one
> specific vendor's data model ? Talk
> about not letting the left hand know what the
> right hand is doing, come on!
>
>
> I too admit that I am somewhat numb to the
> subtleties of what OGC's real
> mission is, whether it is for GIS in general
> (encompassing enterprises,
> desktop, PDA, mobile devices, internet only,
> all of the above, all of the
> above and the entire future...etc.) Much of
> what I hear and see and read
> these days is solely focused on such
> narrow-band issues as "web coverage
> service" or "web mapping service". This might
> actually impact .01% of the
> professional GIS users in the world, having a
> better chance of impacting a
> large portion of the business consumer world
> and a much, much better chance
> of impacting the casual "mapquest" type users
> out there. But then again,
&g
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