LEADERS' OUTLOOK
Standards Lie at the Heart of Data Integration BY NADINE ALAMEH
T
CEO & President, Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC)
ANNUAL EDITION / JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2022
he pandemic has made us recognize the value of putting location at the center of all data analyses; people, cities, states, countries, and organizations are all asking questions related to ‘where’. Location-based analysis is now front and center.
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In order to answer ‘where’, the geospatial industry has stepped up to offer solutions that provide decision-makers with timely, accurate, decision-ready information. This ranges from custom dashboards powered by standardized Application Programming Interface (APIs) to location-based/geographic analysis and insights enhanced by machine learning/artificial intelligence and underpinned by data coming from sources as broad as Earth Observation satellites in the sky to Internet of Things devices and social, health, and government authorities on the ground.
Just as location was central to understanding the pandemic, location is also central to the concept of the Metaverse. You can think of Metaverse ‘spaces’ (the Metaverse equivalent of websites) as massive databases of 3D semantic environments designed for efficient streaming. In many ways, the current hype about the Metaverse is an extension of what the geospatial industry has already been championing as city-or statewide Digital Twin technologies currently in use for optimized citizen services, increased citizen engagement, cutting-edge modeling and simulations, and more.
In many ways, COVID accelerated not only the mainstream uptake of geospatial technologies and principles, but also the wider recognition of the advantages of using location as an organizing principle when undertaking data integration and analysis. And, of course, at the heart of all this data integration is the recognition of the importance of FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) information powered by standards.
If a Metaverse is an extension of the real-world, then, obviously, it will be based on Space and time — a speciality of the geospatial community! Any activity in the Metaverse will require knowing where things are and how to get there. The geospatial industry is, therefore, in a great position to provide the necessary tools and accumulated knowledge needed to navigate, analyze, and make sense of the Metaverse. That same geospatial expertise will also be critical for linking and crossing between the virtual and real worlds.
The move to digital and Metaverse
Indeed, the pandemic, its related social distancing/ isolation policies, and the large sections of the workforce pushed into remote work, have all accelerated the digital transformation of our social and working lives. And some of these new methods for online collaboration and engagement are here to stay. It’s not coincidental that talk of ‘the Metaverse’ bubbled up during the pandemic. The growing interest in the Metaverse is partly powered by a desire to improve today’s online social experiences by making them feel more immersive and more natural.
As such, many of the OGC standards (3D, CityGML, Augmented Reality ML, and GeoPose to only name a few) will be critical to the Metaverse ecosystem — but more importantly critical to delivering a Metaverse that is open to all — a key value of OGC.
FAIR — Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable
There’s never been a better time to be in ‘geospatial’. Because of that, there are several technology trends that OGC is leading. At the most basic technical level,
