Blue Marble & 1Spatial Release Results of Open Geospatial Consortium

Gardiner, Maine - September 12, 2008 - Blue Marble Geographics (www.bluemarblegeo.com) is pleased to announce that after a resounding response to a survey on spatial data quality measures, the results are now available for participants. The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Technical Committee's Spatial Data Quality Working Group, under the leadership of Blue Marble President Patrick Cunningham (Vice Chair), and Seb Lessware (Chair) of 1Spatial, developed and distributed the survey to thousands of geospatial data suppliers and users from around the world. The goal of the survey was to provide a solid foundation in the form of user feedback, upon which the OGC could develop relevant terms of measure and a robust spatial data quality model.

The mission of the Data Quality Working Group of the OGC Technical Committee is to provide a forum for describing an interoperable framework or model for OGC Quality Assurance Measures and Web Services, to enable access and sharing of high quality geospatial information, improve data analysis and ultimately influence policy decisions. In order to achieve the Working Group's task, it was necessary to poll organizations involved in the marketplace to ascertain what they are referring to when they use the term "spatial data quality."

"This survey is an important part of what the Working Group is doing for the geospatial technology industry," explained Sam Bacharach, Executive Director of Outreach, OGC. "We are pleased to provide participants with anonymous survey results. We thank them for supporting our research in this area, and we hope that they will continue to follow our progress and provide input."

"We are particularly pleased to have been involved in this effort to gather feedback from members of the geospatial community," commented Blue Marble President Patrick Cunningham. "With this data, we will be able to move forward with the Working Group's directive of researching the best framework for spatial data quality standards."

About Blue Marble Geographics: Blue Marble Geographics of Gardiner, Maine is a leading developer and provider of geographic software products that provide sensible solutions for users and developers of geographic data. Blue Marble has been writing GIS software tools and solutions for 15 years and currently serves hundreds of thousands of users worldwide. Learn more at www.bluemarblegeo.com

About 1Spatial: 1Spatial has 35 years of experience in providing operational solutions to organizations with large spatial databases. With leading expertise in transforming data from CAD and GIS, quantitative data quality control, and spatial database technologies we also enable reuse and repurposing of such data and access through both internal and external portals. The modern era demands the unconstrained sharing of spatial data between systems, business areas, organisations, and the public. We are the specialists in enabling such cooperative infrastructures. www.1spatial.com

The OGC® is an international consortium of more than 365 companies, government agencies, research organizations and universities participating in a consensus process to develop publicly available geospatial standards. OpenGIS® Standards support interoperable solutions that "geo-enable" the Web, wireless and location-based services, and mainstream IT. OGC Standards empower technology developers to make geospatial information and services accessible and useful with any application that needs to be geospatially enabled. Visit the OGC website at http://www.opengeospatial.org.

Contact Information:
Kris Berglund
Blue Marble Geographics
Gardiner, ME, USA
kb@bluemarblegeo.com
800-616-2725 / 207-582-6747