OGC invites you to the Marine SDI (MDSI) Concept Development Study

5 September 2018: The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) invites you to the Marine Spatial Data Infrastructure Concept Development Study (MSDI-CDS) Workshop on October 23, 2018. The workshop will be hosted by the US Committee on the Marine Transportation System (CMTS) at the US Department of Transportation (USDOT) Conference Center in Washington, DC.

The MSDI-CDS Workshop is being organized by OGC and is supported by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency on behalf of the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) and its MSDI focused work programs.

The workshop marks the early stages of OGC’s MSDI Concept Development Study, and will provide OGC with important guidance on what best to focus on during the Study. Additionally, the information gained in the Workshop and subsequent Study will shape future OGC activities regarding marine geospatial data and tools, and help inform the development of MSDI.

The MSDI-CDS will provide a foundation and framework for MSDI development. This will assist content/data providers in the marine domain with future discoverability, accessibility, and interoperability considerations when providing core data to a broader and growing user-base, in addition to those served by the products/services for which marine spatial data is traditionally collected.

As part of the Study, OGC will bring together key stakeholders across the diverse marine community in order to assess the current state of data and product exchange technologies, define the future of MSDIs, and develop the foundations for a potential follow-on pilot. Ultimately, the MSDI-CDS seeks to advance the state of Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDIs) that support marine geospatial data sharing across diverse activities - from shipping to marine biology - all around the globe.

Specifically, the purpose of the MSDI Workshop is to guide the Study as well as future OGC Innovation Program activities by:

1. Engaging different stakeholders from the marine domain, and finding out where best they could benefit from a MSDI
2. Helping participants better understand activities occuring at OGC and other key organizations
3. Engaging executive level participants to understand the most important challenges
4. Engaging operational and technical stakeholders to gather and share information on the current state for using geospatial data and services in marine activities, including:
   1. Understanding what data, applications, tools and services stakeholders need
   2. Understanding what data, applications, tools and services are available
   3. Understanding the discoverability, accessibility, and usability of resources
   4. Understanding interoperability challenges and integration opportunities
   5. Identifying gaps in data, applications, tools and services

For more information on the Marine Spatial Data Infrastructures Concept Development Study visit the MSDI CDS webpage.

For more information on the MSDI CDS Workshop, including the agenda and how to register, visit the MSDI CDS Workshop event page on the OGC website. Registration for the workshop is free but mandatory.