Working Group aims to develop a new OGC API that will allow creators to publish and share styles to be used by different users, systems, and datasets - allowing a visual and semantic consistency across maps from disparate providers

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8 April 2020: The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) announces the formation of the ‘OGC API - Styles’ Standards Working Group (SWG). The purpose of the Standards Working Group is to develop and maintain an OGC API - Styles core standard as well as extensions to that standard.

In order to be able to portray geospatial resources (e.g., feature collections, coverages, etc.), end-users must be able to apply styles - that is, take the raw geospatial data and render it in a consistent way so as to portray useful information to a human.

Currently, styles are often developed in close relationship to the geographic resources to be portrayed and the GIS platform or computing environment in which the style will be applied. As such, sharing of styles has been very limited. However, the ability to map symbology and portrayal rules to multiple datasets, data schema, and encodings has now become more widespread, and as such, the desire to share and reuse styles has increased. At the same time, OpenAPI frameworks have made defining a common API interface to support style sharing much more attainable. The ability to share common styles so that they can be used by many users not only improves visualization of a common picture, but also reduces confusion in viewers.

For providers of styles, OGC API - Styles will provide a uniform means to publish and offer those styles as resources for use by other systems.

For developers building infrastructures to host, harvest and/or manage collections of geospatial resources, OGC API - Styles will define the core requirements needed to describe and leverage existing styles and publish new or edited styles.

Finally, users of geospatial resources are often in a position of having to construct specialized styles or develop a unique style. OGC API - Styles will allow for easy discovery, access, and application of multiple style resources offered through the API.

More information on the OGC API family of standards can be found at ogcapi.org.

OGC members who can share their expertise regarding OGC API - Styles are invited to participate in the Working Group. Visit the OGC API - Styles Standards Working Group homepage for more information on the group, including how to participate.

Visit OGC’s Domain Working Group and Standards Working Group pages to learn about other standards activities happening in OGC. There is currently a strong emphasis on topics related to Internet of Things, Smart Cities, Aviation & Unmanned Systems (eg UAVs), Big Data, Linked Data, Data Science, Disaster Response, Maritime, Indoor Location, Blockchain & Distributed Ledgers, and more.

About OGC
The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) is an international consortium of more than 530 businesses, government agencies, research organizations, and universities driven to make geospatial (location) information and services FAIR - Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable.
OGC’s member-driven consensus process creates royalty free, publicly available geospatial standards. Existing at the cutting edge, OGC actively analyzes and anticipates emerging tech trends, and runs an agile, collaborative Research and Development (R&D) lab that builds and tests innovative prototype solutions to members' use cases.
OGC members together form a global forum of experts and communities that use location to connect people with technology and improve decision-making at all levels. OGC is committed to creating a sustainable future for us, our children, and future generations.
Visit ogc.org for more info on our work.