As a Principal Member of OGC, Microsoft will help advance OGC APIs - the new generation of location standards for integrating location-aware information in any application.

20 August 2020: The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) is pleased to welcome Microsoft to the OGC as a Principal Member. 

As a Principal Member of OGC, Microsoft will participate across OGC activities and serve in OGC's Planning Committee to explore market and technology trends relevant to OGC's global mission to make location information more Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR). 

“We are excited to welcome Microsoft back to the OGC Community, and to the OGC Planning Committee, as an OGC Principal Member,” says OGC CEO Nadine Alameh. “These are pivotal times in the geospatial industry as OGC collaboratively modernizes our suite of location standards to enable the seamless integration of location information into any application. It's great to see Microsoft's commitment to standards and interoperability in creating location-aware applications for the world.”

“Microsoft is pleased to rejoin the Open Geospatial Consortium,” says Chris Pendleton, Principal PM Manager for Azure Maps at Microsoft Corp., “Microsoft has a myriad of investments in new geospatial technologies. Azure Maps adopted OGC standards from its impetus accommodating broad enterprise support, and Bing Maps continues to leverage OGC standards for our consumer needs. We’re in a new era of Geospatial AI and Microsoft wants to contribute back to this exceptional consortium of thought leaders.” 

OGC Principal Members ensure that OGC's policies and procedures remain effective and agile in a changing technological environment, and participate in final approval decisions for all OGC standards as well as nominations to the Board of Directors. 

As an OGC Principal Member, Microsoft will work alongside other world-leading organizations looking to advance the location information industry, including Airbus Defence & Space, the Indian Department of Science and Technology, Esri, Feng Chia University, Google, Hexagon, Leidos, Maxar, Oracle, Trimble Navigation, and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). A list of all current OGC Members is available at ogc.org/ogc/members.

About OGC
The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) is an international consortium of more than 500 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.