Open standards for GIS from an utility perspective
Robert Carroll
Hitachi Software Global Technology
10355 Westmoor Drive, Suite 250, Westminster, CO 80021
Many current GIS projects were developed on proprietary, closed systems and designed
to meet the functions and requirements of a particular department. The challenge for
utilities now is how to preserve legacy GIS investments while leveraging new
technologies. This paper will review current technology standards including Open GIS
Consortium and XML; present how a large utility implemented these technologies while
maintaining a legacy GIS; and review the pitfalls and benefits of this GIS implementation
approach.
Why Make GIS Open?
All technologies follow a uniform product development process that starts with start-up
companies developing concepts into products for early adopters through to established
companies mass-marketing technologies. This process has impacted technologies from
the automobile to home electronics. But why make a technology open? Well imagine if
VCR vendors developed their own proprietary cassette format. Video rental stores would
need to stock many different tape formats of the same movie, resulting in increased user
complexity, risks, and costs.
Open standards for GIS help organizations to support the understanding and usage of
geographic information by increasing availability, access, integration, and sharing of
geographic information and enabling interoperability of geospatially enabled
components.
These standards allows users to (a) find information and processing tools when/where
needed; (b) to understand and employ information and tools independent of platform and
location, and (c) evolve GIS environment along the commercial mainstream without
containment by a single vendor's offerings. This also eases geospatial infrastructure
creation on local, regional, and global level through seamless data sharing and fosters
competition at the component level.
