[Geotiff] GeoTIFF and the OGC

[Frank Warmerdam]

Howard Butler wrote:
> On Oct 26, 2009, at 12:59 PM, Carl Reed wrote:
> 
>> Dear GeoTIFF list -
>>
>> At the recent OGC meetings in Darmstadt, several OGC Members (large  
>> user organizations) asked whether there is any interest on the part  
>> of the OGC to move GeoTIFF into the OGC standards process and  
>> eventually make GeoTIFF an international standard. As we have done  
>> with other de-facto standards submitted into the OGC standards  
>> process, I would see very few (if any) normative changes to the  
>> document as it moves to a version 1.0 OGC standard. I know that the  
>> implementation community would not appreciate any "normative  
>> changes"! Further, as with KML, CF-NetCDF and other documents, we  
>> believe that maintaining a strong collaborative relationship with  
>> the existing GeoTIFF community is critical.
>>
>> As part of this process, the OGC and OGC Members would be  
>> responsible for reformatting the document into the proper template,  
>> marshalling volunteer resources to move the document through the OGC  
>> process, and to insure proper communication and engagement with the  
>> current GeoTIFF community.
>>
>> Your thoughts regarding this proposal are appreciated!

Carl,

I am generally supportive of this process.  My main concern is
that the non-OGC portion of the GeoTIFF community be able to
view the draft specification as it is under development in
order to provide feedback.

Howard Butler wrote:
> My concerns with the approach the following:
...
> What benefits would this development be to the GeoTIFF community other  
> than forced acceptance of OGC-style axis order discipline? ;)  Is the  
> main benefit is to be the ability to make changes to the specification  
> that implementers will have to implement to be compliant? Why try to  
> evolve a specification that has been widely used and unchanged for  
> nearly 10 years? 

I personally hope the somewhat rigorous OGC process will help hammer out
various unclear points in the current specification.  Parameters that
go with projection methods, meaning of pixel-is-point, and clarity on
how GeoTIFF relates to the evolving EPSG database for instance.

Once the existing GeoTIFF 1.0 is refined and clarified - perhaps as
an OGC GeoTIFF 1.1 specification, I would also be interested in
development of a moderately more sophisticated specification adding
preferred datum shift transformation parameters, and more completely
supporting vertical datums.  Possibly even discussing how to carry
OGC GML or FGDC style metadata payloads in TIFF.

As Siri Jodha mentions, the NASA SPD process for community based
data standards would also be acceptable to me.  The problem with
that in the past, as noted, is that myself and another volunteer
ran out of juice to follow it through.  Before launching down the
OGC route I would want to know that there is one or more volunteers
willing to take on the editorial work.

I also do feel that an OGC standard will have broader respect globally
compared to a NASA SPD standard.

Lastly, I would like to point out that I have agonized over the
lack of an accepted mechanism to update or refine the existing
GeoTIFF specification.  While I'm not super keen on the procedural
overhead of OGC, it does provide a respected mechanism to reach
consensus and approve a document.

I am interested to hear from other members of the GeoTIFF
community (for my purposes I mean this mailing list) who
would be interested in participating in a GeoTIFF working
group at OGC.  I'm particularly interested in those who
could be their as representatives of existing OGC members.

I would be interested in participating, likely via an
OSGeo OGC "slot" under the OSGeo / OGC MOU.  However, I
am not able to make it to very many OGC meetings in person
and I know myself well enough to realize I'm not the right
person to take on much of the editorial work.

Best regards,
-- 
---------------------------------------+--------------------------------------
I set the clouds in motion - turn up   | Frank Warmerdam, warmerdam at pobox.com
light and sound - activate the windows | http://pobox.com/~warmerdam
and watch the world go round - Rush    | Geospatial Programmer for Rent