This Issue: OGC's Open Location Services (OpenLS) Specifications
  

From the Editor:

This issue of the JLS Newsletter highlights recent developments in LBS specifications, focusing on OpenLS.

The most comprehensive open platform for LBS to date was successfully demonstrated October 2002 in Washington, DC, and in Nice, France at IIR's GIS in Telecom and LBS Conference, November 2002. In the works since October 2001, a capable team of Open GIS Consortium (OGC) members designed, implemented, tested and demonstrated the OpenLS Platform, also known as the GeoMobility Server. While much of the industry has been focused on technology to obtain the positions of mobile terminals, OGC and its members have been focused on a closely related technology challenge, the applied technology that will obtain real value for subscribers (in an LBS application sense), given the positions of mobile terminals.

The sponsors of the OpenLS initiative included Hutchison 3G, Sun Microsystems, ESRI, Webraska, Oracle, In-Q-Tel, and NIMA. The first companies to implement the OpenLS Platform specifications are ESRI, Intergraph (IntelliWhere), Oracle and Webraska. NavTech, IBM, Ionic and SignalSoft also made significant contributions to the specifications during this testbed effort.

Now that the first phase of the OpenLS testbed initiatives are completed, the specs are being prepared for public release by the OGC Technical Committee (TC), with companies like MapInfo and Galdos joining in the process. There is momentum and desire to get these specifications out for public comment as soon as possible. We'll let you know as soon as this happens.

Visit the JLS site regularly to stay abreast. Harry Niedzwiadek

OGC’s OpenLS Initiative: Building a Foundation for Location Services
The OpenLS Platform defines the open specifications (interface protocols) for a set of "Core Services", the building blocks for LBS applications. The Core Services presently consist of Geocoder, Reverse Geocoder, Directory, Presentation, Route, Navigation and Gateway. The platform also specifies the basic location information elements associated with these services (there are ten of these so-called Abstract Data Types).

An ad hoc work group of the OGC Technical Committee is presently working on specification refinement, and on harmonization with related specifications. This group has produced a consolidated specification for the OpenLS platform that is now being advanced through the OGC Specification Program.

Plans are underway for the next phase of OpenLS (Phase II), with the intent to add more "Core Services" to the platform, like services for traffic and tracking. Stay tuned for late breaking news concerning this new initiative!

This short briefing presents an overview of the OpenLS platform.

For more information view this OGC OpenLS Fact Sheet and visit the OGC Website.

Related Readings
OpenGIS: Locating IT, by Neil Crisp, Product Architect, IntelliWhere. Delivered at the GITA 2002 Australia/New Zealand conference. The latest developments within the Open GIS Consortium, and their relevance to asset and workforce management in the utilities industry.
When Open Systems Are Closed, by Scott McNealy, chief executive of Sun Microsystems. This article originally appeared in CBS MarketWatch on May 21, 2002.
Ubiquitous Wireless Location Interoperability, by Jim VanderMeer. Reproduced with permission of Directions Magazine.
Bill Day, Technology Evangelist and J2ME guru at Sun Microsystems offers advice on how to develop wireless applications with J2ME. This updated whitepaper provides the basics and has great tips and links for the wireless developer. Developing Wireless Applications using the Java™ 2 Platform Micro Edition (J2ME).
Press Highlights
Webraska Ships Geospatial Platform Implementing OpenLS-based Specifications
Drafted by the Open GIS Consortium.
ESRI Demonstrates ArcIMS for Open Location Services (OpenLS) Testbed Initiative.
OGC Demonstrates Open Location Services (OpenLS) Interfaces.