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Rechartering the Spatial Data on the Web Interest Group (SDW-IG)

The Spatial Data on the Web Interest Group will expire on 31-March-2020 as per its Charter.

The positive impact of collaboration between OGC and W3C is well recognised. The SDW-IG has been successful over the last two years in coordinating between OGC and W3C, and connecting people with potential collaborators and stakeholders. However, experience shows that work items of the SDW-IG largely remain “one-task, one-person”. Other than review, there has been very limited group-interaction on work items. The chairs of SDW-IG conclude that the format of SDW-IG isn’t well suited to engage collaborators on work items. Existing mechanisms are available to generate critical mass to develop proposals and contribute to work items: W3C has Community Groups (which require a proposer plus 5 supporting members to establish); OGC has the Innovation Programme and Domain Working Groups.

Note that the policies of both OGC and W3C state that standards must be developed within a Standards Working Group (SWG) specifically chartered for that purpose. As such, the SDW-IG cannot develop standards itself; instead it can support the development of a proposal to the point where a Charter for a SWG is sufficiently mature and has adequate support.

The SDW-IG chairs think the SDW-IG should be re-chartered, and for it to remain as a separate group (i.e. not merged into another groups such as the OGC Geosemantics DWG). Draft terms of reference for the re-chartered group are provided below.

SDW-IG will:

  • coordinate between OGC and W3C on shared interests (e.g. geospatial Web standards) and raise awareness of their complementary strengths (e.g. Web scale architecture, accessibility, privacy, internationalisation, geospatial expertise) – monitor and liaise between groups from OGC and W3C.
  • identify areas where standards should be developed jointly by both W3C and OGC.
  • respond to requests from OGC Architecture Board (OAB) and W3C Technical Architecture Group (TAG) to review materials relating to geospatial Web standards, and bring relevant matters to the attention of the OAB and TAG – [possibly via a quarterly slot on their agendas?].
  • periodically review the OGC Innovation Programme ideas issue tracker to identify and prioritise important ideas relating to the geospatial Web standards.
  • periodically review the OGC Technology Trends.
  • provide a forum where early ideas for geospatial Web standards can be shared in an open, public forum (e.g. as a GitHub issue) until they migrate into a Community Group, Domain Working Group or Testbed activity for further development (see below).
  • provide introductions between originators of ideas for geospatial Web standards and potential collaborators and stakeholders in OGC and W3C.
  • seek out existing forums (e.g. W3C Community Group, OGC Domain Working Group, OGC Testbed / Innovation Programme) where ideas for geospatial Web standards can be developed to the point where they are mature enough to Charter a SWG; where no existing forums are a good fit, SDW-IG will support establishment of the most appropriate forum in OGC or W3C (development of the idea will occur within the designated group where resources such as mailing lists and GitHub repositories will be provided).
  • maintain references to the working resources of designated groups where ideas for geospatial Web standards are being developed, and track progress of development using the W3C’s “strategy funnel”.
  • provide support to develop SWG Charters and help determine whether the SWG should reside in OGC or W3C, or be a joint SWG.
  • manage errata for: Spatial Data on the Web Best Practices, Time Ontology, SSN/SOSA Ontology, SSN/SOSA Extensions and any other documents published by the SDW-WG and SDW-IG.

SDW-IG will largely work by correspondence (e.g. via mailing list and GitHub issues), complemented by face-to-face meetings (e.g. 2 per year?) and ad-hoc teleconferences (e.g. to discuss / review new ideas for geospatial Web standards).

SDW-IG can publish OGC Discussion Papers, OGC White Papers, OGC Best Practices and W3C Notes – subject to the appropriate approvals processes.

SDW-IG will have a designated staff contact from both OGC and W3C.

Draft text for responsibilities of SDW Working Group (Sep 2020 onward)

  • coordinate between OGC and W3C on shared interests and raise awareness of their complementary strengths (e.g. Web scale architecture, accessibility, privacy, internationalisation, geospatial expertise) – monitor and liaise between groups from OGC and W3C.
  • identify areas where geospatial Web standards should be developed by W3C and/or OGC, make recommendations about these candidate standards to the relevant standards body or bodies, and support the development of charters for Working Groups to progress them.
  • respond to requests from OGC Architecture Board (OAB) and W3C Technical Architecture Group (TAG) to review materials relating to Geospatial Web standards.
  • periodically review and amend the OGC Technology Trends, OGC Innovation Program ideas issue tracker and W3C "strategy funnel" to identify, prioritise and track important ideas relating to geospatial Web standards.
  • provide an open, public forum where early ideas for geospatial Web standards can be shared (e.g. as a GitHub issue) until they migrate into a Community Group, Domain Working Group or Innovation program activity where they can be developed to the point where they are mature enough to Charter a W3C Working Group and/or an OGC Standards Working Group; where no existing forums are a good fit, SDW-WG will support establishment of the most appropriate forum in OGC or W3C.
  • Create and maintain geospatial Web standards and geospatial profiles of more general standards as enumerated in deliverables.