Role of standards in infrastructure technologies
Having a standard way to accomplish something considered an infrastructure technology serves two very useful roles. One, it frees the user to concentrate on the more important application-level development, since there is no need to devote time and resources to designing the infrastructure. Secondly, it makes it possible for the users to communicate effectively and unambiguously through a standard mechanism. This, in turn, makes interoperability possible.
Another important role of standards, and particularly international standards, is to subject the technology to scrutiny by a wider, more diverse audience. This was the primary reason the SEDRIS team elected to pursue the development of international standards.
Finally, there are many in the community who look for the “badge of approval”, when it comes to embracing infrastructure technologies, such as SEDRIS. This is another reason the SEDRIS team elected to pursue the standardization of its technologies.
SEDRIS™ technologies standardized through ISO/IEC & SISO
In October 1999, SEDRIS began the process of establishing international standards through the combined International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). SEDRIS technologies have been assembled into the following specification and language binding standard development efforts, and are currently in development through the ISO/IEC:
| SEDRIS | | ISO/IEC 18023 |
| | Part 1: Functional Specification | ISO/IEC 18023-1 |
| | Part 2: Transmittal Format | ISO/IEC 18023-2 |
| | Part 3: File Format Binary Encoding | ISO/IEC 18023-3 |
| SEDRIS Language Bindings | | ISO/IEC 18024 |
| Part 4: ISO C | ISO/IEC 18024-4 |
| Environmental Data Coding Specification (EDCS) | | ISO/IEC 18025 |
| Spatial Reference Model (SRM) | | ISO/IEC 18026 |
| EDCS Language Bindings | | ISO/IEC 1xxxx |
| Part 4: ISO C | ISO/IEC 1xxxx-4 |
| SRM Language Bindings | | ISO/IEC 1xxxy |
| Part 4: ISO C | ISO/IEC 1xxxy-4 |
The 1xxxx numbers are place-holders for the additional standards that have been nominated and are currently in the approval process.
ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee 1 (Information Technology) assigned the standards development work to its Subcommittee 24 (Computer Graphics and Image Processing) which created a new Working Group 8 (Environmental Representation) to be the focal point for SEDRIS standardization.
Establishing formal standards is a key part of the SEDRIS development plan. Pursuing international standardization will help ensure a broad base for applying SEDRIS technologies, and will open interoperability opportunities in multiple national and international markets. However, developing formal specification standards is insufficient to realize all the interoperability potential that SEDRIS could provide. Establishing tested implementations, guidance and education documents, and data coding mapping documents are also required. Toward this end, in the spring of 2000 SISO established two Product Development Groups (PDGs) to address technical implementation of the SRM and EDCS ISO/IEC standards.
ISO/IEC standards process and how SISO fits in
The development of ISO/IEC standards is a formal, structured, and thorough process. There are several routes to becoming an International Standard. It is not the purpose of this article to describe these. In the case of the SEDRIS-based standards, each will go through a series of working drafts, then committee draft(s) resulting in a final committee draft, draft international standard, final draft international standard, and, ultimately become an international standard. Once a document reaches the committee draft stage, it is subjected to balloting by the national body organizations. A document is then balloted at each successive stage. Each national body gets one vote. For more information on the ISO/IEC process, visit the ISO/IEC web site.
The above figure depicts the relationship of the ISO/IEC standards, SISO efforts, and the activities of the SEDRIS team. It is important to understand how the pieces fit together. ISO/IEC’s role is to develop and establish standards. It does not involve itself in implementations. One of SISO’s goals is to promote interoperability. SISO accomplishes this by promoting and providing standard implementations such as coordinate conversion and transformation modules (the SRM conversions software), environmental data codes and dictionaries (the EDCS data base and interfaces). It also provides reports, mapping documents, or information important to the SISO membership and its activities. The bottom piece consists of the growing number of tools, utilities, and applications developed and maintained by the SEDRIS core team and the SEDRIS Associates.
SEDRIS™ standard activities at SISO
SISO has established two product development groups (PDGs) to review, promote, and provide SEDRIS-developed technologies as SISO products. PDG members will review and provide input to the related ISO/IEC standards development. They will also adopt existing, and develop new, technical implementations of the EDCS and SRM as SISO products.
A brief timeline of the PDG development and activities includes:
- PNs approved by SAC/EXCOM Feb 2000
- PDG administrative meeting Mar 2000 at SIW
- first working PDG meetings 4 and 5 May 2000
- second PDG meetings held 20 and 21 Sept 2000
The PDGs have made input into the ISO/IEC process through comments on the subject standards Working Drafts, which were forwarded through the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) National Committee for Information Technology Standardization (NCITS). SISO has become a member of NCITS Committee H3 (Computer Graphics and Image Processing) to directly participate in the SEDRIS work.
How to get involved
If you are interested in participating in the standards process, there are three ways to get involved. As a member of SISO, you can participate at the SISO PDGs. You can join the PDGs by subscribing to the appropriate PDG reflector at the SISO web site. The PDG reflectors are: SAC-PDG-EDCS@itcenter.org and SAC-PDG-SRM@itcenter.org
You can also join the SEDRIS organization and become a SEDRIS Associate. For more information on how to become a SEDRIS Associate, visit the SEDRIS web site. Finally, you can participate as a member of your national body’s standards development organization. To find out more about national body membership, visit the ISO/IEC JTC1/SC24 web site.
To learn more about the ISO/IEC, SISO PDG, and SEDRIS processes the following URLs can be a resource:
ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 24/ WG 8: http://www.sedris.org/wg8home/index.htm
ISO/IEC JTC 1/ SC 24: http://www.bsi.org.uk/sc24/
ISO/IEC JTC 1: http://www.jtc1.org/
SISO EDCS PDG: http://www.sisostds.org/stdsdev/edcs/index.htm
SISO SRM PDG: http://www.sisostds.org/stdsdev/srm/index.htm
SEDRIS Organization: http://www.sedris.org