One of Europe’s leading experts in geospatial technology is to give the keynote speech at a major conference on open computing standards.
Dr Mike Jackson of QinetiQ, Europe’s largest science and technology research organisation, will address the Open GIS UK Industry Day at Ordnance Survey’s Southampton Business Centre on 14 June.
His audience will include dozens of senior representatives from business, government and universities keen to explore the ways current and emerging web services support access to geographical information (GI).
Dr Jackson is Director of QinetiQ’s Space Business Centre, which houses its GIS centre of excellence. In his speech he will outline interoperability strategies for the UK.
Dr Jackson says: “Most of the big issues currently facing governments and society have a location-based component to them. This is clearly so when considering matters of homeland security and defence but is also equally the case when looking at the effective deployment of police resources, developing social policy to better empower the citizen or tackling concerns over environmental protection.
“There is a need to bring together multiple sources of data to exploit the added information content that arises from their fusion and a need to have easy and cost-effective access to data across the traditional organisational and departmental lines. Geospatial interoperability is not just a debating subject for academics but an essential tool for good and efficient government.”
Other speakers at the industry day include Vanessa Lawrence, Ordnance Survey’s Director General and Chief Executive; Mark Linehan, Director of the Association for Geographic Information (AGI); and David Schell, President of the OpenGIS Consortium Inc, a group of more than 250 organisations across the world promoting the uptake of interoperable GI data and services.
The industry day kicks off a week of discussions marking the 50th meeting of the OpenGIS Consortium.
For more information, visit http://opengis.org/events