Finally geospatial search gets more awareness from OGC (and vendors?)! There happened a by-inviation-only-meeting(!) called “OGC Geospatial Search Summit”, 15. September 2008 (http://www.ogcnetwork.net/node/396) as the highearthorbit blog reports.
Here are some interesting agreements from the blog:
- Use simple, common formats as they already exist when appropriate, i.e OpenSearch as a base URI templating mechanism and follow GeoRSS-Simple specification for geographic data.
- Use the Egenhofer topological operations ? terminology and definition, per Simple Features model (point, line, polygon)as a fundamental set of definitions.
- In any geospatial query language, the minimum spatial parameter is BBOX, WGS84, with an implied spatial relation/operator ?intersects?. So, global search might be BBOX(-180,-90,180,90.
- The next geospatial search type that should be defined is the Point with radius/distance and units=meters(default)
- For specifying min/max, follow 19107 minx, miny, maxx, maxy pattern -90<lat<90, -180<long<180 (in decimal degrees).
Comment: Nice outcome as URI templating mechanism is very similar to geo-bookmarks!
