Geospatial content Standards for digital data build upon centuries of work in map making and cartography. Since 1994, two organizations have been the primary drivers of these Standards: the Open Geospatial Consortium and ISO / TC 211 Geographic Information / Geomatics. This topic first defines the landscape of Standards development and its objectives. The authority of the Standards bodies is also explained. Finally, geospatial content Standards are divided into five categories, with examples provided for each: (1) feature data; (2) 3D geometry and streaming; (3) rasters and coverages; (4) datacubes, and (5) metadata.
The philosophy of Openness and its use in diverse areas is attracting increasing attention from users, developers, businesses, governments, educators, and researchers around the world. The technological, socio-cultural, economic, legal, institutional, and philosophical issues related to its principles, applications, benefits, and barriers for its use are growing areas of research. The word “Open” is commonly used to denote adherence to the principles of Openness. Several fields are incorporating the use of Openness in their activities, some of them are of particular relevance to GIS&T (Geographic Information Science and Technology) such as: Open Data, Free and Open Source Software; and Open Standards for geospatial data, information, and technologies. This entry presents a definition of Openness, its importance in the area of GISc&T is introduced through a list of its benefits in the fields of Open Data, Open Source Software, and Open Standards. Then some of the barriers, myths, or inhibitors to Openness are presented using the case of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) and FOSS for Geospatial Applications (FOSS4G).