It's not easy to specify this framework, because GIS and remote sensing are complex technologies. But the rewards are sufficiently attractive to motivate the members vendors, users, integrators, universities, and data providers to work diligently and in good faith to make it happen. Open computing never had an industry-wide organization like OGC to give its terms definition and to defend those definitions with an overall program that included a public relations campaign. An organization such as our consortium not only builds technology consensus and creates standardizing specifications, it stabilizes the view and positioning of a technology by developing a stable definition for it and setting the expectations of the community. In this regard, expectation is as important as specification.
Expectation defines the common vision of the community and shapes the imagination of the market.
OGC is not driven by a narrow commercial agenda and does not hold the Open GIS trademark for profit. All the principal industry competitors are joined in the effort to make it succeed, and users' interests are represented by the federal agencies, universities, and non-governmental organizations who are members. Membership is open. Organizations join so that they can help create the Open Geodata Interoperability Specification and so that they can gain the technical knowledge and contacts that will help them use the OGIS to achieve their goals. The OGC membership expects OGC's staff to show leadership in driving the overall program, including public relations and trademarks and copyrights as well as governance of the technical program.