30 January 2015 – The Group on Earth Observations (GEO) has announced a Call for Participation (CFP) in the 8th phase of the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) Architecture Implementation Pilot (AIP-8). AIP-8 aims to increase the use of GEOSS resources by end-users. An end-user might be, for example, a farmer in a developing nation whose cell phone app accesses an online service that supplies planting advice and market forecasts based on sophisticated processing of data acquired by satellites, local Internet-connected sensors, and social networks.

The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC®) provides leadership in AIP-8 and invites OGC members and other organizations to respond to the CFP. The CFP documents are available at:  http://earthobservations.org/geoss_call_aip.shtml.

GEO was launched in response to calls for action by the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development and by the G8 (Group of Eight) leading industrialized countries. GEOSS technical architecture, data sharing agreements, capacity building and user engagement programs comprise a durable platform for exploiting the growing potential of Earth observations to support decision making in an increasingly complex and environmentally stressed world.

Through integration with the technology resources in the GEOSS Common Infrastructure (GCI), AIP-8 will demonstrate how users can now begin to benefit from a decade of GEO activities. The specific goals of AIP-8 are to:

1. Continue to develop and deploy easy-to-use online (Web and Mobile) Apps that demonstrate the value of standards-based access to EO data and services registered with GEOSS.
2. Community portals
3. Activities to support the key Apps and Community Portals
4. Build toward the vision of the Model Web.

AIP-8 builds on the results and infrastructure set up in prior AIPs.

The AIP-8 schedule will be presented at the GEO XII Plenary, scheduled for 11 and 12 November in Mexico City, Mexico. An in-person kickoff morkshop for AIP-8 will be held 23 March in Norfolk, Virginia, USA (see http://www.gstss.org/2015_Norfolk_4th/ ). Register for the AIP-8 kickoff at: https://portal.opengeospatial.org/public_ogc/register/150323aip8ko.php .

This CFP invites GEO Members and Participating Organizations to participate in AIP-8 in multiple ways, including contributing in-kind programming resources, defining user requirements, funding specific activities, providing access to services, software license and/or hardware, etc.

Responses to this CFP are due by 27 February 2015. Directions for preparing responses are described in the CFP. Dscussion and clarification of the CFP and the initiation of AIP-8 will be the topic of weekly teleconferences as listed in the following link:  http://www.ogcnetwork.net/AIPtelecons.

Please feel free to contact Bart De Lathouwer (bdelathouwer [at] opengeospatial.org) with any specific questions or comments..

The OGC® is an international consortium of more than 500 companies, government agencies, research organizations, and universities participating in a consensus process to develop publicly available geospatial standards. OGC Standards empower technology developers to make geospatial information and services accessible and useful with any application that needs to be geospatially enabled. Learn more about the OGC at  http://www.opengeospatial.org/contact. See our recent "What is the OGC?" video.

GEO, a voluntary partnership of 156 governments and international organizations, is coordinating efforts to build a Global Earth Observation System of Systems, or GEOSS. See  http://earthobservations.org/about_geo.shtml.