It's a little hard to tell, they have a click-through license at the
OGC site. Does Google have a non-DRM'ed copy anywhere?
Allan
On Apr 18, 2008, at 2:37 PM, Mike Liebhold wrote:
More (perhaps old) news ( 4/13) " OGC® Approves KML as Open
Standard" The formal press release from OGC appended below, and this
on a google blog
http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2008/04/kml-new-standard-for-sharing-maps.html
"Starting today, Google no longer controls KML. The Open Geospatial
Consortium (OGC), an international standards body, has announced the
completion of KML's standardization process. KML has become an OGC
Standard, and the OGC will take responsibility for maintaining and
extending it. This transfer of ownership is a strong reflection of
Google's commitment to open standards. Fundamentally, our interest
is not to control information, but rather to encourage its spread."
Despite this announcement , does the OGC community actually now
'own' the future of kml? I'm not sure.
Perhaps someone more knowledgeable can comment on whether not
Google actually still controls KML destiny, with all of their queued
up kml3.0 and beyond features and extensions they can unilaterally
adopt and implement in google earth, before submission or adoption
by OGC committees.
I'm also wondering about highlights of alignment with GML, and what
major elements are left out or postponed in this 'standard'
version. Some 3d elements perhaps?
Raj or Carl or Ron anyone in the OGC KML groups care to share any
comments? (Andrew?)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.opengeospatial.org/pressroom/pressreleases/857
OGC® Approves KML as Open Standard
Wayland, Mass., April 14, 2008 - The members of the Open Geospatial
Consortium, Inc. (OGC) today announced the approval of the OpenGIS®
KML Encoding Standard (OGC KML), marking KML's transition into an
open standard which will be maintained by the OGC. Developers will
now have a standard approach for using KML to code and share visual
geographic content in existing or future web-based online maps and
3D geospatial browsers like Google EarthTM.
"We are pleased to see the adoption of KML as an OGC standard," said
Ron Lake, chairman and chief executive officer of Galdos Systems
Inc. "We believe that this is a major step forward for the OGC and
for the entire geographic information community, as it provides the
first broadly accepted standard for the visualization of geographic
information."
"Geographic data adds tremendous value to the online experience.
More and more people are looking for ways to incorporate location
information into their online content," said Michael Weiss-Malik,
KML product manager for Google. "The standardization of KML makes it
possible for both novice and expert users alike to publish and share
geographical information in an open format. It's not unlike web
browsers' standardized support for HTML, which allows any web
browser to read any web page."
KML version 2.2 was brought into the OGC consensus process by a
submission team led by Google and Galdos Systems Inc.
KML is an XML-based programming language, originally developed to
manage the display of geospatial data in Google Earth. It's still
used heavily in Google Earth but is also supported by a variety of
vendors' tools and mapping websites.
The OpenGIS KML 2.2 Encoding Standard formalizes the KML 2.2 model
and language while remaining backwards compatible with existing KML
2.2 files and tools. In comparison with the GoogleTM KML 2.2
Reference, the standard defines:
* the KML 2.2 geometry encoding and interpolation model
* an extension model in support of application profiles
* conformance requirements and test cases
The adopted OpenGIS KML 2.2 Encoding Standard (OGC KML) is available
at
http://www.opengeospatial.org/standards/kml/.
About the OGC
The OGC® is an international consortium of more than 345 companies,
government agencies, research organizations, and universities
participating in a consensus process to develop publicly available
geospatial standards. OpenGIS® Standards support interoperable
solutions that "geo-enable" the Web, wireless and location-based
services, and mainstream IT. OGC Standards empower technology
developers to make geospatial information and services accessible
and useful with any application that needs to be geospatially
enabled. Visit the OGC website at http://www.opengeospatial.org/.
Google and Google Earth are trademarks of Google Inc.
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