Introduction Change Requests | OGC

5.4 Used parts of other documents

This document uses significant parts of document [OGC 05-008]. To reduce the need to refer to that document, this document copies some of those parts with small modifications. To indicate those parts to readers of this document, the largely copied parts are shown with a light grey background 15.

5.5 Platform-neutral and platform-specific specifications

As specified in Clause 10 of OGC Abstract Specification Topic 12 “OpenGIS Service Architecture” which contains ISO 19119, this document includes both Distributed Computing Platform-neutral and platform-specific specifications. This document first specifies each operation request and response in platform-neutral fashion. This is done using a table for each data structure, which lists and defines the parameters and other data structures contained. These tables serve as data dictionaries for the UML model in Annex C, and thus specify the UML model data type and multiplicity of each listed item. The specified platform-neutral data could be encoded in many alternative ways, each appropriate to one or more specific DCPs. This document now specifies encoding appropriate for use of HTTP GET transfer of operations requests using KVP encoding, and for use of HTTP POST transfer of operations requests using XML or KVP encoding. However, the same operation requests and responses and other data could be encoded for other specific computing platforms, including SOAPWSDL. 6 SPS overview

6.1 Introduction

The operational context of the SPS is abstracted from, and therefore applies to, several areas of interest. In the military area there is always a great deal that is unknown about a battlespace, or about a theatre of operations other than war, which gives rise to needs for specific useful information. In the business area corporations and other non-governmental organizations have a need for global economic intelligence. In the scientific area there is a constant interplay between facts, and theories that explain the facts, which then gives rise to the need for more information in order to confirm and extend the theories. Similarly, in the medical area symptoms give rise to a need for information that calls for tests that support diagnosis. All of these areas have information needs, and a common concept of operations can be applied to the satisfaction of those needs. Such operations constitute collection management, that is, management of the process of collecting the needed information. Effective collection requires a concrete and specific definition of the task or problem and the continuous refinement both of the task and of the information compiled so far, in order to ensure the most comprehensive and accurate collection possible. Such definition and refinement is an essential part of collection management. 20 Copyright © 2007 Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Note that parts of the following sub-sections are derived from publicly available information about past military practices FM34-2, 1994. Those practices were based on a particular philosophy of how to support decision making under uncertainty, and they may or may not be still current. But the practices are still relevant because they have become embodied in various forms in different software systems over the course of time. So they are useful for understanding the functionality provided by those systems, and it is precisely those systems which the SPS is concerned with. Note also that, even though in the military and business areas it is more usual to talk about intelligence collection than about information collection, this document takes the position that it is really information that is collected, and that intelligence is derived from information in specific user contexts.

6.2 Collection Management