Open Geo Data/Standards

A large part of the NSDI / ESDI (National/European Spatial Data Infrastructure ) debate is driven by the need to develop common standards for data exchange and discovery. The Open Geospatial Consortium's complex GML standard is the best available currently, underlies the Ordnance Survey's Mastermap product, and is slowly being bought into by various arms of government as part of the e-GIF initiative.

http://www.govtalk.gov.uk/schemasstandards/egif_document.asp?docnum=908 - GML for Electronic Navigation ( primarily a hydrographic application, aimed at automating sea navigation to the extent that air navigation is )

http://www.govtalk.gov.uk/schemasstandards/metadata_document.asp?docnum=903 GEMINI, the UK geographic metadata standards initiative being co-developed with the AGI ( http://www.agi.org.uk )