|
The
information contained in this page is maintained as a record for
"Historical Purposes." Facts and information directly related
to the G-XML Project are correct. External links and information about
other organizations or people may not be representative of their current
status. There is no guarantee for the accuracy of the information or
links about other organizations or people contained in this document
after the dates they were created.
Milestones of the G-XML
Project:
A basis for development...
The basis for the development
of the G-XML protocol came from the initial cooperation of researchers
from both the private sector and from academia here in Japan.
These researchers felt that GIS has not become popular enough so that
ordinary people could also benefit form such technology.
These researchers proposed
that in order for GIS technology to become so widely accepted, GIS
technology would need to follow an acceptance/growth model similar to
that of the Internet. They further pointed out that the growth
in the Internet could be linked to the original HTML 1.0 protocol and
its simplicity, along with the development of a widely accepted
popular application (the "killer app"). In this
analogy, Mosaic was the "killer" application. These
researchers then proposed that a similar protocol for spatial data
exchange would be necessary to further spur GIS growth and acceptance
on such a wide scale. This was the starting basis for the
proposed G-XML protocol.
You can read more about these
initial findings in the following paper, "A
Standard XML Based Protocol for Spatial Data Exchange - Its
Capabilities and Real Applications -" , by Dr.
M. Arikawa, and Dr.
K. Kubota. [International workshop on Emerging technologies for
geo-based applications, May 21-26, 2000, in Ascona, Switzerland,
pp. 37-45.(Invited Paper)]
G-XML Project Status During
the 6th Fiscal Year:
(April 2004 - March 2005)
The 2005 Status
Presentation on
Location Based Content and Services (LBCS) March
3-4, 2005,
Tokyo
The
2005 Status Presentation on Location Based Content and Services (LBCS)
meeting was held in central
Tokyo
on March 3rd
and 4th, 2005.
The two-afternoon event was organized by the g-Contents Exchange
Promotion Association (http://www.g-contents.jp)
and the Database Promotion Center (DPC) (http://www.dpc.jipdec.jp).
Sixteen detailed presentations were given during the event. The
purpose of the event was to showcase the final reports of the working
group projects that were undertaken during the 2004-2005 fiscal year.
Presentations will highlight such important developments as the draft
LBCS Specification, g-Contents Testbed activities and the new g-Life
Project which has been started by the g-Contents association. The
g-Life Project is aimed at examining how location based services
interact with individuals every day activities and how the contents
and those services can be enhanced to better meet the needs of the
regular user.
About
g-Contents: The g-Contents Exchange
Promotion Association is a consortium made up of members from
industry, government and academia working to advance Location Based
Service activities and awareness in
Japan
. The
g-Contents association was founded on the key fundamental view that
Location Based Services will only have wide spread acceptance if there
is significant and relevant content information to be used in
conjunction with those services. Hence the g-Contents Association is
promoting concept of Location Based Content and Services.
International
Location Based Content and Services (LBCS) Seminar
| The
2nd annual International
Location Based Content
and Services (LBCS) Seminar was successfully held in
Tokyo
on
October 26th & 27th 2004. Six
international and four domestic speakers gave presentations
during the two day event. Two of the international speakers
were first time visitors to
Japan
and were
impressed with the cultural aspects of
Japan
, as
well as the LBS Industry activities.
On the 28th, an informal discussion meeting
was held, also in
Tokyo
where
both the international and domestic LBS industry leaders could
have a chance to exchange dialogue on how to move the LBS
industry forward. The
LBCS Seminar was held in conjunction with gContents World, a
promotional event to introduce the activities of the gContents
organization. For a recap of the seminar presentations, please
see the LBCS 2004 page
|
 |
G-XML Project Status During
the 5th Fiscal Year:
(April 2003 - March 2004)
  The
5th consecutive year of the G-XML Project was filled with much
activity. Two new focus areas were established during the 5th fiscal
year's work. These areas were gContents and Location Based Services
(LBS). Each of these activities are complementary with each other.
Content plays a major roll in making a consumer LBS successful or not.
However, as of yet, there have been very few projects focused to
strengthen and build the actual content which is the basis of such
systems. In order for various consumer LBS systems to be accepted and
useful, The gContents initiative aims to make these contents data more
complete and more interoperable between vendors.
G-XML development was also actively
pursued in the 2003-2004 fiscal year. Careful monitoring of the ISO/GML
Revision Working Group's activities allowed the G-XML Project group to
remain current on the various changes and revisions which were
proposed during the revision work.
Work here in Japan on G-XML Version
3.1 progressed. G-XML 3.1 has a number of proposed WSDL interfaces
which will allow developers to more easily design systems to be more
interoperable and extendible. An English language white paper
currently introduces some of these new interfaces and changes to
G-XML. Work on G-XML 3.0 was finished at the end of March, 2003.
The following documents provide additional information in English
about G-XML 3.0 as of March 2003. G-XML
3.0: An Overview of New Features (PDF:110K) and G-XML
3.0 An Overview (PDF:6.3M)
TC204/TC211
LBS Working Group Meetings in
Japan
A TC211 WG8
(Location Based Services) meeting was held in Tokyo on February 6th,
2004 . International WG8 members and various Japanese members
participated in the meeting. Another meeting was held on February 8th,
2004 in Nagoya Japan . This unique meeting was a combined meeting
having both the TC204 WG4 and TC211 WG8 participants in attendance.
TC211 WG8 Convener Mr. Martin Ford envisioned such a combined meeting
as a way of harmonizing and streamlining interoperable development
activities between the two technical committees. Mr. Ford felt that
Japan , because of the advanced LBS market already in place, would
provide a perfect venue for such a "kick-off" meeting.
Further combined meetings are planned.
Japan
LBS
Market Overview
| The G-XML
Project Team sponsored a Japan LBS Market Overview seminar in
Tokyo on February 5th, 2004 . The half-day seminar focused on
the LBS activities of the G-XML Project Team, as well as an
overview of current LBS market status here in Japan . The
seminar was scheduled one day before the ISO TC211-WG8 working
group meeting, and it provided an opportunity for
international WG8 members to meet and share ideas, as well as
for the foreign WG8 members to learn more the situation of
domestic WG8 activities. |
|
International
LBS Seminar in Tokyo
International
LBS Seminar in Tokyo, November 20, 2003 The first International LBS
Seminar was held in Tokyo on November 20th, 2003. Four distinguished
members of the international LBS community gave detailed presentations
to an audience of over 200+ attendees.
3rd
G-XML/GML International Seminar in
Tokyo
The third
annual G-XML/GML International Seminar was held on October 30-31,
2003 in central Tokyo. The International Seminar was held in
conjunction with the DATABASE
2003 Tokyo Exhibition.
G-XML
Rev. 3.0 Presentations at International Events...
 In
October 2003, Mr. Akifumi Nakai, principal architect of G-XML, gave a
presentation on new developments at the OpenGIS Consortium's Technical
Committee meeting in Segovia Spain. Mr. Nakai introduced the gContents
activities to the attendees and focused on how the changes to G-XML
would be useful in supporting web based services for applications such
as gConents and LBS.
 In
July 2003 the G-XML Project Group made a presentation at GML
Dev Days in Vancouver BC Canada. GML Dev Days is hosted by Galdos
Systems Inc. As in previous years, this 2nd annual GML Dev Days
conference was a good venue for addressing the key people involved
with GML. The event was also followed by a two day ISO-GML meeting.
G-XML Project team members attending the ISO-GML Working Group meeting
and listened to the current work status presentations and
harmonization efforts.
 In
June 2003 the G-XML Project Group made a presentation to the members
attending the OpenGIS Consortium (OGC) Technical Meeting
in Dulles Virginia USA. This was the first meeting where the new
concepts and functions of G-XML Rev 3.0 were described in detail
outside of Japan. Presentations were made during both the GML
and Plenary Sessions. A number of people expressed interest in
learning more about the G-XML Rev 3.0 specification and using the new
pre-defined WSDL Interfaces for system development.
G-XML Project Status During
the 4th Fiscal Year:
(April 2002 - March 2003)
There were many activities
successfully carried out during the 2002-2003 (the forth) fiscal year
for the G-XML Project.
gContents Kick-Off Meeting
in Tokyo...
The G-XML Project Group has laid the groundwork for
a new, domestic, "contents driven, multi-sector"
organization called gContents. While much of the structure for
gContents has yet to be fixed, it is envisioned as an organization
that will represent the concerns of many sectors regarding such issues
as promotion, use, distribution, rights, and security of spatial and
location based data.
the gContents
page has more information and a registration form for attendance
of this free meeting in Aoyama Tokyo on March 13, 2003.
G-XML Rev 3.0 Internal
Release Readied...
Work on G-XML Rev 3.0
has been moving at a busy pace. The approval
of GML 3.0 by OGC members in late January 2003 allowed for the
finalization of key design points in G-XML 3.0. The G-XML
Project Group will deliver the specification to the Ministry
of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) later this month at the
close of the 2002-2003 fiscal year.
The OpenGIS Consortium (OGC)
Approves GML Specification...
In early February of 2003 the
OpenGIS
Consortium (OGC) announced the successful adoption by its members
of the GML 3.0 Specification. The OGC press-release
described the importance that "GML 3 will play a key role in
both spatial data encoding and transport, and in the description of
geographic objects for geospatial Web services."
Finalization of GML was also
of keen interest to the G-XML Project Group. The G-XML Project Group
was involved with the G-XML/GML harmonization, in the early stages of
GML 3.0 design work and some members have continued to be involved
with GML at the OGC Revision Working Group (RWG) level. Work
proceeded throughout the 4th year on G-XML Ver 3.0 and with the
finalization of GML 3.0 it is now possible to "wrap up" the
work for G-XML Ver. 3.0. Work continued in the ISO community (ISO
TC-211) where GML 3.0 was re-submitted through the liaison
relationship of ISO and OGC. There GML will undergo some expected
further modifications on its path to becoming both an ISO
International Standard.
G-XML International
Seminar...
 On
October 10th and 11th, the G-XML Group organized the G-XML
International Seminar. The international seminar featured domestic and
foreign speakers giving presentations about GML and G-XML.
Distinguished foreign speakers included Mr.
Ron Lake, President of Galdos
Systems Inc , Mr. Edward Parsons of the Ordnance
Survey, Mr. Clemens Portele of Interactive
Instruments, and Dr. Geoff Zeiss of AutoDesk.
Presentations of the speakers are available. Please
contact the G-XML Project Office.
Database 2002 Tokyo
and the G-XML International Seminar...
Database 2002 TOKYO...
  The
2002 Database Show was held from October 9th thru October 11th
at the Tokyo International Forum event hall in downtown Tokyo. Over
35,000 people visited the three day event. Included in the event hall
were a number of booths occupied by the G-XML testbed participants.
There the testbed companies showed their application prototypes to the
interested attendees.
2002 Testbed Activities...
The 2002 G-XML Testbed started in the
early autumn. The theme of the testbed was the use of G-XML to
facilitate the interoperable flow of data within local/municipal
government offices. A number of local government offices and
integration companies were paired up for the testbed. The
prototype applications were showcased at the Database 2002 Tokyo
exhibition from October 9th through October 11th, 2002 in Tokyo.
GML Dev Days 2002 in
Vancouver
 Members
from the G-XML Project Group attended the GML
Dev Days 2002 Conference, organized by Galdos
Inc. from July 22 - July 26. The title of the G-XML Presentation
was "G-XML Initiative
2002: A Japanese XML Based Protocol Suite for Enabling
Interoperability of Geodata and Geoservices."
e-G View POI Prototype
During the OGC June 2002 TC
meeting in London, members of the G-XML group made a presentation
about the e-G View POI Exchange Prototype system which has been
created by the G-XML Project Group. e-G View (dubbed Easy-Exchange in
English) is a working system which allows users to share POI (Point of
Interest) data and display that data on the map. The e-G View system
is based on the current JIS Version of G-XML 2.x. More information
(in Japanese) is available about the e-G View system. Since e-G
View is based on G-XML 2.x no active foreign promotion of the system
has been made, other than the video presentation given at the London
TC. Those wishing a CDROM of the video with English narration are
invited to contact the G-XML Project Office.
G-XML Project Status During
the 3rd Fiscal Year:
(April 2001 - March 2002)
G-XML Version 2.0
Specification Download...
There are a total of 5
documents which comprise the G-XML Version 2.0 specification. The
English language specifications are presently at the 2.0 level
revision.
1.
"Main Book": forward, overview, glossary of terms used and
DTD are present in this document.
2.
Annex 1: Describes the definitions and structures of the Compound
Module of G-XML
3.
Annex 2: Describes
the definitions and composition of the G-XML "parts" module.
4.
Annex 3: Describes the definitions and grammar of the G-XML elements
5.
Annex 4: Additional document which describes the background of G-XML
and also the four types of logical structures which are used in G-XML
for encoding of spatial data.
Please contact "gxml at
dpc.jipdec.jp"
if you have any problems downloading these files
Convergence work progress
April 2001 through August 2001...
After returning from the
April Leige Belgium OGC Meeting, the G-XML Project staff requested
assistance from interested G-XML Consortium members to help join in
the convergence work. Approximately ten companies chose to join the
"Convergence J-Team." They have been working and
holding meetings since the end of May. These meetings were in
preparation for the June 2001 OGC TC Meeting.
G-XML Project members
attended the June OGC TC Meeting with a large number of items to
discuss with the members of the OGC GML SIG. The four day meeting
provided a significant amount of time for everyone to begin examining
the critical issues facing convergence more in depth.
After the June OGC TC, the
G-XML Project members and Convergence J-Team members continued discuss
and work on the various convergence issues. This was in preparation
for a special Technical Workshop which was held in mid-July 2001 in
Vancouver BC, Canada.
The intensive, fast paced
three day Technical Workshop in Vancouver resulted in the finalization
of many issues facing the convergence of the two specifications.
A significant amount of time during the workshop was given to the
discussion of proposal schemas submitted by the participants. The
progress made during the workshop should keep the convergence work on
track and ensure a straight schedule into the autumn.
In August, G-XML Version 2
was certified as a new JIS specification. Also, during August, the
domestic testbed was started. Companies participating in the testbed
worked on their prototypes until October. Work continues on the
planning for the Database 2001 Show and International Symposium to be
held here in Tokyo the end of October.
JIS Acceptance Granted,
G-XML Ver. 2.0 is now an official Japan Industry Standard...
G-XML Version 2.0 was granted
Japan Industry Standard (JIS) certification on August 25, 2001. "JIS
X 7199 Geographic information -- XML encoding for geospatial data
exchange" is the official designation and title of the newly
accepted specification. Both the English and Japanese language, non-JIS
formatted specifications are still available for download. The
G-XML Version 2.0 specification which was submitted to the Japanese
Industrial Standards Committee (JISC)
in December 2000 for promotion to an official Japan Industry Standard
(JIS).
Attaining JIS certification was a
major milestone for the G-XML Project, and such recognition will allow
G-XML to achieve even more industry wide acceptance and use.
2001-2002 Testbed
Activities...
The 2001-2002 testbed was conducted
from mid-summer to October. A group of eight consortia were involved
in the third year testbed. Some of these domestic companies paired
with foreign companies. The themes of the testbed were: Real-time
Agricultural Wind Damage Assessment, Reservation Service, Real-time
Disaster Management and Weather Information System. A video
presentation, narrated in English, showcasing some of the results of
the testbed is available from the G-XML Project team.
ISO Activities...
In October 2001 OGC Submitted
the current version of GML (2.0) as a draft NWIP to ISO TC 211. In the
months that followed comments were submitted by various ISO members.
These comments culminated in a revised resubmission of the GML NWIP,
addressing the issues raised by the comments along with a submission
of the Draft GML 3.0 schemas. The Draft 3.0 Schemas are the result of
the convergence with between DPC and OGC. In
the February draft of the NWIP OGC specifically noted the necessity to
maintain harmonization with G-XML. We believe that this was a big step
for Japan to promote G-XML on an international basis.
Electronic voting was carried
out by the TC and the revised NWIP was accepted in early May and is
now positioned at the "Working Draft" level.. We hope
that the other issues will be solved shortly clearing the way for ISO
GML to become an international standard. .
Database
2001 Show in TOKYO...
Database 2001 Show and
International Seminar was held from October 30 thru November 1st. Both
events were held in downtown Tokyo. The three day event attracted over
30,000 people.
There were a variety of
companies exhibiting at the show with booths positioned in various
"business zones." There were two mapping related
zones. First, the "Mapping Zone" had 21 companies that
participated. The G-XML Project was also present in the
"G-XML Corner. In the "G-XML Corner" there were 12
companies, most of which were the participants of the 2001 - 2002
Testbed.
A Symposium was also held
during these dates. Two foreign speakers involved with the GML/G-XML
Convergence work gave presentations during the seminar. Mr. Kurt
Buehler, Vice President and Chief Operations Officer of the OpenGIS
Consortium and Mr.
Ron Lake, President of Galdos
Systems Inc along with Mr. David Danko of ESRI
gave presentations during the Symposium.
G-XML Project Status During
the 2nd
Fiscal Year:
(April 2000 - March 2001)
There were many realized
goals achieved during the 2000-2001 fiscal year for the G-XML Project.
Overall the 2nd year of work on the G-XML project was very successful.
Harmonization with
GML...
A major portion of the work during the
2000-2001 fiscal year built upon the discussions with
the Open GIS
Consortium (OGC) towards the harmonization and interoperability
between G-XML and the OGC's GML protocol. G-XML Version 2.0 was
the result of this harmonization work. Here
is the press release of the
harmonization activity.
Enhancements to G-XML...
Originally it was planned
that the G-XML Version 3.0 Specification would be completed by March
2001. However after carefully reassessing the plans for convergence
with GML and the amount of work necessary to complete the convergence,
and input and comments from the G-XML Committee regarding Version 2.0
it was decided that G-XML Version 2.0 would be enhanced to Version
2.5. This enhancement work on this specification was completed
by March 30, 2001.
Overview of the G-XML
Version 2.0 Specification...
There are a total of 5
documents which comprise the G-XML Version 2.0 specification. The
english language specifications are presently at the 2.0 level
revision.
Initial JISC Submission...
G-XML Version 2.0 was
submitted through METI
to the Japanese
Standards Committee (JISC) on December 1, 2000. Checking of
the specification is currently underway by the JISC, while final
approval and promotion of the G-XML Version 2.0 specification to JIS
level is expected around August 2001.
2000 - 2001 Testbed
Successfully Completed...
During the 2000 - 2001
fiscal year, the second testbed was successfully completed. This
testbed started in July 2000 and finished in January 2001. For
this testbed, two local government offices and various private
companies were involved. The first of two themes for the
testbed was, an investigation for the delivery of disaster
preparedness and transportation information via PCs and navigation
systems. While the second theme was an investigation of sight-seeing
information service delivered via mobile wireless devices.
Events and
Presentations...
In October 2000 at the OGC Technical
Meeting in Arlington VA, members of the G-XML Committee made technical
presentations to the participants at the OGC meeting. Also in October
of 2000, the G-XML
Project Promotion group participated in the Database 2000 Tokyo Fair.
At the Fair, there was a special GIS Corner, where some of the vendors
were showing demonstrations of prototype projects created using G-XML.
The Database Show consistantly attracts a large number of people and
last year more than 36,300 people attended the event.
The Tokyo Camp...
In mid January 2001 key members of the
OGCs GML Specifications group represented by Galdos
Systems' Mr. Ron Lake and Mr. Richard Martell, along with OGC Vice
President Mr. Kurt Buehler "converged" on Tokyo for three
days for rigorous technical meetings and discussions with various
members of the G-XML Committee on the convergence plans for GML and
G-XML. During the Tokyo Camp, a series of work-items were
proposed which would help to define the items and tasks for
convergence.
G-XML Project Status During the 1st Fiscal Year:
(April 1999 - March 2000)
During the project's first
year work, (April 1999 through March 2000), three major tasks were
undertaken by the G-XML Project group. The first task was the actual
creation of a DTD for the G-XML specification. The second task
comprised of technical work to make a software development kit or SDK.
The final task was the actual testbed comprised of various companies
creating working prototypes of the various sub-protocols of G-XML.
Completion of the G-XML
Version 1.0 Specification...
The G-XML Version 1.0
Specification was completed in March 2000. In this specification are
the definitions of the four sub-protocols, Real World, Point and
Direction, Semantic and Graphic.
Also during the first year, a
software development toolkit or SDK was created. Within
the scope of the SDK, a prototype tool was also made for the
conversion of common data formats into G-XML formatted data.
The final task was the actual
testbed session which comprised of various companies creating working
prototypes of the various sub-protocols of G-XML. First testbed was
conducted during the period from 1999/11-2000/02. A consortium
of 8 companies participated in the testbed work. The conclusions
of the testbed consortium showed that G-XML Version 1.0 proved
functional for application development.
Overview of the G-XML Version 1.0
Specification...
Within the G-XML Version 1.0
specification there are four sub-protocols. The following will provide
information about those sub-protocols. The main protocol is
divided into these sub-protocols so as to not confuse developers and
users, and also to allow growth with various domains of GIS.
- The first sub-protocol is Real
World (RW-GXML) which covers the conventional GIS domain.
- The second sub-protocol is the
Point and Direction (PD-GXML) which is based on a point of
interest for ordinary users to easily generate spatial data using
mobile and wireless devices.
- The third sub-protocol is called
Semantic (S-GXML) which is based on spatial data without geometric
form through the use of simple sketch maps, or voice/text
navigation.
- Finally the forth sub-protocol is
Graphic (G-GXML) which provides a geo-coding framework to the
Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) protocol, which is evolving to be
the next standard Internet graphics format.
The English version of
the G-XML Version 1.0 Specification may be downloaded from links
below:
Here is a graphic overview of the G-XML Version 1.0 Structure
|
|
