Geomatics

IDON Technologies has been instrumental in the application of Information Technology standards to the management of geographic information. twenty years ago when computer technology was first applied to assist in the production of maps and charts it was used to automate the cartographic process. Gradually the digital data that represents a map or chart became more important than its representation on paper. Early attempts to exchange digital geographic information were in proprietary formats, and it has only been in the past ten years that widely accepted standards have begun to emerge. IDON Technologies has been instrumental in the development of these geographic information standards. It has worked on:

• MACDIF (Map and Chart Data Interchange Format) an early 1985 system independent exchange format.
• DIGEST the NATO affiliated DGIWG - DIgital Geographic Exchange STandard
• S-57 the International Hydrographic Organization format for Electronic Nautical Charts
• VPF/VRF the vector product relation form of DIGEST
• ISO TC211 the International Organization for Standardization committee on Geographic Information

C D O'Brien of IDON Technologies is the Canadian chair of the Canadian General Standards Board Committee on Geomatics and also the international Convenor of ISO TC211 WG6 on Imagery. He has been instrumental in the development of all of the ISO TC211 suite of standards and also their interface to the DGIWG, IHO and also to the Open GIS Consortium. (OGC).