OGC
Open GIS Consortium (OGC)
OpenGIS is defined as transparent access to heterogeneous geodata and geoprocessing resources in a networked environment. The goal of the OpenGIS Project is to provide a comprehensive suite of open interface specifications that enable developers to write interoperating components that provide these capabilities.
OGC is organized as a tax-exempt "membership corporation," as defined in section 501(c)(6) of the US tax code, whose mission is to promote the development and use of advanced open systems standards and techniques in the area of geoprocessing and related information technologies. OGC is supported by Consortium membership fees and, to a lesser extent, development partnerships and publicly funded cooperative programs.
Much of the information accessible through OGIS is described in terms of geographic features. Geographic features include, for example, roads, surface topography, satellite images, administrative districts, land parcels, land tenures and vegetative cover. The OpenGIS Specification does not define what is meant by a feature type (e.g., that represents a road). OpenGIS provides the standards for a feature dictionary, so that each community can develop its own common dictionary of geospatial feature types and attributes.
See: http://www.opengis.org/