Arliss Whiteside Receives OGC's Gardels Award.

Business/Technology Editors

WAYLAND, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 7, 2001

At the June meeting of the Open GIS Consortium, Inc. (OGC), Arliss Whiteside received OGC's third annual Kenneth G. Gardels Award. The Gardels Award, a gold medallion, is awarded to individuals who have made an outstanding contribution to advance the vision of the OGC.

Arliss Whiteside is a member of the Mission Solutions Division at BAE Systems, a global systems, defense and aerospace company based in San Diego, California. Mr. Whiteside represents the company in the Technical Committee of the OGC. He is currently chairman of the Image Exploitation Services Special Interest Group. Active since 1997, he has contributed significantly to the material currently included in the OpenGIS Abstract Specification on the subjects of image geometry models, accuracy metadata, services architecture, and catalog services. He has worked tirelessly on topics ranging from coordinate reference systems and transformations to image exploitation.

Educated as an electrical engineer, Mr. Whiteside became involved in photogrammetry in 1961, when he programmed the general-purpose and special-purpose computers used within the first computerized stereoplotter (or analytical stereoplotter). Since then, he has contributed to the design and implementation of a series of more extensive computerized photogrammetric systems, mostly for the United States National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) and its predecessors. His work included a series of automated stereoplotters for the production of elevation and feature data.

In a letter to Mr. Whiteside, the OGC Board of Directors noted that Mr. Whiteside's contribution has helped to significantly advance the Consortium's programs. The letter concludes saying, "By contributing so much of your personal energy and idealism to building and directing the OpenGIS process, you have made a contribution of great value to the world community which we serve, and you have played a unique role in realizing the vision which inspired this award."

The award is given annually in memory of Kenneth Gardels, one of the founding directors of OGC and OGC's director of academic programs. Mr. Gardels coined the term "Open GIS," and devoted his life to the humane and democratic uses of GIS. He passed away in 1999.

OGC is an international industry consortium of over 200 companies, government agencies and universities participating in a consensus process to develop publicly available geoprocessing specifications. OpenGIS Specifications establish common interfaces that "geo-enable" the Web and mainstream IT, enabling technology developers to make complex spatial information and services accessible and useful with all kinds of applications. Visit the OGC website at www.opengis.org.