Phil and I had 3 days in the Netherlands last week seeing customers and attending the ATC Conference in Amsterdam. As I've blogged previously, GML seems to popping up all over the place these days. In this instance we were on a fact finding mission to see how Snowflake’s GO Publisher product could help with the implementation of D-AIM (Digital Aeronautical Information Management). The primary goal of D-AIM is to establish a framework for the information exchange of Aeronautical, Airport and Weather information. To achieve this, the industry has been developing various exchange models using open standards such as those from W3C, OGC and ISO. One such exchange model is AIXM5 (Aeronautical Information eXchange Model). Developed by Eurocontrol and FAA, AIXM5 is a GML 3.2.1 standard for the exchange for Aeronautical information.
As some of you may know Snowflake has been working with AIXM5 in the latest OWS6 testbed where our role has been to prove that AIXM5 could be delivered using WFS and that the temporal elements of AIXM could be queried using WFS. We’re pretty much complete on OWS6 and it’s been incredibly successful for all involved. Given this, attending ATC was great opportunity to see how Snowflake can position its technology and expertise in AIM marketplace. With the likes of Northrop Grumman, Boeing, Lockhead Martin and Thales exhibiting I’ve never seen so many high end exhibition stands, widescreen tvs, 3d visualisations, aircraft cockpits, control stations and of course plenty of free cardboard aeroplanes!
ATC was impressive and a very busy place, 20,000 people pass through the doors over the 3 days. As well as massive conference there were also plenty of free workshops and hands on seminars to attend. As it’s new to Snowflake it was great to attend, listen and just take it all in, it’s been ages since I’ve gone to show and written so much down.I’ve now got a much better understand of the AIM marketplace and where our products fit.
So what did I make of the ATC Conference? Well from Snowflake's viewpoint its the same opportunity we see in all of our markets - organisations want interoperability and data exchange and they see standards such as GML and WFS as a way to achieve this. Given this, there's a great opportunity for all involved in the OGC world - we're certainly committed to the D-AIM marketplace and you'll be seeing a lot more about our D-AIM offering in the not so distant future - watch this space.
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