The Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc.
(OGC®) announced that it has acquired the services of Ms. Athina
Trakas to manage its European business development activities. Ms.
Trakas will work on behalf of the Consortium to further expand
European involvement in OGC programs, and to enhance the Consortium&apo;s
capacity to address regional interoperability requirements. Ms. Trakas
appointment was formalized through a business agreement between the
OGC and the Consulting Center for Geographic Information (CCGIS).

Ms Trakas brings to her new task a long experience with OGC
technology. From CCGIS“ founding in 1998 she served in various
business development roles working with European clients to promote
adoption of OGC standards, more recently extending her work to support
the adoption of OGC standards throughout the global Open Source
community.

Mark Reichardt, the OGC&apo;s president, said, „We are extremely fortunate
to have Athina supporting OGC European objectives. She has excellent
business development skills, she&apo;s multilingual, and she understands
and believes in the benefits of open standards. Through her work with
CCGIS, she has shown consistently that she can effectively convey the
OGC message to both government and private sector organizations.“

In her OGC role, Ms. Trakas will conduct business in Europe on behalf
of the OGC&apo;s mission, goals and objectives, with a focus on market
education, membership recruitment and consultancy services. Ms. Trakas
will work closely with the Consortium&apo;s European Forum, a group open
to all European members of the OGC. The Forum serves to coordinate
outreach in the region as well as input into the OGC&apo;s international
consensus process. She will also support OGC European interoperability
services projects administered by OGC Europe, Ltd.

The OGC® is an international industry consortium of more than 320
companies, government agencies, research organizations, and
universities participating in a consensus process to develop publicly
available interface specifications. OpenGIS Specifications support
interoperable solutions that „geo-enable“ the Web, wireless and
location services, and mainstream IT. They empower developers to make
complex spatial information and services useful with all kinds of
applications.