WHAT IS OPEN GIS?

As costs of computer hardware and software for geographic information systems (GIS) decline, resource managers are paying increasing attention to maximizing the value of environmental data. Much work to date has been done in the areas of standardized data development, distribution of digital information, and format translation. Less effort has been directed toward the exchange of information between inventory-based GIS applications and analytical tools such as statistical analysis, process modeling, and pattern recognition. Future success of GIS as a technology and as a paradigm of spatial understanding will depend on the seamless integration of diverse methods into a comprehensive system for scientific investigation and environmental planning.

The open systems model is an approach to software engineering and system design that enables and encourages sharing of data, resources, tools, and so forth between different users or applications. When applied to the domain of geographic information systems, the intent is to move away from the current paradigm in which specific GIS applications and capabilities are tightly coupled to their internal models and structures. Open GIS facilitates exchange of information not only between individual GISs but also to other systems, such as statistical analysis, image processing, document management, or visualization.

(http://www.regis.berkeley.edu/gardels/envmodel.html)