Effective sharing of data and services, both within and across organizations, depends on accepted standards. Industry standards organizations such as the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) (http://www.iso.org) develop, discuss, and publish requirements and specifications for implementation by software vendors and system integrators.

Like many areas of information technology, GIS is growing rapidly. Standards are crucial to share GIS spatial data accurately, and for GIS systems to be able to work together.

The Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc. (OGC) (http://www.opengeospatial.org/) is working on the development of geospatial interoperability standards that will facilitate access to and use of geographic information by a broad range of users.

Some of the organizations working on international and GIS standards include:

• American National Standards Institute (ANSI) - (http://www.ansi.org/)
• Digital Geographic Information Working Group (DGIWG) - (http://www.dgiwg.org/digest/About2.htm)
• European Committee for Standardization (CEN) - (http://www.cen.eu/cen/)
• Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) - (http://www.fgdc.gov/)
• Global Spatial Data Infrastructure (GSDI) - (http://www.gsdi.org/)
• International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) - (http://www.iho.int/)
• International Organization for Standardization (ISO) - (http://www.iso.org/)
• Location Interoperability Forum (LIF) - (http://www.cellular.co.za/technologies/location/lif.htm)
• Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) - (http://www.opengeospatial.org/)
• Web Services Interoperability Organization (WS-I) - (http://www.ws-i.org/)
• Wireless Location Industry Association (WLIA) - (http://www.wliaonline.com/)
• World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) - (http://www.w3.org/)