XOMGL

XOMGL (eXtensible Open Municipal Geodata Language) is an XML-based open standard for the exchange of large amounts of government data between a municipal agency and regular citizens and developers creating web-based mapping applications. It is part of the OMG Standard, which seeks to promote the free flow of information between government agencies and citizens by establishing a common set of technical standards for organizing and sharing public data.cite web
last =
first =
authorlink =
coauthors =
title =Open Municipal Geodata Standard Website
work =
publisher =OMG Standard
date =2008-03-01
url =http://www.omgstandard.com/
format =
doi =
accessdate =2008-07-24 ]

Types of data

The XOMGL format is good for organizing and distributing digitally many types of government data, including crime, building permits, restaurant health reviews, pollution sources, political contributions, property values, traffic accidents, sex offenders, and historic sites.

Fields

It has just enough required fields to allow easy updates and the plotting of data on online maps. It also has enough optional data to allow categorization, filtering, date ranges, images, external links, and latitude and longitude. It provides all of this without overwhelming the end user, providing too much irrelevant data, and displays in an easy to read and manage format.

Usage examples

A government agency would make data available on its website with either static links to files in this format, or queryable versions that allow users to filter the data by last updated date, date range, category, etc.

The XML and JSON versions can be used to automate data importing into web-based software applications, while the CSV version allows regular people to browse, filter, sort, edit, and re-purpose the information with only spreadsheet software knowledge.

Other formats

There is not another existing format that is made for this purpose. KML, GeoRSS, and other formats that are geographically based are not adequate since government data does not typically have Latitude and Longitude, which is an essential part of those formats, and they are more suited to the final output of the data, with styles included, not really for data transfer and export from city databases. XOMGL can also be output gracefully into JSON and a downgraded CSV format.cite web
last =
first =
authorlink =
coauthors =
title =OMG Standard Technical Specifications
work =
publisher =OMG Standard
date =2008-03-01
url =http://www.omgstandard.com/techspecs.php
format =
doi =
accessdate =2008-07-24 ]

Example XOMGL format

References

External links

* [http://www.omgstandard.com/techspec.php XOMGL Tech Spec]