The BSi IST/36 Standards Committee

The IST36 Standards Committee is the official BSi (British Standards Institution) committee for geographic information (known as BSi IST/36). Its mission is to equip the UK with a set of standards for better exploitation and sharing of geographic information (GI). The main activities of the committee are:

  1. to propose and provide technical approval of British Standards on behalf of BSi;
  2. to coordinate UK input into the work of the International Standards committee  (ISO/TC 211) and the European Standards committee (CEN/TC 287) and other relevant de jure, national, European and International standards bodies (currently including the INSPIRE Directive Implementing Rules).
  3. to support other standardisation initiatives, such as those for the UK Location Programme (UKLP).

Minutes of the quarterly meetings of the committee and reports on ISO and CEN meetings can be found at http://www.agi.org.uk/standards-committee-docs

Copies of any Standard may be purchased through AGI.  The UK GEMINI2 Metadata standard may be downloaded free of charge from http://www.agi.org.uk/uk-gemini

Membership of the Standards Committee

Membership of the Standards Committee comprises representatives from a range of government departments and agencies, data suppliers and commercial companies. Membership is open to all corporate members of AGI. The Chairman is Carsten Roensdorf and AGI run the secretariat (IST36Secretariat@agi.org.uk). Sub Groups are convened from time to time for specific issues.

For further information on membership of the Committee, please contact the IST36Secretariat@agi.org.uk as above.

Current work programme

The current work programme includes the following:

  1. support for UK Location Programme through membership of the Location Information Interoperability Board and the Metadata Working Group. IST36 has revised UK GEMINI and the associated guidance on behalf of AGI such that users can capture metadata which conforms to the INSPIRE implementing rules. This has been adopted  by UKLP as the UK standard for discovery metadata. 
  2. support for ISO/TC 211, through involvement in Working Groups and Project Teams, providing detailed technical comments on draft standards, and producing formal UK responses to ballots of National Bodies;
  3. support for CEN/TC 287, through involvement in Working Groups, specially for Spatial Data Infrastructures, and producing formal UK responses to ballots of National Bodies;
  4. support for AGI (as a Spatial Data Interest Community registered with the EC) on the implementation process for INSPIRE - in UK as well as in the EU.

National and International standards available through the British Standards Institute (BSI) can be purchased from the AGI.  Please contact Maureen Nessling for details.

If you require access to the full set of British GI Standards, they are available to anyone in the British Library and may be available in the other UK deposit libraries. Members of the Standards Committee and anyone working for an organisation that is a member of BSi can also access the full set of standards at the BSi offices in Chiswick. Prior notice will ensure that they are brought to the reading room in advance.  Email to: library@bsigroup.com

Please note that the AGI is NOT a member of BSi.