OGC invites you to submit proposal papers and attend the Model for Underground Data Definition and Interchange (MUDDI) ETL-Plugfest Workshop to be held July 24-25 at the New York City Offices of the Fund for the City of New York (FCNY). There is no cost to attend the Workshop, but seating is limited and registration is required. Priority will be given to registrants submitting position papers and undertaking trial ETL tasks to report on at the workshop, and observers will be accommodated as space permits. Full submission instructions can be found below.

Important

DRY RUN RESCHEDULED

The Workshop Dry-Run Telecon with presenters has been repurposed as a Workshop Agenda Review with presenters, and the date has been moved to 12 July. The telecon is set to start at 11:00 US Eastern Time.

Registered Workshop Participants will be contacted individually with telecon details.

Businessweek underground graphic
Figure 1. Nobody Knows What Lies Beneath New York City (source: Bloomberg Businessweek)

One of the primary workshop goals is to evaluate the Underground Data Conceptual Model ("MUDDI Data Model") through implementation and testing so as to provide feedback on how to refine and improve it, as well as to guide the choice and development of standard implementations. Another workshop goal is to review a draft version of an underground data RoI model Cost Benefit Assessment of Subterranean Information Management (under review). This model is intended to help justify investments in underground data gathering and sharing by documenting multiple sources of returns on such investment and providing a methodology for estimating their value. It is offered as a shared community asset, a work in progress that would stand to benefit from participant feedback.

An ETL-Plugfest is a data-centric adaptation of an OGC plugfest that addresses the translation of data between differing formats, schemas, and platforms. Contrasted with plugging together the interfaces of OGC Web Services (OWS) components, an ETL-Plugfest instead focuses on extract, transform, and load practices and tools for managing data consistently across differing environments. As with other OWS initiatives, the workshop will nonetheless provide a venue and scenarios to test and validate interoperation among components, in this case through ETL procedures based on a common interchange data model.

Participants, both underground data users and technology implementers, are expected to work together before and during the workshop in a collaborative, agile process to address the challenges surrounding underground data use, analysis, and planning. The process includes preparing and staging input data, transforming it into intermediate and final data products on their chosen platforms, and then identifying any issues with the MUDDI model, model implementations, and/or accompanying ETL practices that should be addressed going forward. This Workshop is part of the ongoing OGC Underground Infrastructure Pilot initiative under the OGC Innovation Program. It is being sponsored by the Fund for the City of New York (FCNY).

Workshop Overview and Benefits of Participation

MUDDI is being developed as an interchange and integration model to support a range of critical underground infrastructure and environment information that is currently held in a wide and disparate variety of forms if available at all. Data interoperability in this domain provides both significant benefits and challenges. The model will benefit greatly from trial testing and consideration in advance of larger-scale Pilot implementations that are being planned. This ETL-Plugfest is intended to provide this trial usage by means of data flow and transformation exercises involving datasets with various existing formats and schemas from several municipal locations. Outcomes will include an updated MUDDI model, model implementation guidance, feedback on feasibility and utility from software developers, and refined data application scenarios for incorporation into subsequent Pilot activities.

Workshop participation will offer software providers significant market exposure. It will also afford an opportunity to cooperatively test the MUDDI model in the context of a hands-on engineering experience that may lead to significantly improved software capabilities. The initiative is designed to improve future geospatial interoperability capabilities across multiple communities with the potential to provide access to a larger overall market for each of those communities.

Audience

The Workshop will promote vigorous discussions among a diverse set of stakeholders, including

  • Organizations responsible for creating and maintaining Underground Data;

  • Organizations that depend on being able to work with structured and shareable Underground Data;

  • Organizations developing and providing software tools for working with Underground Data;

  • Standards and public interest organizations such as FCNY, OGC, and others.

Workshop Logistics and Milestones Leading up to the Workshop

The major milestones surrounding the Workshop Event are presented below:

Schedule
  • 1 June: MUDDI Data Model and shared Reference Data for Testing available.

  • 12 June: Clarifications / Q&A Webinar.

  • 19 June: Draft Position Papers due.

  • 12 July, 11:00 US Eastern Time: Workshop Dry-Run Telecon with presenters (repurposed and rescheduled).

  • 24-25 July: Workshop Event at FCNY.

  • 8 August: Final Position Papers due from Participants.

In preparation for the Clarifications / Q&A Webinar, potential Participants are invited to submit questions by email to the OGC Techdesk. Question submitters will remain anonymous, and answers will be presented on the webinar and later published.

The Workshop Agenda will be finalized at a later date, but will include:

Agenda
  1. Overview presentations on the Underground Data Project: CDS, MUDDI, RoI Study, proposed Pilot.

  2. Presentations reporting pre-workshop experience with MUDDI and chosen datasets (shared and private).

  3. Breakout sessions to refine the model interface modules, implementation guidance, and alignments with existing and related models.

  4. Brief Participant demos (time permitting).

  5. Underground Data RoI Model presentation and discussion.

  6. Summary session.

Participants wishing to provide datasets for sharing and collaboration should note the following requirements:

Requirements
  • Participant-contributed underground datasets of multiple types are encouraged;

  • A limited geographic area of interest is acceptable;

  • The data should be shareable with all Workshop participants;

  • Infrastructure data and underground environment data are both welcomed;

  • Data should be made available in advance of the workshop (see schedule above).

Instructions for Responding to This CFP

There is no cost to attend the Workshop, but seating is limited and registration is required. Priority will be given to registrants submitting position papers and undertaking trial ETL tasks to report on at the workshop. Observers will be accommodated as space permits.

After registration, interested parties should submit a response to the OGC Techdesk indicating a commitment to attend the Workshop and providing a draft Position Paper to be shared with other participants prior to the event. The submitted Position Paper should include a draft methodology on the proponent’s intended plan to implement and test the MUDDI Data Model).

The Position Paper should provide a detailed description of the organization’s approach under one or more of the following options:

  1. The participant plans to incorporate the MUDDI Data Model into its own software, to use its own private data to assess how their software works to produce MUDDI-conformant private output, and to share a narrative report of the results;

  2. The participant plans to adopt approach #1, but also exporting MUDDI-conformant data in a standard exchange format (e.g., CityGML) to be shared along with a narrative report; or

  3. The participant plans to import the shared Reference Data for Testing (or public datasets), perform the assessment, share the MUDDI-conformant data output and a narrative report of results.

Workshop participants are also being asked to review a draft version of the RoI model Cost Benefit Assessment of Subterranean Information Management (under review). This model is intended to help justify investments in underground data gathering and sharing by documenting multiple sources of returns on such investment and providing a methodology for estimating their value. The model is offered as a shared community asset, a work in progress that would stand to benefit from participant feedback.

The Workshop Event will be held July 24-25 at the New York City Offices of the Fund for the City of New York (FCNY) located at 121 Avenue of the Americas, 6th Floor, New York, NY 10013-1590, on the west side of Avenue of the Americas (6th Avenue) between Broome Street and Watts Street. The venue is easily reached by walking north along 6th Avenue from the Canal Street stops of the A, C, E and #1 trains.

In preparation for the Clarifications / Q&A Webinar, potential Participants are invited to submit questions by email to the OGC Techdesk. Question submitters will remain anonymous, and answers will be presented on the webinar and later published.

For more information, please send an email to the Scott Serich, a Director in the OGC Innovation Program.