WebVMT Status Update

1. Progress Made

1.a. Attended the Drone Futures conference on 13 June at Tech UK in London to engage with the drones community: http://www.techuk.org/insights/news/item/13328-drone-futures-how-the-uk-can-lead-from-the-front <http://www.techuk.org/insights/news/item/13328-drone-futures-how-the-uk-can-lead-from-the-front>. Received good feedback on the WebVMT concept from manufacturers and users, with interest shown in the forthcoming website (item 1.b), and identified some interesting new use cases.

1.b. Made good headway with creating a public-facing website for WebVMT, to help engage communities, promote the format and encourage uptake. Planned pages include a features overview, several technical demonstrations, including YouTube integration, and a development blog.

1.c. Created a Content Management System (CMS) plugin for easy website integration of the WebVMT playback engine, for the website (item 1.b).

1.d. Fixed a bug in the YouTube tech demo, resulting from anomalous API behaviour during pause. 

1.e. Identified a number of strategic and principal OGC members to approach regarding OGC Test Bed activities, as suggested at SDW IG meeting on 6 June in Fort Collins: https://www.w3.org/2017/sdwig/meetings/f2f-2.html <https://www.w3.org/2017/sdwig/meetings/f2f-2.html>

2. Next Steps

2.a. Complete the WebVMT website implementation, and go live.

2.b. Use the website as a focal point for community engagement activities to publicise the format and to inform key players, particularly those who can help move it forward through the standardisation process, early adopters and those interested in suitable Test Bed work.

2.c. Develop the WebVMT specification to address outstanding issues and community feedback, including new drone use cases.

3. Help Requested

3.a. Identify suitable points of contact in OGC member organisations - particularly strategic and principal members. Candidates include ESA, NASA, Ordnance Survey, Airbus, Esri, Geoscience Australia and Google, though other suggestions are also welcome.

3.b. Find appropriate representation in the OGC Disasters CDS, as described in issue #1048: https://github.com/w3c/sdw/issues/1048 <https://github.com/w3c/sdw/issues/1048>