Cursor on Target (CoT) is an effort by military and governmental branches, FFRDCs (federally funded research and development corporations) and private companies to standardize an electronic portable data format to define location based data. I am the biggest geo-geek that I know, so obviously I was very interested when they contacted me about implementing their format into Where's Tim. These guys have done a great job of making a simple schema (12 required fields) that is easy to implement. I blogged about doing something like this while ago, but these guys have the resources to get broad adaptation, so I'm very excited to be working with them
The first thing I've did was create an .aspx page that would render XML in the CoT format. The webpage is here, and the article with the code is here.
On the EnGraph side, we plan to implement their standard in our location objects. This way, our clients will have quick access to an electronic description of their locations. As CoT matures, they plan to syndicate events using this standard. Eventually, our clients will be notified when an event (natural disasters, road construction, potential public safety concerns) will impact their locations and they can respond quicker.
For more information about CoT, visit this website (click "cancel" on the authentication prompt) or read this pdf.
Disclaimer: I have not been paid by any agencies associated with CoT, but they have reviewed this blog post prior to posting and they have indicated that EnGraph will get attention for our early adaptation.
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Where's Tim