The technology base underlying OpenMap was developed under government funding.
From 1987 - 1992, BBN was involved in a DARPA collaborative mapping research
project. Experience in that project spawned a contract with the US
Transportation Command in 1992. That project resulted in the original
software package named MATT: Mapping Analysis Tool for Transportation. MATT
was incorporated into a number of other DARPA and military projects such as:
TARGET, KBLPS, GLAD, AMP, TRAC2ES, VISAGE and VALAD.
US government sponsorship of MATT was continued as part of the Joint Task
Force Advanced Technology Demonstration (JTF ATD) through 1998. Under this
program, the map system had been augmented with a CORBA-compliant, distributed,
object-oriented server for storing selected geospatial data. This new module
was called the JTF Map Web Server, and the entire resulting software system
was called the JTF Map System. This system was also in use in several related
spin-offs and projects such as: JFACC, JRAMS, MBP, PDC, ACPT, METOC, COMM &
BWD Anchor Desks.
BBN began developing OpenMap as a web-based client-server tool in 1995 and
released it as Java-based and open source in 1998.
OpenMap is used today by BBN in a number of DARPA and military sponsored
programs including: ALP (Advanced
Logistics Program), Ultra*Log, AMP (Analysis of Mobility Platform),
CoABS (Control of Agent Based
Systems), GAMAT (Global Air Mobility Advanced Technology),
JLACTD (Joint Logistics
Advanced Concepts Technology Demonstration) and
SensIT.
BBN has been a member of the OGC (Open GIS
Consortium) since 1995. Through this
membership BBN has been centrally involved in adopting and developing global
standards for sharing geospatial data. We have demonstrated with a number of
vendors (Bentley Systems, ESRI, Intergraph, Oracle Corporation, MIT and UMD)
our capabilities and compatibilities.
As OpenMap is now open source we do not always participate in actively
incorporating our software, however through our mailing list, which has over
130 members, and support we have provided, we are aware of major entities,
both government and commercial, implementing OpenMap to meet their geospatial
needs. These entities include: Syncline, Genuity, NTT Data, Lockheed Martin,
MITRE Corporation, USAF, USNAV, SPAWAR, Defence Science and Technology
Organisation (Australia), FGM, Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Ocean
Group, and various
colleges and universities worldwide.
