Dr. Kottman holds a B.S. in Mathematics (Loyola Marymount U., Los Angeles), and a Ph.D. in Mathematics (University of Iowa).  His career has included research and education (at Louisiana State University, and Oregon State University, government and mapping (at the Defense Mapping Agency), systems integrator and software industries (at Lockheed and Intergraph Corporations), and not-for-profit technology companies (at MITRE and the Open GIS Consortium).  As Vice President and Chief Scientist of the Open GIS Consortium, Dr. Kottman leads the OGC Core and Domain Task Forces toward the establishment of consensus implementation specifications in the arena of geospatial information.

Dr. Kottman is a member of: the American Congress on Surveying and Mapping; the Federal Geographic Data Committee; the NCITS Committee L1 on Geographic
Information; the Mathematical Association of America; the American Mathematical Society; the American Congress on Surveying and Mapping; the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing; and he is the OGC Liaison to ISO Technical Committee 211.

Dr. Kottman has research interests in information theory, digital cartography, the representation of digital geographic information and its analysis, the standardization process, image processing, photogrammetry, library science, linguistics and semantics, and signal processing.

The Open GIS Consortium is composed of 185 organizational members, including major information technology corporations, universities, and government organizations who share the marketplace for geospatial information and services.  Our organization exists because major corporations and government agencies recognize that "non-interoperation" of geospatial information causes tremendous waste of resources in public and private projects, and because it is clear that there are great organizational efficiencies to be gained by effectively integrating spatial and place-based information into the corporate work-flow.

OGC membership includes the most important technology, geospatial product and integrator companies in the world, including Oracle, Informix, Microsoft, SUN, IBM, HP, Intergraph, ESRI, Autodesk, Sicad Geomatics, Deutsche PhonSat, MapInfo, Lockheed Martin, SAIC, BellSouth Telecommunications, Inc., Booz, Allen Hamilton, Inc., CSK Corp., Electricité de France, GEOCOM Informatik AG, Geodan Holding BV, GIS Denmark A/S, GTE, Harris Corp., Marconi Information Systems Inc., Matra Systemes & Information, MITRE Corporation, Mitsubishi Corporation, NTT Data Corporation, Raytheon Systems Company, Litton/PRC/TASC, TRW Systems & Information Technology Group and Unisys.

OGC membership also includes many key government agencies both in the US and abroad - such organizations as the DOD's National Imaging and Mapping Agency, the US Geological Survey, the Departments of Agriculture and Transportation, the Bureau of the Census, the UK Ordnance Survey, the Mapping Agency of Korea and the Dutch Kadaster.

The membership also includes 56 universities, world wide.

The Consortium is shaping an open and efficient marketplace for geospatial services and information.  Recently, it has developed consensus implementation specifications for interfaces supporting "simple feature access" which include most or all of the behaviors needed by digital gazetteers.