The CITE (Compliance and Interoperability Test and Evaluation) Website provides automated testing and validation against standards for exchanging data with other GIS software over the Internet.

The website's address is http://cite.occamlab.com

GIS is a spatial software tool that is widely used in both the public and private sectors for land development, minerals exploration, environmental management, pipeline planning and many other surveying and mapping based applications.

It combines data from traditional techniques, such as surveying and mapping, with aerial and satellite photography and turns it into geographical information accessible by architects, engineers, planners and managers.

The CITE Website was jointly developed in Australia by consulting firm, Sinclair Knight Merz, and Web developer, Social Change Online (SCO), on behalf of the Open GIS Consortium, Inc. (OGC).

OGC is an international industry consortium of more than 250 companies, government agencies and universities participating in a consensus process to develop publicly available geoprocessing specifications.

The CITE initiative is part of OGC's Interoperability Program - a global, collaborative, hands-on engineering and testing program that ensures geospatial software compatibility.

Maurits van der Vlugt, a senior GIS Consultant at Sinclair Knight Merz, said the CITE Website will benefit developers and vendors who want to claim or indicate compliance in the marketplace.

'Most geoprocessing product users around the world seek verification that a vendor's product complies with OpenGIS Specifications,' van der Vlugt said.

'Compliance certification assures buyers that a vendor's product correctly implements the Specifications,' he said.

'Testing - even iterative testing - on the CITE Website is free, but developers that test successfully and then want to claim or indicate compliance in their sales and marketing literature must submit their results for validation and pay a trademark licensing fee,' van der Vlugt added.