KML 2.2: An OGC Best Practice

The Open Geospatial Consortium recently announced the approval of
"KML 2.2: An OGC Best Practice" (reference: OGC 07-113r1) as an
official OGC Best Practice document. "Google submitted KML (formerly
Keyhole Markup Language) to the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) to
be evolved within the OGC consensus process with the following goal:
KML Version 2.2 will be an adopted OGC implementation standard. Future
versions may be harmonized with relevant OpenGIS standards that
comprise the OGC standards baseline. There are four objectives for
this standards work: (1) That there be one international standard
language for expressing geographic annotation and visualization on
existing or future web-based online and mobile maps (2D) and earth 3D
browsers; (2) That KML be aligned with international best practices
and standards, thereby enabling greater uptake and interoperability
of earth browser implementations; (3) That the OGC and Google will
work collaboratively to insure that the KML implementer community is
properly engaged in the process and that the KML community is kept
informed of progress and issues; (4) That the OGC process will be used
to insure proper life-cycle management of the KML candidate standard,
including such issues as backwards compatibility. KML is an XML
language focused on geographic visualization, including annotation of
maps and images. Geographic visualization includes not only the
presentation of graphical data on the globe, but also the control of
the user's navigation in the sense of where to go and where to look.
KML is [thus] complementary to most of the key existing OGC standards
including GML (Geography Markup Language), WFS (Web Feature Service)
and WMS (Web Map Service). Currently, KML (2.2) utilizes certain
geometry elements derived from GML version 2.1.2. These elements include
point, line string, linear ring, and polygon." More Information See also OGC Best Practices Documents: Click Here