Geospatial Intelligence Standards Working Group (GWG)

The GWG is a National System for Geospatial-Intelligence (NSG) forum that serves the Director, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and the NGA Chief Information Officer who is the delegated functional manager for GEOINT architecture and standards, in executing the functional management responsibilities authorized in NSG Directive FM 1100 (Appendix K), 6 May 2011. The GWG provides the forum for the coordination of GEOINT standard activities. The GWG is led and chaired by the NGA's National Center for Geospatial Intelligence Standards (NCGIS)

In addition to its designation as an NSG Functional Management forum, the GWG is a Joint Technical Working Group that participates in both the DoD and IC standards governance processes. In the DoD, the GWG votes and manages GEOINT standards lifecycle recommendations reported to the Information Technology Standards Committee (ITSC), the governing group responsible for developing and promoting standards interoperability in support of net-centricity within the Department of Defense (DoD). GWG recommendations for mandating standards for the DoD are approved by the DoD Architecture and Standards Review Group (ASRG). Approved GEOINT standards are then cited in the DoD Information Technology (IT) Standards Registry (DISR) [Account and PKI/CAC required].

In the IC, the GWG provides the same GEOINT standards lifecycle management recommendations brought into the DoD process and these voted upon recommendations are approved for the IC by the IC Enterprise Standards Committee (IC ESC) and the IC CIO’s Architecture, Standards and Engineering Committee (ASEC). Approved GEOINT standards are then cited in the IC Standards Registry (ICSR).

The GWG consists of nine chartered focus groups made up of subject matter experts that address topical issues related to GEOINT standards.

GWG and Focus Groups Overview