What is PYXIS?
We need digital standards to access the best features of computing systems – storage, processing, integration, data discovery, visualization, aggregation, transformations like analysis and modeling. Just like having a standard for Digital music, we also need a Digital standard to encode information about the Earth. Geographic coordinates of latitude and longitude represent an “analog” standard for referencing the Earth which has changed little in four centuries, and which fails to meet the optimal requirements of today’s large, distributed, and disparate spatial-data systems. The result is lack of accessibility, profuse duplication, and underutilization of spatial-data resources. Yet there is a growing expectation for general on-demand access to rich and diverse spatial knowledge that an analog reference will not be able to meet. PYXIS is a Digital Earth Reference Model. This does not mean we need to abandon conventional coordinates – the PYXIS innovation is losslessly compatible and i
