Ratification of ESRI restful web service as an open standard

In the global GIS, spatial data & web mapping arena ESRI plays a similar role as the dominant global player to Microsoft, but as with all analogies, don't treat this as 100% gospel. There are many players out there, in the FOSS arena and others.

The Open Geospatial Consortium is a standards developing body in the spatial software domain, generally supporting/facilitating interoperability.