Introduction 11
be defined as a self contained process embedding the request and response cy-
cle with the spatial data and requested information in a single control thread.
GIS enabled by the service oriented architecture has created a vast global user
community spanning across land, air and sea. Therefore from the inception of
GIS to its current state it has enabled and driven research in the evolution
of information architecture. In some cases GIS has meta-morphed itself into
systems amenable to the architecture. In some cases it has put the challenge to
the research community for evolving architectures and computing paradigms.
The computing paradigms such as distributed computing, grid computing,
cloud computing, network computing, and quantum