Mapping Hacks

Preface

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local, academic, private, and individual online gateways to geodatabases or

repositories.

The obstacles are obvious: vast amounts of proprietary and domain-specific

geodata produced in nonstandard formats or hosted at web sites with non-

standard database search capabilities—including the databases of govern-

ments, public agencies, and private companies all over the world. These

remain largely unsearched and unsearchable.

While very few geospatial information scientists are working on this chal-

lenge, a couple of companies are beginning to provide rudimentary search

services for geodata. An example is Iconsoft’s AsktheSpider.com search for

OpenGIS-conformant spatial web services such as Web Mapping Services

(WMS) and Web Feature Services (WFS). Unfortunately, since OpenGIS

standard data formats are so new, this is still a minuscule (but growing)

resource.

Locative Media As a Two-Way Street

Like so many other elements of the geo-ecology, early location-based ser-

vices are using different business models and different standards. A simple

classification includes the so-called “walled gardens,” or mobile Internet ser-

vices, and the experimental web landscape.

Telecommunication companies, consumer electronic and automotive com-

panies, and related .net and .com startups are experimenting with new loca-

tion services, many of which could be described as walled gardens. These

are services ...