GeoWorld

GeoWorld December 2012

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How do we make geospatial Web capabilities easier to create, deploy and modify? Carl Reed: This question is more complex than one might initially think. The short and over-simplified answer is to use international standards for interfaces and datamodel encodings. Using standard interfaces and encodings protects the application developer from the complexity of backend servers and applications, future-proofs client-side applications, enhances innovation, and reduces risk. Consider that current mobile location services and social-media companies have been developing proprietary location APIs for their applications or product suites. This is creating silos of technology and data, much as GIS technology providers created in the 1980s and 1990s. Such API silos inhibit innovation. They inhibit the ability to share location content between and among applications or easily integrate multiple social-media and location-services platforms into applications ranging from spatial data infrastructures to Big Data analytics. Software engineers are forced to develop custom ���glue-ware��� and format translators. The result is that technology companies are attempting to control innovation, but transaction, maintenance and R&D costs increase as well as risk, because each vendor is controlling their own���what they call open���proprietary APIs. Making geospatial Web services easier to create, maintain and deploy requires community/domain agreements on the use of standards for interfaces and encodings. At first, this approach may be more difficult and costly than traditional silo or stovepipe approaches. However, the longer-term benefits���and ease of implementation and support���are well documented. From a recent Australian study on the economic benefits of standards, ���A 1 percent increase in the use of standards is associated with a 17 percent increase in productivity.��� HAS GONE MOBILE! Now you can access all the latest news and events anywhere, anytime. www.GeoPlace.com/mobile D E C E M B E R 2 O 1 2 / W W W . G E O P L A C E . C O M 25

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