Servicification – Trend or paradigm shift in geospatial data processing?

Abstract

Currently, we are witnessing profound changes in the geospatial domain. Driven by recent ICT developments, such as web services, service-oriented computing or open-source software, an explosion of geodata and geospatial applications or rapidly growing communities of non-specialist users, the crucial issue is the provision and integration of geospatial intelligence in these rapidly changing, heterogeneous developments. This paper introduces the concept of Servicification into geospatial data processing. Its core idea is the provision of expertise through a flexible number of web-based software service modules. Selection and linkage of these services to user profiles, application tasks, data resources, or additional software allow for the compilation of flexible, time-sensitive geospatial data handling processes. Encapsulated in a string of discrete services, the approach presented here aims to provide non-specialist users with geospatial expertise required for the effective, professional solution of a defined application problem. Providing users with geospatial intelligence in the form of web-based, modular services, is a completely different approach to geospatial data processing. This novel concept puts geospatial intelligence, made available through services encapsulating rule bases and algorithms, in the centre and at the disposal of the users, regardless of their expertise.