Comments on: Websites versus Web services, Part 1 http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/semantic-web/websites-versus-web-services/ Defining the necessary skills for future software professionals Sun, 10 Jul 2011 04:31:49 +0000 hourly 1 By: Ebwolf http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/semantic-web/websites-versus-web-services/#comment-16 Ebwolf Sun, 10 Jul 2011 04:31:49 +0000 http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/semantic-web/websites-versus-web-services/#comment-16 A good example in mapping is to look at basemap services, like Google Maps. You can use the Google Maps API to build a web page that uses Google’s map viewer to consume their map service. Or you can use an alternative map viewer, like OpenLayers, which can consume the Google Map service.

In the GIS world, we have our own standards body, the Open Geospatial Consortium (modeled somewhat after the W3C), which has authored standards like Web Mapping Service (WMS) and Web Feature Service (WFS). These services are designed to be agnostic to the client. The client can be a desktop GIS application, like ArcGIS or Quantum GIS, or a web viewer like OpenLayers. WMS provides raster tiles for maps. WFS provides vector data.

Of course, Google has their own standard, but that’s a much longer conversation…

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