%0 Journal Article %J Open Source Business Resource %D 2009 %T A RESTful Implementation of Geospatial Web Services %A Haris Kurtagic %A Geoff Zeiss %X In "What is Web 2.0?" Tim O'Reilly identifies the characteristics that distinguish Web 2.0 from the first generation of Web applications. One key aspect is participation. Instead of users simply consuming information, Web 2.0 technology enables all of us to participate in building content. The power of Web 2.0, in Tim O?Reilly?s words, is that it provides a platform for "harnessing collective intelligence". Perhaps the best known example of this is Wikipedia, which is distinguished from other online encyclopedias by the fact that its content is provided by users rather than a small group of experts. This model has been so successful, even the Encyclopedia Britannica has adopted a Web 2.0 approach. A critical challenge to participation is interoperability--integrating the islands of technology that characterize most information technology organizations. There have been earlier attempts to create a standard framework for distributed computing such as CORBA and DCOM, but the complexity of these environments has limited their adoption. A more recent and simpler approach is Representational State Transfer (REST). In this article we begin with an examination of the critical challenges facing organizations responsible for maintaining our utility, telecommunications and transportation infrastructure, outline how open standards are helping to address these challenges, and then discuss how geospatial data and services can be exposed over the web. We introduce REST, outline a RESTful implementation of geospatial web services that provides simple and open access to geospatial data over the web using standard web protocols, and describe a prototype web site developed using RESTful web services by the City of Nanaimo. %B Open Source Business Resource %I Talent First Network %C Ottawa %8 02/2009 %G eng %U http://timreview.ca/article/238 %N February 2009 %9 Articles %1 SL-King Haris Kurtagic is General Manager and Founder of SL-King which focuses on developing spatial applications. Haris received an M.Sc degree in Information Science from the University of Sarajevo. His interests include spatially-enabled relational database management systems and the opportunities offered by open source geospatial. His first open source project was an Oracle Spatial data provider, King.Oracle, for the FDO interface. %2 Autodesk Geoff Zeiss joined Autodesk in 1999 where he is Director of Technology. His interest is in geospatially-enabled solutions and infrastructure management. In 2004, Geoff received one of ten annual global technology awards from Oracle Corporation for technical innovation and leadership in the use of Oracle. Prior to joining Autodesk, Geoff was Director of Software Engineering at VISION* Solutions which was widely recognized for developing innovative infrastructure solutions using leading edge technology.