How will OGC Web Services (OWS) change the World Wide Web?
Now that vendors of Web-based software are implementing interfaces conforming to OpenGIS Specifications, geoprocessing software of different kinds from different vendors is beginning to work together “one-to-many” on the Web. When OpenGIS Specification conformant interfaces have been adopted on a large scale (and this is happening) any client will communicate with any server as if they were in the same vendor family of products. So the Web will be full of maps and spatial services, just as it is now full of text and simple images, and all of this will be available to everyone (unless restricted by the owner). Catalogs conforming to the OpenGIS Catalog Services Specification will enable “spatial search engines” for discovery of both online geoprocessing services and online geodata sources. Geospatial portals based on OpenGIS Specifications will serve as hubs for users and providers of geospatial information to share data much more easily than before. This describes the “Spatial Web.
