School of Information

Location concepts are still not part of today's Web architecture, which means that applications must rely on higher-level specifications to use and provide location-oriented services. This problem can be approached in two different approaches, the first being a tightly coupled approach for scenarios targeting an integrated system architecture, and the second being a loosely coupled approach, being centered around cooperating services in the open world of the Web. This paper argues that the current specifications for location-oriented services cater mainly for the tightly coupled approach, whereas the loosely coupled approach is not yet addressed by available specifications. A more lightweight and loosely coupled approach to location-oriented services is the central issue for making the valuable data in geographic information systems better available on the Web. Only if location-oriented services can be used easily and cooperatively, today's rapidly evolving infrastructure of wireless data services and mobile devices can take full advantage of these services.