Technology Integration around the Geographic Information: A State of the Art

One of the elements that have popularized and facilitated the use of geographical information on a variety of computational applications has been the use of Web maps; this has opened new research challenges on different subjects, from locating places and people, the study of social behavior or the analyzing of the hidden structures of the terms used in a natural language query used for locating a place. However, the use of geographic information under technological features is not new, instead it has been part of a development and technological integration process. This paper presents a state of the art review about the application of geographic information under different approaches: its use on location based services, the collaborative user participation on it, its contextual-awareness, its use in the Semantic Web and the challenges of its use in natural languge queries. Finally, a prototype that integrates most of these areas is presented

Merging Special Collections with GIS Technology to Enhance the User Experience

This analysis evaluates how PhillyHistory.org merged their unique special collection materials with geospatial-based progressive technology to challenge and educate the global community. A new generation of technologically savvy researchers has emerged that expect a more enhanced user experience than earlier generations. To meet these needs, collection managers are collaborating with community and local institutions to increase online access to materials; mixing best metadata practices with custom elements to create map mashups; and merging progressive GIS technology and geospatial based applications with their collections to enhance the user experience. The PhillyHistory.org website was analyzed to explore how they used various geospatial technology to create a new type of digital content management system based on geographical information and make their collections accessible via online software and mobile applications

Interactive visual exploration of a large spatio-temporal dataset: Reflections on a geovisualization mashup

Exploratory visual analysis is useful for the preliminary investigation of large structured, multifaceted spatio-temporal datasets. This process requires the selection and aggregation of records by time, space and attribute, the ability to transform data and the flexibility to apply appropriate visual encodings and interactions. We propose an approach inspired by geographical 'mashups' in which freely-available functionality and data are loosely but flexibly combined using de facto exchange standards. Our case study combines MySQL, PHP and the LandSerf GIS to allow Google Earth to be used for visual synthesis and interaction with encodings described in KML. This approach is applied to the exploration of a log of 1.42 million requests made of a mobile directory service. Novel combinations of interaction and visual encoding are developed including spatial 'tag clouds', 'tag maps', 'data dials' and multi-scale density surfaces. Four aspects of the approach are informally evaluated: the visual encodings employed, their success in the visual exploration of the clataset, the specific tools used and the 'rnashup' approach. Preliminary findings will be beneficial to others considering using mashups for visualization. The specific techniques developed may be more widely applied to offer insights into the structure of multifarious spatio-temporal data of the type explored here

On the Role of Context in the Design of Mobile Mashups

This paper presents a design methodology and an accompanying platform for the design and fast development of Context-Aware Mobile mashUpS (CAMUS). The approach is characterized by the role given to context as a first-class modeling dimension used to support i) the identification of the most adequate resources that can satisfy the users' situational needs and ii) the consequent tailoring at runtime of the provided data and functions. Context-based abstractions are exploited to generate models specifying how data returned by the selected services have to be merged and visualized by means of integrated views. Thanks to the adoption of Model-Driven Engineering (MDE) techniques, these models drive the flexible execution of the final mobile app on target mobile devices. A prototype of the platform, making use of novel and advanced Web and mobile technologies, is also illustrated

Toward 2^W beyond Web 2.0

From its inception as a global hypertext system, the Web has evolved into a universal platform for deploying loosely coupled distributed applications. 2^W is a result of the exponentially growing Web building on itself to move from a Web of content to a Web of applications

A Model for the Portuguese Online Retailers Adoption of Web 2.0 Tools

The Internet has become a major sales platform, assuming a growing importance in increasing the economic growth of a company. Therefore it is of great importance to analyse the incorporation of Web 2.0 tools and their relation to the website success and its design. Through a systematic exploration of the 36 most visited Portuguese e-commerce websites, according to the ranking published by Marktest, information was gathered about the adoption of Web 2.0 tools by these online retailers. Results indicate that the most frequently implemented tools are social networking, Rich Internet Application (RIA), mashups and Really Simple Syndication (RSS feeds). The least often adopted were semantic search, wikis and blogs. Based on these results and those in additional studies, an optimized model of Web 2.0 tools implementation is proposed for online retailers operating in Portugal. In the short term, it is suggested that the retailer should implement easier features which bring quicker success in terms of return on investments, such as social networking, mashups, RSS feeds and tagging, each one of which leads to a specific business benefit. In the medium-to-long term, it is suggested that retailers should adopt RIA-based features and podcasts/vodcasts. The adoption of these Web tools must be based on a complete and differentiated set tools

Towards automated composition of convergent services: a survey

A convergent service is defined as a service that exploits the convergence of communication networks and at the same time takes advantage of features of the Web. Nowadays, building up a convergent service is not trivial, because although there are significant approaches that aim to automate the service composition at different levels in the Web and Telecom domains, selecting the most appropriate approach for specific case studies is complex due to the big amount of involved information and the lack of technical considerations. Thus, in this paper, we identify the relevant phases for convergent service composition and explore the existing approaches and their associated technologies for automating each phase. For each technology, the maturity and results are analysed, as well as the elements that must be considered prior to their application in real scenarios. Furthermore, we provide research directions related to the convergent service composition phases