The way in which spatial data is perceived, expected and consumed by users in their application depend, to a large extent, on the current contet and shape of technology, projects and markets. The interactions between these three drivers constitute the basis for the requirements of geo-information systems at a given time. At present, such interactions translate into systems having to operate in an interconnected environment. As the systems which they rely on spatial data have moved from single, separate working environments towards connected and cooperation environments, different needs, requirements and challenges have emerged. In the quest to address these challenges, the Spatial Information Community came up with the initiative of Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI).
This learning path, therefore, seeks to introduce you to some of the elements and requirements of SDI.
Next in this learning path worth looking at is the term Standards -- which basically supports SDI for the purpose of its interoperability. In other words, the interoperability of SDI is based on standards.
The next element that this learning path will consider worth of looking at is SDI nodes.
As noted that modern SDIs are based on webservices, which are defined as mechanisms designed to support the interoperable machine-to -machine interaction over the Web, hence this path takes a look at Geo-webservices as its next item.
In this learning path, we continue to now look at Metadata as a concept, which describes in a significant amount of detail the characteristics of a data set and / or service.
Another concept that this path seeks to introduce to us is Web Portal -- which serves the gateway that provides access to geo-resources via geo-webservices on the Web.
Last but not least element which path introduces is Web 2.0, which tools allow interactive use of spatial data over the Web.