“Geographic web services are web services that perform geospatial and geographic treatments (geocoding …), that reference maps or provide access to geographic data (flow of a river, altitude, name of a geographic area …).

These standards aim to make GIS interoperable (…). The idea is that a given data or function that is stored in a GIS software environment can be accessed directly from another environment without downloading or prior conversion. With this logic, an organization makes its data available via the web using server software respecting the standards of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) (WMS, WFS …). This allows a user with client software, which also respects these standards, to view or manipulate the data as if it were found locally. ”

Source : Henri Pornon, Pierrick Yalamas, Elise Pelegris, Services web géographiques, état de l’art et perspectives, Géomatique Expert, N° 65, Octobre-Novembre 2008 :

www.forumogcfrance.org/IMG/pdf/Article_H_Pornon_Webservices.pdf

See also: Cloud Computing,Software as a Service (Saas)
[French: Geographic Web Services]