Mashup: a New Way of Providing Web Mapping/gis Services

Recent development of Google Map, Yahoo! Map and MapQuest APIs have pushed map mashups almost to the top among other types of mashups such as news mashups, search and shopping mashups, and video and photo mashups. However, map mashups should not reply on these open data sources and services only. Developing a mashup in general faces a number of challenges. These include: 1) the difficulties in discovering and integrating legacy and local data into new mashup applications; 2) acceptable use policies such as the "protection of intellectual property and consumer privacy versus fair-use and the free flow of information” (Merrill, 2006); 3) sound security measures in mashups; and 4) for map mashups, the integration of map data sources and services with other types of data sources and services. This paper examines current development in mashup technologies, such as Google Map, Yahoo! Map, and MapQuest in the context of map mashups, and presents a classification of map mashups. Both technical and social issues related to the map mashup development and uses are discussed, with examples of case study mashups. The results demonstrate that map mashup has great potential to improve and facilitate the rapid development of the future web mapping/GIS services, such as participatory GIS and e-government services. However, issues related to data ownership, privacy protection, and some limitations inherent to the current mashup technologies need to be solved before its wider adoption. * Corresponding author.