Increasing the Fitness of OGC-Compliant Web Map Services for the Web 2.0

Google Maps and Google Earth are very popular web mapping services but they are not open and not OGC-compliant. The question arises why this is not the case. One reason is that commercial data providers require a tight coupling between the provided maps and additional supplements like advertisements. Another answer to this question is the missing support of mashups that become more and more popular with using Google Maps. This paper presents several approaches to overcome these deficits of OGCcompliant web mapping services. The most promising solutions are integrated into an architecture for a Web 2.0 map server and are implemented by a prototype. Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) is one essential technology within this architecture. By using such approach, the current need for closed systems like Google Earth or Google Maps may diminish.